5 Months Old - Teething, Weaning & Solids

     Emerson will be 5 months old tomorrow. I can't believe how time flies. I'm sure I say that every time I write a monthly update but it really does. I had to pack up even more of the clothes he's outgrown. I know it's silly but it makes me so sad. I want him to stay a little baby forever. I love his little gummy smile.
     We've had a rough go of it the past few weeks and even more so in the past few days. We've entered the dreaded teething stage of his development and he's miserable. I mean miserable. To add insult to injury, I've recently started taking a medication that makes it impossible for me to breastfeed anymore so now we're also weaning. He's not too happy about it. And neither am I. Naptime and bedtime are especially hard. Although, because he hasn't been napping for very long during the day he's definitely sleeping longer at night. Slept for a good 10 hour stretch last night. He's never done that before.
     It hasn't all been bad though. Some really great things have happened recently as well. We have started Emerson on solid foods. Hurray! The doctor said he was more than ready to start when she saw him at his 4 month check up. We wanted to wait a couple of weeks before we introduced him to anything new so we just started this past week. He has taken to it like a champ. All the books say start off with runny rice cereal and do that for a couple of weeks before you introduce canned baby food and then only introduce one new food a week. We thought that was kind of silly. We did start with the rice cereal. He had that for a couple of days and we kept making it a little thicker each time and he had no trouble adjusting. We introduced canned baby food - a new food each day - and he hasn't had any trouble adjusting to that either. The little chunk didn't need to wade into this one - he just jumped right in and is doing just fine.
    He's also becoming a lot more mobile. I'll put him in his crib one way and come back a couple of minutes later and he's turned a complete 180 degrees. He's also rolling over more. Both from his tummy to his back and from his back to his tummy. I've haven't actually seen him roll from his back to his tummy yet but I'll put him on his jungle gym mat on his back, throw a load of laundry in the washer and when I come back he's just chilling on his tummy like it's no big deal.
    He has also recently developed a fascination for Luna's toys even though he has toys galore. Luna likes to put her toys next to him in the hope that he'll throw them for her to fetch. It's the cutest thing. Instead of throwing them though he just holds onto them. Luna will try and take them back and he won't have it. Screams and screams if she takes them away. The kid needs to learn how to share! :)

Realizations

    I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. About the friendships I have and who I have them with. And I've come to realize that some friendships are just temporary. And some are not. And some are constantly evolving as you evolve. And some do not.
    I got married a little later in life than a lot of the friends I grew up with. When they got married and I was still single I found that I couldn't relate to them as well as I used to. They had someone in their life that they wanted to spend all of their time with and that meant spending a lot less time with me. I was a little jealous, sure. Not of their specific choice of spouse but because they had found someone they wanted to be with forever and I hadn't found my person yet. We grew apart. These friends that I had felt so close with. At times it was really hard. Not only could I not relate to them but I felt like they forgot what it was like to be in my position and they couldn't relate to me either. I sometimes felt like I was being talked down to. That they had some cosmic understanding of the way life worked that I was just ignorant to. I didn't invite them to hang out with my other single friends. It was kind of like they didn't belong anymore. They had moved on to something better.
    When I got married I swore that I wouldn't let my friendships with my single friends change and that I would improve upon the friendships that had started to crumble with my married friends. I quickly discovered that there was nothing I could do to stop my friendships from changing as hard as I tried. My single friends stopped inviting me to things. Most of my married friends had started to have children and it was like they had advanced to an even more elite club that I wasn't a part of. I started to feel like I just couldn't relate to anybody.
    As soon as I got pregnant I quickly became even more distant from my single friends but received a warm kind of invitation to the very exclusive mothers club. Finally, I could relate to a few of those friends that I thought I would never again be able to. Some broken bridges were mended. That felt really good.
    It didn't feel that great to be excluded from things just because I was married and a mother though. I felt that I wasn't all that different. I was still fun. Why didn't my single friends want me around any more? They gave plenty of excuses - the same ones I used to give - like "we always assume you'll be too busy" or "we don't want you to have to drive up all this way with the baby". The truth is, I would have jumped at the chance to get out of the house and I'm not all that busy. I can take care of a baby out and about just as easily as I can take care of a baby at home. I've come to realize that that wasn't the real problem. The real problem is that they just can't relate to me anymore. And I can't relate to them.
     I guess the whole point of this late night ramble is to say that I get it. And I'll try not to take it personally. Friendships come and go. And people that you're friends with now you may not be friends with a year from now. Everyone is at a different place in their lives. And that's okay. And I'm sorry to all of the friends that I flaked out on and excluded because they weren't at the same place in their lives that I was. I get it now. Boy, do I get it.
    At the end of the day what really matters is that I married my best friend. And that friendship isn't going anywhere.

Healthy Habits - Happiness Project

    Ok. It's been a while since I've worked on my happiness project. After the baby was born I had a hard time getting excited about doing anything. Post-partum depression really isn't a joke. And because of some of the things going on with our little family I didn't feel like I was allowed to really acknowledge or address the fact that I was in a pretty bad place. Well, I've finally acknowledged it. Now it's time to address it.
    I'm going to be focusing on my physical health and well-being. Gretchen Rubin's "The Happiness Project" takes on one theme each month and really gets down to making improvements in that specific area while continuing to do all of the things she started the previous month with the previous theme. It kind of works accumulatively. So, while I am continuing to work on my relationship with my husband I will be adding to it by working on my physical health. And it's not something I'll just work on for a month either. I will be continuing to work on it pretty much indefinitely. I'll just add something next month or whenever I feel like I'm ready to add more.
    I have two areas I would like to work on this month and here's how I plan on implementing them.

    Eat healthier.

• Weight Watchers - I've already mentioned that I have started the WW program a couple of weeks ago. This program not only challenges you to eat healthier but to really take a look at what you're eating and utilize portion control. As a stay-at-home mom it's really easy to graze on food all day long because I'm here and it's here. You have to be accountable for every piece of food that you eat because you are tracking all day long. The weekly weigh-in also helps to hold you accountable to someone other than yourself. I can't say enough good things about this program. Seriously.
• Nature Box - This is something that I'm really excited about and we got our first box today. We signed up to get a box of healthy, organic snacks in the mail once a month. One of the problems with Weight Watchers is I tend to easily get in a rut. I know what food I'm comfortable with and will equal certain points and I end up eating the same thing almost every day. I don't really try anything new because I don't really know what's out there. Nature Box is a great way to try different healthy snacks that I maybe wouldn't have tried on my own. If you want more information, check out their website here.

These are the snacks we get to try out this month:

Garden Tomato Almonds

Country Ranch Sunflower Seeds

Cherry Gnache Granola

Big Island Pineapple Slices

Whole Wheat Blueberry Figgy Bars

Lemon Tea Buiscuts 

• Bountiful Baskets - We are also all set up to start getting Bountiful Baskets. Each week you typically get 6 varieties of fruits and 6 varieties of vegetables that are in-season and locally grown. This is really big for me because almost all fruits and vegetables are 0 points on the Weight Watchers program - with the exception of some starchy veggies like potatoes, corn & peas. This means that I can have as much as a want. There are next to no restrictions. Yay!!!

    Move More.

• ActiveLink - Weight Watchers offers a kind of program that runs in conjunction with their eating plan that helps to monitor your activity throughout the day and uses monthly challenges to help motivate you to exercise more. I basically wear this little device (usually clipped to my bra) that monitors my daily activity and calculates how many activity points I've earned that day. I can use those points to eat a snack or I can choose to not use those points and hopefully increase my weight loss for the week. This month I've been challenged to earn 2 activity points a day at least 5 days a week. 

This little guy is even waterproof!!!

• Surgery - I have been waiting to go in to meet with the specialist about my hip because Michael & I recently had to purchase private health insurance since he went down to working part time and we're waiting on our new insurance cards to come in the mail. Once they're here I need to get the show on the road. I know surgery hurts and I'm scared to go back under the knife. Especially now that I have a baby to take care of and can't be out of commission for very long. BUT I've got to bite the bullet and get this done once and for all. Once I'm recovered, I'll be able to really get some proper exercise and melt this baby weight right off!!!

    I realize the biggest challenge is to remain positive. To not knock myself down when I slip up a little. To not think of myself as fat and especially not to say anything negative out loud. I don't ever want my kids to hear that their mom hates her body. What kind of message does that send?! Besides, it just isn't attractive and I know my husband doesn't like hearing me say it as much as I don't like hearing me say it. Nobody wants to be that girl. A big part of this is truly mental.

Here's my motivation. I will be this sexy again!!

Check Up & Baby Blessing

     We had Emerson's baby blessing last weekend. We wanted to wait until Michael's parents were back from their mission and at a time when most of Michael's brothers could be there. We ended up driving over to Spokane to have the blessing at my sister-in-law's house so we could all also go to our niece's baptism. My dad, stepmom and brother were also able to be there which made it extra special.

Our first family picture since baby was born. I look awful but it was blessing day so I can't burn it. 

    So, speaking of looking awful. . . I'm finally doing something about it. I gained a crazy amount of baby weight. Quite frankly, I never understood how anyone could let themselves gain that much weight during pregnancy (I'm horrible) but now that I've been there I totally get it. I've been unable to do much exercise because of my hip but I'm working hard to eat right. I joined Weight Watchers. Embarrassing to admit but it really is a good program. I've lost over 10 lbs in the first 2 weeks. I actually did WW a couple of years ago with my mom and she lost enough weight on the program to be able to feel the lump in her breast and that's how she discovered she had cancer. So, I know this program works well and it also works well for me. Excited to see improvement.

     

    Emerson had his 4 month check up today. He weighs 16 lbs 9 oz and is 26.5 inches tall. Big kid for sure. I talked to the doctor because I was worried that Emerson seems to have next to no interest in rolling over. He had rolled over from his tummy to his back a few times but never from his back to his tummy. I'll put him down for tummy time a couple of times per day and he will just hang out there without making any kind of attempt to roll over at all. She checked his motor skills and he's doing just fine. He's not developing behind the average infant. He just isn't interested in rolling over. He's too cool. What a relief!!!
    Michael is almost finished with his first quarter back at school. He's done so well. We just might have a 4.0 in the family. :-) I'm so proud of him for doing something so scary - changing our whole plan for the future and committing to something that will be a lot of hard work but will ultimately make him so happy. My husband has some serious guts. So incredibly sexy.