4 months update

Dunning had his 4 months checkup today and here are his stats:
26.5" long (95th percentile)
16.5" head circumference (50th percentile)
17 pounds (above 90th percentile)

My little bruiser! He did real good with the shots, only cried for a few seconds. Doc said he looked perfect, developmentally and physically.

Hooray!

This weekend

Maddy Beggin'





















Picture #1 Picture #2
















Mikel's Truck o' Mulch















Woo Pigs!
















Mikel and "Chicken Wing"














Picture #3














Picture #4 (Crazy baby hair picture)





Dunning has been laughing and talking up a storm this weekend. We took him to Wal-Mart and Sam's Club to look at plants and to the Got Rock? place to get mulch. We were going to go to Razorfest and dressed accordingly, but our allergies were so bad that we changed our minds. We also dog-sat Lindsey's chihuahua, Maddy, this weekend. Lindsey got Maddy when we lived together in college, after her first dog, Jacks, befell a fate unbeknownst us. I.e., he disappeared when our maintenace guy came to fix the large hole in our ceiling from our leaking toilet. Pobre Jacks. Anyways, Maddy is hilarious and Dunning really enjoyed watching her prance around. Mikel calls her "chicken wing" because she looks a little like something you would find in a bucket of boneless buffalo wings, minus the sauce.

Picture #5


We are doing more landscaping in our front yard this week, as Mikel is home all week on vacation. We are also going to stain the deck. Fun vacation!! Bridget and Jim go to Vegas, we stain the deck! :)

Dunning will be dedicated on Mother's Day and I need help picking out a picture to be shown at church. Post your vote for any of the above or past pics between now and Monday please!!

TIRED

Well last night was eventful. Dunning has some congestion from allergies I think, and he refused to eat more than 3 oz from the bottle last night while I was at Pilates. Mikel got a taste of what his temper tantrums are like. During the night, I woke up at 11:30 to feel something crawling on me. It was a bug, and I thought I brushed it off on to the floor (too tired to get up and kill it!). I figured, oh it's just a bug, I've had worse on me! So after I got up and fed Dunning at 1:30, I got back in to bed and something bit me behind the knee! I reached down, and now being fully awake, felt a bug on my leg - the same bug I thought I had got rid of earlier. It freaked me out because now it was under the covers and not just on my arm like before. I started thrashing around and jumped straight out of bed. Mikel thought I was having a nightmare or a seizure! So he turned on the light and killed the bug for me. Needless to say, I didn't sleep well after that. Then Dunning started crying again at 4:00. I made Mikel get up and rock him to sleep because I was so tired. Still am! He is napping right now, went down very easy for me! Hooray!
He is still rolling over again and again! He's on the move now!

Roly Poly

Today was the first day that Dunning rolled over on his stomach AND didn't cry! He may actually get to enjoy tummy time yet. Now he's a roly poly fiend. I can't put him down without him reaching down for his toes, curling up, then plop, right on to his stomach. He doesn't quite know what to do with his arms yet, which end up getting caught under him, but at least it keeps them out of his mouth so he has to lift his head up - although once he did get them wriggled free. Still not doing the best on nap time. He took a 30 min. nap this morning and cried for the other 30 min. Then he took a nice 2 hour nap this afternoon, with only one small break in it to cry for 10 min. This means I got to nap for about 30 min. today and I feel great! It's amazing what a little power nap can do for the chronically sleep deprived!!

Tonight, I went to Pilates. It's weird to be sitting in a room with other women and they just sit there and refuse to talk to each other while we are waiting on the instructor. I was trying to strike up a conversation, but just ended up looking stupid! Come on ladies! Get to know someone new! I need adult conversations! :)

Saturday trip to Missouri

Saturday we went to Missouri to visit Mikel's grandfather, Elmer and his wife Rose. Elmer turned 85 on Monday and Rose's birthday is May 5th. They were so happy to see Dunning and how big he has gotten. They last saw him when he was 2 weeks old! Dunning was being all wiggly, so it was kinda hard for them to get a good position holding him, but Rose has had like 7 or 8 kids, so she is used to it. We met up with Mikel's parents, who were doing some work out at Paula's aunt's house, and all went to eat at Mazzio's. By that time, we had been gone for 6 hours and Dunning was very ready to get home and get a nap in. And we were too!

Baby Myka Rae

Baby Myka Rae arrived Thursday evening at 11:20 p.m., 7lbs 4 oz. We went to visit Jeremy and Kristen at the hospital on Saturday. She's so teeny tiny, I can hardly remember when Dunning was a newborn and felt that small. She has jet black hair, Caleb's eyebrows and monkey toes! Congrats to Jeremy and Kristen!

Office Visit

Friday we went to visit the gang up at the office. They were hard at work on the Proxy, so they were happy to take a break and see the kiddo. Geoff is expecting his 6th child, so he is a natural with the boy. Jenn is expecting her first and she is WAAAAY too skinny to be 5, almost 6 months pregnant. :) Here I am showing her how to use one of our front carriers. I miss them all very much! Good luck on the proxy and at Shareholder's guys!

Thursday

Today was library day again! Dunning is doing an awesome job sitting up - if only he would do as good of a job on his tummy. He hates it. We skipped our La Leche League meeting and visited Aunt Stephy at her office instead. It was lots of fun. All of our travels meant that he skipped his morning nap - other than a quick nap here and there in the car. So, when I tried to get him down to sleep at 1p.m., the screaming ensued. Some of you may wonder why I would force him to take a nap. Well, if he doesn't, it's a sure thing he'll be evil the rest of the day and he'll be so exhausted that he won't feed well the last feeding and be up many times in the night. FOR SURE. So, he finally got at least 1 and half hours of sleep in and was much better this afternoon - except for tummy time :). And he doesn't really like it if I leave him on his blanket to play with his toys. He really likes to be sitting up as much as possible, any occasionally likes lying down to play. That means he is in the bouncy or high chair if I am not feeding him or playing with him. Oh well, if it works, it works.
He did roll over two more times today - once in his crib, after I had changed him for the second time because he pooped and then grabbed his toes and it all ran up his back (ick) - and once on his play mat. He doesn't like that too much, but I'm sure he eventually will.
Mikel has been in Mexico all this week, so I am REALLY glad he is coming home tonight. I'm just so tired. Kudos to Bridget who does this all the time with TWO babies! The house next door to us sold, so hopefully ours won't take too long to sell. Of course, that house had been for sale since November....UGH. Maybe that means I'll get to plant and harvest most of my garden before we move :))
I will post pictures of today on tomorrow's blog. I am super tired and the camera is in Dunning's room, where he is sleeping!

P.S. Good luck to Gracie and everyone participating in the Race on Saturday! It's going to be pretty!
P.S.S. Kristen is going to have her baby any time now!!

Sleep

As you can tell, sleep is one of the dominating themes for new moms. After all, how can we be good mommies to our babies if they won't let us sleep??? Dunning has continued his trend of waking up 2-3 times a night. Since it is not necessary for him to feed that many times at night, and can become a habit, I have started to let him "cry it out," which is the most painful thing in the world, not only emotionally but physically too! Nobody wants to hear their baby cry. Plus, babies have this place where they find a high octave and high intensity cry that can pierce eardrums and drive even the strongest person insane. So, after he feeds the first time he wakes up, he gets to cry it out any other time he wakes up. I will get up and check to make sure he's no suffocating or something, pop a binky in, pop it back in after he spits it out, and leave the room. For the past two nights he has woken up every 4 hours after going to bed, which translates into around midnight and 4 a.m. When I went in at 4 a.m. to check on him, he smiled at me, hoisted his butt into the air and showed me his new trick, grabbing his toes. He hasn't quite gotten the hang of it, so he usually gets ahold of his pjs.

Monday, my friend Carol came over for lunch. Dunning wasn't in too great of a mood, needing a nap, but he did talk for her. He likes it when I have conversations with other people and he tries to join in.

He rolled over the other day to get Mr. Bubbles in to his mouth. I haven't gotten him to do it again. He's also fascinated with his reflection. I attached a small mirror from his tummy time mat to his bouncer and he will bounce and bounce just looking and talking to himself.

Apparently the fashion designer feel the need to bring back more of the 80s (according to the Today Show) - Neon, Member's Only jackets, and "modern" acid wash jeans are "in." Hope you saved your bangles! They also did a piece of marriage and housework - apparently getting married results in 7 additional hours of housework for women and saves an hour for men. Do the math! Ha ha!

One more thing...

If you have any tips on how to calm down a dog who is TERRIFIED of thunder, please leave me your comments....

Story Time

Today was library day! We go to the Library on Thursdays for baby store time. It's 15 minutes of songs, stories and BUBBLES! There is just something so joyful about bubbles. No matter how awful your day is, either at the office or at home, bubbles just make it all better. Miss Sue Ann brought out Mousy and read stories about "You Baby Me Baby," and "Where is Spot?" We had fun watching her and the other babies - cousins Carson and Kelsey, Isabella, Gabe and Jaelin. Then we hung out for a little while talking to the moms about nap times, sleeping at night and losing that pregnancy weight! Dunning got really fussy, and I knew he was tired and hungry. We came home and he ate and then cried for about 15 minutes, but finally fell asleep for our nap.

Later today we have to go to the Dept of Health to get an immunization that our pediatrician's office has been out of for almost two months now. Hopefully he won't cry too much!

Unfortunately, it rained more all last night and this morning and is supposed to rain more this afternoon plus get cold! WHERE IS SPRING I ASK YOU?? With all the flooding, it's a little eerily like the move The Day After Tomorrow! The BV Lake is almost all the way to the street and all the bridges are flooded, except for the one that is 10 ft about the stream. Even then, the stream is almost to the top. Hopefully all the rain we have gotten will help lower the goose feces level - quit feeding those fat, mean little birds people! Guess we won't go walking today - which is ok as it is Pilates day at the gym. Mikel comes home a little early to watch Dunning so I can work my abs back in so they don't look like a beer gut (without the beer!)

Too much rain!

This week I had my annual doctor's appointment and I took Dunning with me to get a picture of him with the doctor that delivered him for his scrapbook. I had him in a really cute outfit that Aunt Gracie got him. This, of course, ensured that he would have a blowout and he did. Ruined the nice outfit, and got some on me. I had a spare, but it was just a little jumper that is now too small for him. Doctor Schmitz called him "hoss." Ignore the tired looking woman in this photo, that's just me! The good news about our visit was that I am now 5 pounds to my pre-pregnancy weight! Hooray!

We went to the park after that to enjoy the good weather. Now it's been raining for the past two days, it's cold today, and it's going to rain again tomorrow.

I've been working on a garden for this year and some squirrel or mouse has gotten in to my seed tray and picked out several seeds and then I think I overheated and then over watered them. So I had to plant some more seeds and hope that it's not too late in the planting season. I'm growing snap peas, green beans, carrots, tomatoes, mint, basil, and squash.

Dunning is starting to laugh and it's hilarious! We called Nana and let her listen to the giggles. :) Oh, and Dunning thinks it's a good idea to put EVERYTHING in his mouth. Tummy time usually does not go so well now because he's too obsessed with putting his hands in his mouth.

April Fools!

Today is April Fools' day (Gracie, I hope I got the punctuation right!) and we haven't done too much! We went to Wal-Mart and Sam's Club for groceries. That's normally a Monday activity, but with the storms yesterday, I thought it best to delay to today. Dunning has been doing better sleep wise, with one really bad night on Sunday - Mikel and I got up a collective 7 times. I think he had some gas on his tummy. Last night, we only had to get up once. He is sleeping right now even though he has already had nap time. I guess tired out from going to the store. Which, by the way, Sam's Club does not open up for regular members until 10 a.m. and that's way too late. :)

I finished sewing an apron and it looks really bad! I think I need to convince Lindsey's mom to hold sewing classes for us stay at home moms with limited domestic skills. I can cook and clean, but sewing extends to buttons and that's about it. The seams are all jacked up but it will serve it's purpose, keeping me from getting splatters all over me when I cook.

Tonight is Pilates - trying to shed those last 5-10 pounds. And Dunning will be 14 weeks old! :) As you can see, he has discovered his tongue!