Hello, Hello!
It’s been such a beautiful Spring and start to Summer here in Burlington, and once again, time has slipped away on me. Our sweet little monkey is 7.5 months old now, and should be applying for his Drivers License annnyyyyyy day now 😉
So, so much has changed and evolved since my last update! Austin continues to grow and change sooooo much every single day, it is totally blowing my mind, and I’m doing my best to soak in every single moment with him the way that he is right now, because I already know that what they say is absolutely true: time flies.
We’ve just finished our first round of swimming lessons and are gearing up for round two over the summer, and we are also doing another round of the same art class that we did in the Spring! Now that Austin is mostly able to sit on his own and has a bit more control, he is totally loving all of these activities and it just makes my heart sing to see him have so much fun!
In other news…..
Vaccines
Houston, we have a vaccinated child! Holy catfish…that was a mission and a half. We ended up finally being referred to McMaster Hospital for Austin to get his shots under observation for the first time, and his appointment was April 19th.
It was super stressful, and heart breaking to watch him get his shots (I cried more then he did lol); I just hated the thought of him feeling pain and wondering why I was letting somebody hurt him. He really did take the shots like a champ though, and hardly cried at all! My mom came with me to the appointment because Matt had to work, and we hung around the hospital for an extra couple of hours in the food court just in case, but all seemed to be fine, and he slept for most of the afternoon, and was otherwise his happy, cheeky little self. I was a nervous wreck for the next couple of days after he got them and basically didn’t let him out of my sight for a second (including over night), but finally conceded that all seemed to be well and he was safe from the crazy reaction that Matt and Troy had when they were babies.
Now that all seems to be okay, we have some catching up to do with his vaccines, so will be doing them every 2 months until he catches up at 1 year old and then should be back on track. Phew.
Austin’s First Cruise
Since my last update, we actually took our second family vacation with Austin on board the Allure of the Seas cruise ship for our friend’s wedding! It all worked out pretty great, because my family came along with us on this trip, meaning that Matt’s family had one vacation with us, and then 8 weeks later, my family got one!
I was nervous (as usual) about traveling with Austin and about being on the cruise ship because of the germs, but I was relieved that this time he had had his vaccines before we left, so at least was somewhat protected from the really nasty stuff.
The flight there was pretty uneventful, the airline took pity on us and got us an infant bassinet, so he actually got to lie down and sleep for a good portion of the flight! In general, he was a really good little baby for us the entire cruise. We hung around on the boat mostly, which was far from a hardship because this boat was absolutely huge with so many things to see and do!
It was a little challenging for us to actually get off the boat because that ports that we were in (Nassau, St. Thomas and St. Maarten) were all sizzling hot, and it was a bit tough to keep his temperature cool, but we did manage to get to the Hard Rock Café in Nassau (Matt and I used to make fun of tourists who travel to these exotic locations and then eat burgers at the Hard Rock….we are totally those people now lol), and also to Maho Beach in St. Maarten, which is the beach famous for being right in front of the runway at the St. Maarten airport, so the plans come in super close to the beach! We didn’t get to see a landing like we had hoped for, but we did see a pretty good size plane take off, which was cool!
I was so proud of Austin for how well he adapted to the boat and the new surroundings, and the very uncomfortable pack and play that he had to sleep in…poor little baby. We had a couple of rough nights, but he always rebounded and managed to pull it together for us to enjoy the day with him. Our little world traveler!
We had a bit of a rough trip home, because an unexpected thunderstorm system moved in on the Fort Lauderdale airport as we were sitting in the terminal waiting for our flight, and they actually closed the airport to all incoming / outgoing flights for 45 minutes!
Well that’s a first.
We ended up being delayed about 5 hours, which would have been challenging in the BEST of circumstances, let alone with a 6 month old! Austin from Boston just kept rolling with the punches though, and napped for a bit, and was otherwise pretty agreeable in the terminal. He was understandably a little fussy on the flight; poor baby had been in transit for the entire day, and had just had enough. I felt like crying too!
Thankfully, we don’t have any more big trips planned with Austin for this year….we made it! Lol…I may end up wishing for these days of traveling with a little baby vs. a mobile toddler haha
Solids
By George, we’ve got it! We struggled so much at first with transitioning to solids, and I was so baffled by this because both Matt and I love food so much lol, but Austin just wasn’t into anything we were giving him at all and totally refused all of our attempts for the first couple of weeks straight.
We finally realized that the key was consistency (isn’t it the key for everything baby related? Sigh). We found that as soon as we committed to doing his solid feeds EVERY single day at similar times, things started to fall into place.
Oh, and I also totally gave in and started adding a dash of cinnamon to his oatmeal in the morning….THAT went off like a house on fire!
Oh my gosh you guys, I don’t think there’s anything I love more in the world then feeding Austin his purees. When he likes the taste of something, he gapes his mouth open like a fish, and will sometimes just sit there waiting for you with his mouth hanging wide open and these huge, excited eyes like “I’m waiiiiiiiiiting!”. I die. He adores his cinnamon oatmeal in the morning, and we’ve been experimenting with all different kinds of veggies, fruits and veggie / fruit combos in the evening. His favourite is probably sweet potatoes right now, and least favourite is (shockingly) peas and green beans lol (nothing wrong with this boys taste).
We’ve also been giving Austin these dissolving crackers called “Baby Mum Mums” that have been so great for teaching him how to eat actual solid foods, and also a great distraction for him to munch on / play with in his high chair while we eat meals!
With purees going so well, we are planning to start introducing more and more “real” foods in the next couple of weeks, but aren’t putting too much pressure on all of us just yet. He’s still drinking most of his nutrition in the form of breast milk, so the solids are more about learning at this point.
One more (very sad) note on this topic, we’ve had to stop our early morning nursing sessions because our little dinosaur has developed four razor sharp teeth, and was gnawing on me like a carrot stick 😦 he drew blood a couple of times, and so we decided that we would stick to pumping and bottles to save my poor nipples. It really made me so sad to stop nursing, I truly loved those early morning sessions where he was so sleepy and cuddly. That being said, I am also really proud that we are still going full steam ahead with pumping and that he is still on exclusively breast milk at almost 8 months. The only reason that I have for wanting to stop pumping is that I’m kind of eager to see if there is any further improvement in some of my recovery symptoms once I stop producing milk…but I’m willing to keep going for the time being, with the ultimate goal to make it to 1 year. We’ll have to wait and see!
My Recovery
I’ve been feeling so much better recently, and am back to doing just about everything that I want to do in the gym now. I still struggle quite a bit with my mind if I’m being honest; in particular with anxiety about my symptoms returning, or worsening, or creating new problems as a result of my exercising and lifestyle.
I’m trying to work on this anxiety and obsessing, but some days it really gets the better of me. I really am growing increasingly more and more frustrated that this type of injury is allowed to happen to women giving birth these days, and that more isn’t done for us afterwards to support us and make sure that we can get back to our lives symptom-free. Honestly, if it weren’t for my own proactiveness, I wouldn’t have seen one single practitioner after my completely useless 6 week check-in with my family doctor (who had no idea that I had even suffered a fourth degree tear, and hardly looked up from her computer when I told her).
I’m grateful to be where I am, but I still have symptoms some days that worry me. Whether or not I should be worried, I’m not sure. I have one more specialist appointment in July, and hopefully that will tell the tale and help me put my mind at ease once and for all, but in the meantime, I’m thrilled to be able to live mostly symptom free and to be back doing what I love.
Sleep
I never quite know how to answer the question “‘so, how is he sleeping?”…I always say something like “Good…I think….”. The truth is that every night is a bit of a roulette wheel, and we never quite know what to expect. He’s been doing much better then he WAS during the teething hell weeks / month, that’s for sure.
We can definitely count on him going down for bed between 8pm – 9pm. From there, on a good night, he’ll make it until at least 4am or later, get up for a feed and then back down. On a really good night, he’ll make it until about 6:30am or 7:00am, and then he’s up for the day. On a not so good night, he’ll be up around 1:30am for a feed / snuggle, and then back down until 4am or 7am (there is no in between lol).
When you look at it laid out like this, it really hasn’t been so bad in the past few weeks. I came down with a nasty cold last week, so that was a bit tough, and Matt thankfully stepped in to do a few night shifts for me and help me get some rest, but all in all, I feel like this schedule is pretty manageable. We still haven’t done any sleep training of any sort, but we are just doggedly forging ahead, sticking to our schedule, and hoping that when he is truly ready, he will give us that glorious 12 hour night that we dream of lol
Our New House
Eeeeeeeee you guys!! We are SO in love with our new house and our new neighbourhood, and we haven’t even moved into it or taken possession yet! We’ve been total stalkers and drive past the house all the time, and we’ve even taken our stalkerness to the next level and started driving over to our circle to go for walks through the park behind our house.
We are sooooooo in love with it.
The park and the trails behind the house are so beautiful, and we just can’t believe that we are going to be able to give Austin and his siblings their childhood with all of this literally outside their backdoor.
We’ve signed our contractor team, and plans are to start work sometime in July, with lots of planning work and potentially demo starting in late June. We can’t wait to get these lower levels renovated so that we can move into the house! Our target is to be in the house by September 1st, and we just can’t wait!
My First Mothers Day
My first Mothers Day was a few weeks back now, and it was a wonderful day. Matt and Austin got me some beautiful flowers and a set of matching shirts that say “Mom”, “Dad” and “Baby” which we wore all day haha
I’ve been kind of overwhelmed with how much love I have for my sweet baby and for my little family these past few weeks. It’s always been there, but for some reason I’ve been noticing it even more these days.
Everyone knows that mothers love their babies, but I don’t think anyone except another mama knows just how much. Sometimes I just feel like I could cry looking at my perfect little baby, and I wonder what on earth I ever did right in this world to deserve him.
Not a day goes by when I’m not SO thankful for Austin, and all of his hilarious little quirks. He’s in this amazing stage right now where it’s so easy to make him laugh, and he smiles so easily and freely. He has this impish little grin that people comment on all the time, and a long belly laugh that he can’t really control once he gets going, it’s a full on giggle attack!
I am so excited for all of the stages to come, but the one that we’re in right now is pretty wonderful, and I wouldn’t trade one day of it in.
Austin’s Favourite Things of the Moment
-Any high pitched noise that you make (his favourite right now: when I go “CHIME!” in a high pitched voice lol)
-Riding around on his Daddy’s shoulders
-Jamming any and everything he can get his hands on into his gaping little mouth
-Our remote control
-Our cell phones
-Listening to music (in particular, The Wiggles, God help us)
-Kick, kick, kicking in the swimming pool and the bathtub!
Phew! I could keep on going, but this is turning into a behemoth of a post. We really couldn’t be much happier over here, and are just loving each and every day with our little man. I hope to be back with another update before too long!
Enjoy the start to summer!
-Sara xo