Diaper Review- #SagToSwag

**Disclaimer: I have received these products complimentary for testing purposes from Influenster.com.  All opinions are my own.**

Back in the day, I tried to convince Luke that we should do cloth diapers for our children.  He did not like the idea of scraping poop off the insert and then throwing them into the wash, so he put the kabosh on that idea.  When choosing diapers, everyone we knew who had young children highly recommended the Pampers Swaddlers, so we decided to give them a try.  Since 8:36am on August 4, 2014, Max has been wearing the Swaddlers exclusively.  In an attempt to save a few dollars on diapers, we tried Up & Up, but he had 3 blowouts out the legs within 24 hours, so we switched back the the Swaddlers.

I was happy to receive this VoxBox at my doorstep yesterday!

This week, I received a free sample of three Pampers Cruisers diapers, and I can honestly say that this is the first time a sample item may have changed my shopping habits.  In the short amount of time I had Max in the Cruisers, had had 3 huge poopy diapers, and usually, even in the Swaddlers, that amount would start to seep out the openings.  But, not this time!  In the Cruisers, Max was able to run away from me several times before getting his diapers changed, and while that usually results in a mess, his chunky thighs were totally clean where the leg holes were!

During one of his diaper change escapes.  He ran all over the house, and climbed the couch without any leakage from a very full diaper!

After we finish off our current box of Swaddlers, I'll definitely be using my coupon to save a little bit on a box of Cruisers. I highly recommend this fit of Pampers to parents who have a wiggly, squirmy little one who is constantly on the move!

Cruisers worked well at holding in all the contents without getting saggy, despite being constantly on the move.

VoxBox Review

**Disclaimer- These products were provided to me for free, and the comments and reviews are my own**

A couple of months ago, I signed up for Influenster.com after someone in my moms group had mentioned that it was a fun way to get samples, participate in surveys and write reviews of products.  Well, I LOVE taking surveys, and free products, so checked it out.  Not too long after, I was selected to receive the Nurture VoxBox which was put together with moms in mind.  I was super excited when the fuchsia box arrived at my home.

In the box were some great, full-sized products for my little family to try out, and I am happy to report that we really did like the majority of the products we tested!

OreIda- I am a true Minnesotan when it comes to my potato products.  I love love love Tator Tot Hotdish, and the OreIda brand tots worked perfectly to create this dinner favorite.  My favorite part of this product is how easy they are to cook, and how they crisp up without becoming over-done.  In the past, I have purchased store brand tator tots and they never get as crunchy as OreIda!  I definitely have plans to make Totchos (Nachos with tots instead of chips) for dinner soon.

Uncle Ben's- I have not be able to use this coupon yet.

Dramamine with Ginger- I was unable to actually test out this product yet due to the fact that I am still breastfeeding my son.  The box suggests to get a doctor's recommendation if pregnant or nursing before use.  I am looking forward to giving it a try when we have our long car ride to Grand Marais in October and during our long flights to Hawaii this winter!

Retirement

By 2pm today, I will have completed my last pumping session, and will officially retire my Medela PISA!

Since going back to work after my maternity leave this past October, I have made pumping a part off my daily routine. The 5am,7am,11:30am, and 2pm pumping sessions are coming to an end as I finish up my last day of work before summer break. By the time I start up again in August, Max will be 13 months and hopefully weaned from nursing (though I'd be okay with result morning and bedtime nursing sessions until he decides he's done).

I can't even fully express how excited I am to be able to just nurse on demand for the last couple months of his infanthood. I do have a decent supply built up in the freezer stash for the occasional Max-free date night, so I'm not going to worry anymore about making sure I bring my pump if I'm going to be gone 3-4 hours. I'll keep my hand pump in my bag for emergencies, but I'm starting to really prepare for the end of a journey that I never expected to love as much as I have. 

Nearly 10 months!

Baby boy turns 10 months in just a couple of days, and we finally had our delayed 9 month well-child visit.  As of last week, Max weighs 22.5lbs (86th percentile), and is 29.5" (80th percentile) long.  I still find it crazy that my skinny little baby turned into quite the proportionate tank over the last couple of months!

I'm fairly certain that he's actually been directing "mama" to me when he says it.  He is still giving me (and Grandmama) tons of kisses.  I love that he's started to take my face in his hands and turn my face toward him to give me the kisses.  Luke's been feeling a bit left out, but I remind him that it'll happen more often.  Max has given Luke a few kisses, but he's not as free with them when he's around Luke for some reason.  Babies are weird.

Max has also started to "answer the telephone."  Grandmama taught him how to put the phone up to his ear and talk.  I had no idea he could do it, until a couple of weeks ago, I gave him the little plastic phone, and he immediately put it up to his ear and started babbling!




This past weekend was a very social weekend for the Lorenz family.  On Saturday, we met up with Penny (and Leslie) at the Children's Museum for a baby playdate.  Max loved crawling around the HabiTot area, playing at the water table, and opening/shutting little cabinet doors.  On Sunday, we met up with the Lupans for some fun at the Stillwater Art Fair.  At one point, there wasn't a good spot to sit, so I successfully nursed Max while wearing him in the Kinderpack carrier, WHILE walking around the fair!  I was super impressed with my super babywearing/nursing abilities :)  Finally, on Monday, we met up with Xander and Cam at The Chatterbox Pub for dinner.  Thank goodness it is a family-friendly restaurant.  Our little screatcher was really into pointing out and talking to the lights in the ceiling, and was determined to have everyone hear him.

Tonight is my last official night of night school (I agreed to teach 4 nights in July), so I will have to find time to actually update over the summer.  We'll have a lot of big milestones to cover, and I can't wait to share it with those few of you who read this little blog!

9 months, 4 weeks

Max is in such a fun stage lately.  Every time he makes advances, I feel like I'm saying that it's my favorite stage yet, but it's true.  As amazing as he is right now, I know that there are even better, more fun things to come (until he becomes a stinky teenage boy, eating me out of house and home... but even then I'll be loving how much he's learning and growing into a young man).

 What he's doing now:

• Pointing to lights and going aaaa--iieeeeeeee!
• High pitched shrieking (for fun)
• Temper tantrums when we tell him "no" or we take something away from him
• Playing chase with the dogs
• Eating lots of big people food!  He LOVES grapes.  He will eat pretty much any meat we put in front of him.  He's not the biggest fan of mashed potatoes.  He also doesn't like pureed vegetables, but will eat them as a combo pouch meal.  Yogurt and cheese are also big hits in the Lorenz household.
• Flipping over his walker and spinning all the wheels as they are up in the air
• Sharing his food with the dogs from his highchair
• Knocking over any tower we build
• Sliding and pushing around the dog dishes
• Crawling full speed to get to where he so desires
• He can stand unassisted, and even took a step!  We think he'll be walking pretty soon.
• Likes interacting with other babies.  He doesn't do a lot of baby socialization during the week, so I've been scheduling baby playdates at least a couple times a month so that he has a chance to engage and interact with kids around his age.
• Splashing during bath time!
• Smiling.  He is such a happy baby.
• Falls asleep pretty consistently in his car seat. For those of you who remember what it used to be like for the first 6 months, it's really really nice to not have a screaming baby for the majority of a car ride.  He's able to entertain himself more with the few toys we hand him in the backseat.
• Loves having books read to him (especially Little Blue Truck, and Curious Kittens)
• Playing by himself
• Grabbing his penis as soon as the diaper is removed.  This kid is definitely a boy.

First Mother's Day

I had the most wonderful first mother's day.  I couldn't have asked for anything better this year :)

At about 7:30, Luke took Max to run an errand, leaving me by myself in the house for the very first time in 9 months.  Sure, I've gone and done things alone, but I had never been in my own home without Max being there.  It was weird, but I'm not going to lie, it was really nice to take a shower without worrying that I was taking too long, or needing to relieve Luke from baby duty.  I also got a chance to blow dry my hair and snuggle the dogs for a bit.  Luke and Max returned with donuts from Mojo Monkey, and made me coffee.

Then, Luke showed me my mother's day gift.  The man who has to be dragged to get professional photos done secretly took the day off on Friday and brought Max into the Target photo studio to have portraits done of the two of them together.  It was the sweetest, most thoughtful gift Luke could have ever given me.  I am waiting for our copies of the photos to arrive, and then I'll share them here!

After being surprised by Luke's gift, we met my family for brunch at the Loring Pasta Bar.  It's always amazing when we can get all 6 Kleinbergs PLUS significant others all in the same room at the same time!  My mom even gave me a couple of lovely gifts (a coffee mug and a mother's necklace) to celebrate the fact that she gets to share mother's day now.  Since Max was off his napping schedule, once he fell asleep in the car, we let him nap for a couple hours, while we relaxed/napped along with him in the grocery store parking lot before heading over to Luke's sister's house.

At his sister's place, Max got the chance to crawl around like a crazy man, chasing after Lily.  Ade cheered them on in her own 3 month old way!  We had a stress-free dinner, and just spent some time together as a family before heading back home.

I went into Mother's Day with only the expectation of perhaps being able to sleep in before heading out to celebrate our own mothers, so I was happy with what it turned into.  I feel very appreciated by Luke (and by Max, even if he can't vocalize it yet!), and now I need to figure out a way to return the appreciation next month for Father's Day!

Struggle

Most of the time, I love being a mom and everything that comes with it.  Most of the time, I would give up my full-time job in a heartbeat and settle into the role of a stay at home mom until my kids go to school.  Most of the time, I want to be constantly interacting with my child, and worry about missing "firsts" when I leave the room or spend the day teaching.  Most of the time.

Then, there is that one night that makes me question everything I do and everything I am as a mother.  I doubt my decisions, and feel as though I have made horrible mistakes.  Last night was one of those nights.

Recently, Max has been on a "I want Mama to hold me and be near me all the time" kick. I know this phase makes some women want to tear their hair out, but I've enjoyed it.  I don't get tired of holding, playing, talking, singing, bathing, feeding, changing Max.  While some people look down on the fact that we've co-slept for the last 5 months, I have embraced it and found peace in thinking about the intertwined relationship co-sleeping has fostered between us.  I'm not completely whole without my MaxJack, and he needs me to survive.  Co-sleeping has kept me sane while being the sole person responsible for feeding Max at all hours of the night, and being able to roll over, latch him on, and fall back to sleep has gotten us all more sleep. Lately, it hasn't been that easy.

Max's "bed" in our room is a crib mattress on the floor (surrounded by 2 walls, our bed frame and a heavy laundry basket at the end to keep him contained), and I've been placing him on his bed to help start transitioning him out of our bed, but still keeping him close at the same time.  Getting him to sleep has been the easy part, but last night, at 1:30am, he woke up and decided that comfort nursing was this only thing that was going to make him happy.  I wanted to rock him to sleep, and give my poor nipples a break (he'd been latched on for the last 30 minutes or so without any signs of stopping).  He won't take the pacifier when I'm around, so he yelled at me, he yelled at Luke when Luke took a 5 minute shift to let me regain my sanity, he yelled at me while Luke walked him around... I knew the only thing I could do was to let him try nursing back to sleep.  Thank goodness it worked this time, but he still only wanted to sleep on me for the rest of the night.  So, that's how I wound up sleeping, curled up on a crib mattress with my 9 month old using my shoulder as his pillow.

Some people would say, "Make Luke take a shift!" They don't understand the immense guilt I feel.  I don't feel as though I can ask Luke for help in this situation because I am the one who pushed the co-sleeping. I'm the one who insisted that I breastfeed for as long as I am physically capable.  I'm the one who created this monster who needs to comfort nurse and co-sleep to get through the night.

I shared this with Luke, and he helped me get through it.  He reminded me that we've had many, many more awesome nights with Max than rough ones.  When we complain, it's because our baby is smiling and laughing too much as we try to get him down to sleep.  It's only every once and a while that we want to tear our hair our in frustration.  We have to remember that as we transition, we're bound to experience more sleep deprivation, but it's okay.  We'll get past this.

Dear Maxwell.

Dear MaxJack,

There really is no way to prepare someone for just how much they will love their child.  Especially if it's their first.  I wasn't ready for how much of an impact you were going to have on me physically, and emotionally.  I think about you nearly every minute that I am gone.  When you were sick for the first time ever this past week, I wanted to carry your sickness for you.

This weekend actually felt refreshing.  With all the nice weather we've been having, we got to spend a lot of time outside, and took you on a walk to Lake Phalen with the dogs. You crashed ladies' night and tagged along as Papa and explored Stillwater for a couple hours.  You nursed by the St. Croix, and had your first tiny taste of a chocolate banana malt.  I got a bonus day with you yesterday while Grandmama was home sick, and it was lovely to stay connected with you. We took the morning to snuggle and play.  I figured out how to take a shower with you playing in the tub.  We snacked on whole wheat toast and guacamole.  In the afternoon, we took a drive downtown and met Papa for lunch, and then you and I went shopping in the downtown Target (the lobby smelled like vomit, by the way...).

Having you as a part of my life has renewed my outlook on the world (in both good and bad ways), and has helped me really realize what is important.  Here are the things that I find especially endearing at the moment:

• The way you give us open-mouthed kisses
• How you love to share your food with us
• Your two little front teeth poking out when you smile
• The big belly laughs when we tickle your tummy
• Walking into your room to see you standing at the end of the crib, nearest the door, watching for one of us to come in and pick you up
• When you crawl to us when you want to be comforted
• How fast you can crawl when you're on a mission- seriously, you put your head down and charge to where ever you have determined you need to be

• You light up whenever you see the dogs
• Listening to you sing in the car
• Watching you eat big-people food
• Your ability to walk using the push walker
• How strong you've become!

• Playing hide and go seek- Mama or Papa walk quickly out of the room, and call your name.  We hear the pitterpat of your hands and feet coming down the hall that signal to us that you understand that it's time to come find us
• Your fascination with everything in the world.
• Watching your hair flowing in the wind
• The way you talk all the time

• You've been mastering the art of blowing raspberries
• Your soft chunky rolls.  Weighing in at 20lbs 4oz, you are roughly in the 50th percentile for weight.  It's hard to believe you were every such a skinny little guy for the first 6 months of your life.
• How you wave now!  
• Seeing the expression on your face as you experience things for the first time (and second, and third!)

Maxwell Jacob,  I love you with an unceasing enormity that you will never quite understand until you are raising your first child.

I will love you forever.

Mama

Video Dump :)

Ready for some cute videos??  It's been awhile since I've embedded any videos we've taken of Max, so enjoy!

8 Months

Milestones/Accomplishments: This month, we became an expert at crawling and at pulling up.  We are firmly in the 6th Leap according to Wonder Weeks.  He has learned that Mama and Papa can walk away, and he doesn't like that. I'm not going to lie, it is one of the most adorable things to turn around and hear him whining plus the pit pat of his hands and knees hitting the floor as he crawls to find us when we leave the room for a moment.  He crawls up to us, and pulls up using our legs to stay close.  While I wish he would recognize that we always come back, I love that he has put it upon himself to find us, and that it shows how much he loves/relies on us.

Eating:  Max has picked up the habit of grunting/groaning/yelling pretty intensely when he wants what's on our plate, so eating our own food has become increasingly more difficult when he demands what we have.  He still loves pouches (especially the Greek yogurt ones), but loves getting bits of what we're having even more.  At Easter, he enjoyed broccoli/cheese egg bake, and ham.  Almost everything winds up in his mouth, and he seems to be able to sense when something in our hand might be edible.  On Saturday, we had dinner with the Lorenz/Lewis family after Ade's baptism, and I had a brownie in my hand, and Max on my hip.  Without me realizing it at first, Max managed to grab a couple pinches of brownie and shovel them into his mouth before I could anything.  Surprise- my kid loves brownies.  When I took it away from him, he made it very known that he wanted more.  The watermelon that followed those extra sugary bites was tart in comparison to the brownie, so we got to see him make the funny sour baby face.

Sleeping: Sleeping on his own is overrated.  Sleeping on people (especially Mama) is where it's at.  Max will still sleep no longer than a 3-4 hour stretch on his own in the crib.  Once his head hits the sheets, his eyes will fly open, and then starts over the routine of rocking, singing, shushing.  Since Max still nurses, it's been easier to just let him join us in bed part way through the night.  We have also learned that when his napping schedule sucks, his overnight sleeping sucks as well.  The last two days have caused him to not nap at his regular time, which then leads to a fitful sleep for everyone.  I'm really hoping that my mom has managed to get him to nap well today so that we get better sleep tonight.

Discoveries: Max has discovered that he can make even more noises and sounds.  These include the grunts when hulking out over food and the high pitch sounds that he makes when he's excited.  "Dada" is one of his favorite things to say, and he says it over and over and over. "Mmm" with pursed lips is another common sound he makes.  This is often times made when he's upset, but it seems to be directed toward me.  He's also started singing in the car!  At first we thought that he was just getting upset, but then we realized that he would do the long "aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" when music was playing.

One of my favorite stories from this week happened at Ade's baptism.  Lily's Lewis cousins were all there, and Max was playing on the floor of the church while we were waiting for the baptism to start.  The kids were all running around, and a couple of the Lewis cousins got close to Max.  Lily saw this happen, and then ran over to Max, put her body between Max and the Lewis cousin, and refused to let them play with him!  At one point, she even turned to one of the cousins and told her, "Max says Bye!"  It's fun to see how protective she is of Baby Mahksh.  I hope that they stay close as they grow up.  My sisters and I used to be really close with our cousins growing up, so it was like have instant best friends.  I'm excited for the day that there are more Kleinberg cousins as well, but my sisters are allowed to take their time on having babies :)

Spring Break!

Max turns 8 months on Saturday!  8 months just seems so old for our little man, but then when I see him with younger babies, I am reminded of how far he has come during the last 34 weeks of his life.

Since last week, we survived our week without Luke while he was traveling for work.  It definitely wasn't easy, but for the most part, Maxwell is a fairly mild-mannered little boy, so I just made sure to make the most of being close to him ever moment I was home.  Honestly, the most difficult part was trying to make sure that my needy dogs were cared for, loved, and given attention as well.  Lucy and Kale were probably even more excited about Luke's homecoming than Max and I were!

This week is spring break.  Normally, I wouldn't have really found the time to update, but I still have to teach night school tonight, so since enrollment is down, I can continue to take some time to write while my students work.  Since I am off from work all week, I have decided to treat this week as a bit of a staycation, and give  Max a chance to experience a few of the fun things we have to offer around the Twin Cities.  I am thrilled that I am able to spend this week with my son.  I've missed spending every day with him.  It saddens me to think that on any given weekday, I only get to spend about 4 hours with him after getting home from work before starting the bedtime routine.  We still co-sleep after his first wake-up (sometime starting around 9 or 10pm, while some nights it's closer to midnight), and it's mostly for selfish reasons.  As a nursing mother, it is SO much easier for me to just flop out the boob and let Max dream-feed when he stirs instead of having to wake up, walk downstairs, get him out of the crib, fight to stay awake while feeding him, put him back down, and find my way back to bed.  The other selfish reason is that I miss him a lot during the day.  I like having him near.  Luke has even admitted on nights where we've attempted to have him sleep in the crib that he misses him when he's not in bed with us.  In order to make things a bit more comfortable for all of us, we are going to attempt the IKEA hack where we'll adapt the IKEA crib to become a co-sleeper crib that will bump right up next to my side of the bed. I'll update on how it's going once we get that project completed!

Anywho... that  co-sleeping part got a bit long, and I shared more about it than I had planned... I always feel like I need to defend or be embarrassed about the fact that Max is in bed with us more often than not.

Back to the staycation:  This wbreak has been fantastic so far.  On Saturday, I had a baby shower to attend, so I dropped Luke and Max off at Luke's parents' house for a few hours.  Max had a blast playing with his cousin Lily, and then enjoyed going out to dinner.  The next morning, we had a playdate set up for Max, Irene, and Emmett. It was fun to see all of the babies from my high school friends so far!  Emma's baby will be joining us sometime in May, so once she arrives, it'll be nice to have them all meet up again.  Crazy to think that we all will be experiencing first days of kindergarten, prom, graduation, etc., all around the same time.  We'll all be able to lean on one another as we ride through the emotional roller coaster of motherhood.

Luke took Monday and Tuesday of this week off, so were able to meet with a lawyer to finalize our wills/health directives/powers of attorney.  It's a pretty huge weight lifted off our shoulders.  Should something happen to the both of us, it makes me feel good to know that we have a legal document stating where Max should go, and who will be the trustee for the estate. After the depressing discussion of events upon the occurrence of our deaths, we booked it down to the Mall of America to take Max to SEA LIFE.  He really enjoyed seeing the fish moving around.  The jelly fish exhibit was a big hit, and he did very well going through the different parts of the aquarium.  I forgot how expensive that place is- next time we'll make sure to get some discounted tickets, but it was worth it because they gave us passes to use another time because the ray pool was closed.  We'll definitely be taking advantage of that!

I'm looking forward to the rest of this week (we've got big plans to go to the MN Zoo again, dye eggs, celebrate cousin Ade's baptism, spend time with family on Easter), and getting into the homestretch to the end of the school year!

***I'm going to attempt to post once more this week with Max's 8 Month Update (though, let's be honest... there's a good chance that won't get posted until next week)***

A Day in the Life...

This week, I'm getting a taste of what it might be like to be a single working mother.  Well, a single working mother who knows that she only needs to endure this for 4 days...

Luke is out of town (lucky guy is travelling through Florida and Georgia), so this is the first time I have had to be 100% responsible for the well-being and life of my child while working.  Luke travelled once before since Maxwell was born, but that was back when Max was only about 6 weeks old.  At that point in his life, I could place him on a blanket on the floor or on his play mat, leave the room for a couple minutes, and expect him to have not squirmed off the blanket.  Now, I can't leave the little man alone for more than 30 seconds before he's getting himself into trouble!  Back in September, we spent hours cuddling on the couch, still getting the hang of nursing and learning about each other.  I had Netflix on constantly, and made it through more seasons (plural!) of Sons of Anarchy during those 4 days than I would like to admit... I could make dinner easily, and eat over him as he ate and slept.  I was home all day, so I didn't have to get ready for anything.  I never had to put on real clothes and make myself look presentable, and a quick trip to Target for some real-world experiences and a decaf latte didn't require any more energy than the brain power it cost to dress myself in yoga pants and a sweatshirt.  This time around?  Definitely not so easy.

I wish I had done a post like this back during those first 6 weeks.  The days of my maternity leave have gotten pretty hazy, and I regret not writing down more.

A day in the life

The 5am-7am edition

5am- Alarm goes off.  Max had finally just fallen back to sleep about 20 minutes ago after 30 minutes of attempting to get comfortable. He used to be a log, and not move from the moment we brought him upstairs to the moment it was time to get up.  As long as he was right at the boob, he'd stir enough to get me to help him latch, and then he snack and fall back to sleep. Now?  He flops all over the place and whines in his sleep.  I try to offer the boob, but he refuses.  Sometimes the paci helps.  Sometimes, he just wants to sit up, and then lay sideways on my stomach. Maybe tomorrow he'll sleep through the night.

5:05- Head downstairs, make sure the coffee pot is ready to brew, turn on sound machine and soothing projector light.  Change Max's diaper if there wasn't a middle of the night diaper change.

5:10- Make sure pump is ready- grab parts if they are still on the drying rack.  Begin pumping.  Start the 20 minute countdown.

5:11-5:31- Pump while simultaneously nursing Max from the other side.  Hope that he falls back into a deep sleep (at least long enough to let me have enough time to get ready, please?!).  Max has picked up a new habit of attempting to kick the pump off my breast.  Hope that I don't spill any milk. Suffer through silent jealousy as I hear Luke wake up and get out of bed to shower at about 5:20/5:30.  That extra half hour of sleep would be amazing...

5:31- Release myself from the pump, and (on a good morning) lay Max in the crib.  This should buy me at least 10-20 minutes before he wakes up.
**If Max is awake, I do the following with one arm/hand until Luke gets out of the bathroom**

5:32- Clean up pump parts, put milk in fridge, pull out lunches, make sure the coffee is actually brewing, double check bottles for the day, pull out pouches/containers of solids for my mom to feed Max.

5:45- Run upstairs to get dressed, find clean clothes pile, make sure there is no spit up/poop/drool on the outfit.  Look in the mirror, sigh at my soft mom belly, decide that I hate every piece of clothing I own (nothing does anything to help the pouch look better), but realize that I have no time to change, or anything better to change into. Maybe I should rejoin Weight Watchers next week... they are adaptable for nursing mothers... maybe next week.
**If I have Max, usually I plop him in front of the sliding mirrors in the bedroom so that he can flirt with himself.  It's a race to see if I can get dressed before he becomes interested in trying to fling himself down the stairs.  I dance like a crazy person while getting dressed to help keep him entertained**

5:55- Brush teeth, throw hair into a ponytail, put on deodorant, decide I look acceptable, and wonder if there will ever be a day that I wear make-up to work again.

5:57- Mom will be here within 5 minutes.  Within 5 minutes, I need to be ready to quietly, but sternly tell the dogs to shut the hell up.  Every.Single.Morning.  They know that my mom is coming.  I think the anticipation makes their excitement even worse.

5:58- Dogs THINK that they hear her car pull up.  Kale woofs, Lucy woofs and books it to the front window.  Tell the dogs to get back, come get a treat. Wonder if a shock collar would work to keep them from barking.  Remind myself that I do not agree with shock collars and would judge the ever-loving shit out of myself if I ever tried to use one on my dogs.

6:03- Mom actually pulls up in front of the house.  Luke has got the dogs calmed down enough, we use our bodies to physically block the dogs from charging and and knocking over my mom out of excitement and love.  Remind mom to bend her knees! Perhaps we should get them back into obedience classes... who am I kidding... there's no time!

6:05- Mom is settled in and the dogs have calmed down enough to finish their breakfast.
**If Max wasn't up already, this is about the time we hear him start to cry**

6:05:30- Go into Max's room, and can't help but smile when I see that he's pulled himself up using the crib rails, and is waiting for one of us to come get him.  Pick up his warm little body, give him a few quick kisses and head to the kitchen.

6:09- Chat with mom about the weather, traffic, how Max slept that night, interesting gossipy tidbits from the family while making sure I have my entire lunch, have my pump parts packed in my tote bag, and pour coffee.  I should buy a larger thermos... I'll probably end up stopping at the gas station to get another coffee to make it through the day.

6:15- Make sure mom has everything she needs to get her through the day- show her the solids she can give him.

6:20- head out the door.  Stop.  Where's my god damn phone?  Every single freaking day.  Oh, it's in my pocket.  Or in my pumping tote.  Or in my work bag. Got it!  Run out to the car, and start the commute to work, listen to KDWB like I have been since 2009 (I'm a teacher- I should listen to something more educational.  I like MPR, but it's too early to use my brain...)

6:55- Stop at gas station for coffee... and who am I kidding, I'll grab a donut.  This is why I'm a bit squishy in the middle. Blerg.  But I'm so dang hungry.

7:00- Arrive at school, go into my room, lock the door, pump for 30 minutes, get ready to start my day.

7 months, 2 weeks

Every once and awhile, I struggle.  Today, I felt as though I have broken my child.  Luke made a comment about how we need to figure out a way to get Max to nap without either nursing or a bottle.  I don't know what else he tried, but it made me wonder if I have damaged my child's ability to sleep?  Max then nursed to sleep (I felt a tinge of guilt the whole time), and I felt the need to prove that he didn't need to sleep on me.  Of course, as soon as I put him down in the crib, he woke up and wanted to cuddle.  I cried silently while he snuggled, thinking over whether or not I've made bad parenting choices for the last 7.5 months.  After having a good sob, I realized that I've done the best I can, and that's exactly what Max needs.

No, Max may not sleep in his crib for more than 4 hours in a night. I may bring him into bed when he wakes up after 10pm. Max gets to nurse whenever he wants, and naps the best on one of us.  He might use my boob as his lovey, but none of this is going to be long lasting.

Over this week, Max has started adding more and more ounces of solids to his daily routine!  On average, he is sucking down between 7-9.5 ounces of solid food a day.  He went from not really caring whether or not he ate anything other than breastmilk to going absolutely nuts over it.  He tried greek yogurt mixed with apple/strawberry/beets, and gave us a lovely surprise in his diaper (who would have known that beets would cause his poop to come out bright red!). He also enjoys the broccoli/pears/peas combo pouch. Tonight, he tried a couple smushed black beans, and really liked them.  It's been fun to let him try tastes of the foods we have on our plates at dinner time!

Anyway, that's about all I have for this week.  My night school is on spring break, so I quick threw this all together, so I apologize for how out of sorts this post is.  It more of an emotional dump....

7 months, 1 week

It's been a strange, roller coaster of a week in the Lorenz household-

Pretty much everyone who reads this know that Luke works for a large Fortune 500 company that houses its HQ in Minneapolis (think red & khaki), and if you've been keeping up with the local news, you know that today they announced that they were laying off 1,700 people from their Mpls and Brooklyn Park HQ campuses.  Last week, we found out that big layoffs were imminent, but we didn't know just how close to home this would hit.  Luke has survived other massive layoffs over the years, but this one has been the most terrifying for our family. He had to watch all of his upper management get laid off throughout the last few work days, not knowing what his future was with the company.  He spend the majority of the weekend updating his resume and his LinkedIn profile.  We would joke about how it was our last weekend with any money to cope with the stress of potentially being down to just my income until Luke could find something else.

Fortunately, we found out today that Luke's position is safe (for now), but who knows what will actually be in store for his team.  Any continued positive thoughts regarding Luke's employment would be greatly appreciated.

While having the stress of not knowing whether or not Luke would have a job by the end of today was difficult, Max and the lovely weather made things tolerable.  Through all of this, Max has made us smile, and has helped relieve tension.  Despite losing an hour of sleep on Sunday due to DST, having more sunlight at the end of the day has improved our dispositions, and has allowed us make sure we get more walks in.  Our dogs have been a bit stir crazy, so it's been a relief to either wear Max or throw him in the stroller while we walk.  I can't even begin to describe how much I have missed walking.  right before Max was born, and until I went back to work, I was walking at least 3 miles a day.  When it got dark and cold out, it became very difficult to motivate myself to move around.  Now, I'm back to walking, and I've signed up for Zumba on Saturdays!

Another positive thing from this week is that my dad has had a chance to see Max much more frequently.  He's been over the last two mornings to switch vehicles with my mom, so it melts my heart to see the pictures my mom takes of him reading to Max, and the stories she tells me of him feeding him his pear/cinnamon oatmeal, or giving him his bottle.  My dad never had a son to raise, so I'm happy that I've been able to give him the chance to help raise his grandson.

I can't actually think of many new developments in Max's world from this past week.  He's now working on mastering the art of pulling up on EVERYTHING.  He's learned that if he puts his palms on a glass surface, he can lean into it and manage to still "pull" himself up vs trying to pull himself up using a wall.  He also has started to enter the world of separation anxiety, especially when it comes down to sleeping in his crib.  Little man doesn't realize it, but in just a couple of weeks, it will be spring break, and we are going to make a real attempt at sleep training.  He sleeps great when he's in bed with us, curled up in the crook of my arm, sometimes from 7pm-5am (with one or two dream-feeds), but the bed is quite full with him, us, and the 180lbs worth of dog that weasel their way in nearly every night.

Max attended a staff meeting last week for my night school, and he did a great job being passed around to all of my coworkers, and even spent some time being held by my boss while he finished his presentation.  The only time he made a peep was to alert me that his diaper was wet, and when he was hungry.  I was very proud of him!

I'll try to do a photo dump sometime this week, so be on the look out for a picture post soon!

Enjoy the lovely weather this week!

Pumping fail.

I made it 7 months without forgetting something to breastfeed or pump.  At 7 months, 1 day, I forgot to restock my lansinoh milk storage bags, and reached into my tote to find one remaining bag after my first pumping session of the day (with 2 more to go).  Thank god for there being a Target across the highway, and in-store pick up.  I ordered a box of them, and during my lunch will run over to pick them up.  I'll be about 15 minutes late to pump #2 (which means I'll have to pump in the storage room instead of my classroom), but I'm glad I don't have to scrounge up a ziplock bag or something...

Gah.

30 weeks (6 months, 4 weeks)

I lied.  I said I would update last week's post with photos, but life's been busy! I've now added photos to that post, so feel free to check them out here.

Tomorrow, Babyman turns 7 months! On Friday, we have to take him in to get the second dose of his flu shot, so I'm guessing that they'll at least weigh him before poking him, so hopefully I'll have an update on how big he's getting!

Something that I have found myself thinking about is how much more independent Maxwell has become.  Sure, he'd still wind up killing himself if I keep my eyes off of him for too long, but I can leave him to his own devices for quite awhile now!  We got this great LeapFrog play table secondhand from a coworker, and he freaking LOVES that thing!  He'll crawl over to it, pull up, and play at it for 10 minutes at a time.  Then, if he's feeling brave enough, he'll walk himself around the edge of the play table, and then use the dogs' toy bin to continue to move around.

Stranger Danger is a real thing now.  Max understands when the person he sees isn't familiar (so, pretty much anyone but Luke, my mom, and me), and will be okay for a fraction of a second, and then he'll panic and cry.  It's heartbreaking to see him throw his head around looking for me!  Once he gets his snuggles in, and can look at the person from the safety of my arms, he'll be fine with them the next time they try to hold him.  We saw this happen on three separate occasions this weekend, so we're learning to adapt so that he feels secure before we hand him over to friends and family.

This weekend was a very social weekend for Max.  On Saturday, I met up with my Mom's group at the MN Zoo to walk around a bit, despite the frigid weather.  Max's buddies, Cooper and Mila, were born within a week on either side of him, and even though he cried immediately upon seeing the moms, he had a lot of fun looking at all the animals!

That night, we celebrated Luke's uncle's birthday (where again, Max cried when Luke attempted to pass him off to Uncle John pretty early into our visit), and were reminded about what it is like to have a newborn, while seeing Ade.  While there are sometimes I really miss the snuggly, sleepy, mushy newborn phase, I must say that this 6-7 month phase has been my absolute favorite.  I don't really remember the first 6 weeks anymore, but watching Ade get gassy and upset brought back the memories pretty quickly!

On Sunday, there was Zibby's birthday lunch, and after the initial freak out after waking up in a strange place and being placed in a strange lap, he was fine being passed around my large family.  It makes me happy to see how much my family wants to see him, interact with him, and spend time with him.  Max has a lot of great aunties, and I am glad that he has all of them in his life!

Pulling up, and grabbing toys out of the drum set

I made Max a taggy minky blanket last weekend!

I hid in the front room, and Max crawled over to find me!

This is what we do all the time now...

Mmmmmmm.... Puffs!

Grandpapa

How a baby finds his way out of an open box

He's my kid!

Twins!

love.

Playing with Auntie Zibby!

6 months, 3 weeks

So many things!

1.  Pulling up
Baby Man can now pull himself up on anything and everything.  He first did this last week (I think on Tuesday), and now it is not surprising to walk out of a room, and to walk back in only 30 seconds later to find that he has crawled over to something and pulled himself up.  We'll be lowering the crib later this week.  I'm not going to lie though, it is one of the cutest things to walk into his room to see him standing in the crib, smiling!

2. Cutting teeth
As of Saturday, Maxwell's lower left font tooth has begun to appear.  The gum is gone completely, so the little tooth is making its way to the surface.  On Sunday, he decided that it would be fun to bite me while nursing... I can tell you that it was definitely not fun.  He hasn't done it since then (knocking on wood), but I'm guessing that I startled him pretty well when I yelled out in surprise!  People don't lie when they say that the baby teeth are sharp.

3. Food
While Max still loves his bottles and nursing, he's starting to seem to enjoy food a bit more, especially if he thinks that he is feeding himself.  We have been offering more pouches in hopes that he'll try more things before trying to shove a rejected spoonful in his mouth.  This past weekend, he enjoyed a strawberry banana pouch, and devoured it over 3 feedings.  He also has been loving his sweet potatoes.  Puffs have officially entered out house, and half the time, the puffs don't make it into his mouth, but he does really seem to like the few he eats!

The first food he ever ate was mashed avocado.  He HATED it.  Gagged, spit it out, turned his head away... we tried it again, still hated it.  Fast forward to this week.  I cut up slices and offered the full slice to him.  It was too slick and kept sticking to the table, so I tried freezing the slices.  The next day, he went to town on his popsicado!  Hopefully he continues to enjoy the avocado, so he can get those good fats (not that he isn't gaining mega rolls already)

4. Discovered his penis
If we were ever uncertain of the sex of our child, all uncertainty is now gone, and this one is all boy.  Luke called me into the bathroom the other day, as he was giving Max a bath.  Lo and behold, I walk in and see that Max is grabbing his penis.  He has joined the brotherhood of men. Al Bundy style, hand-in-the-pants men.

5. Stairs
Max also decided that he wanted to attempt the first couple of stairs in our basement.  I assisted him through the first stair, and then I called it quits.  I'm not ready to have a baby that can climb stairs!

6. IKEA
On Sunday, Max had his first IKEA experience.  The last time Luke and I braved the crazies was before Max was born, so it was funny to realize how much more time we spend in the baby section than we ever have in the past.  We ended up buying some starter track for Max's train collection. Luke had a ton of fun setting up the train, and Max had a ton of fun destroying everything that Papa put together!

6 months, 2 weeks

Happy Tuesday!  We had an extended weekend due to Presidents' Day, so Luke and I were able to enjoy an extra day at home with Maxwell before jumping into a shortened, but crazy busy week.  Why is it that the shortest weeks always feel the longest?  We've got 3 more work days, and then two full weeks before the end of the Trimester.

This past week, I finally got a chance to work on our taxes.  In the past, I used to LOVE putting together and filing our taxes because we always got some money back (I know, I know... free loan to the gov't... should try to get as close to $0 as possible...blah blah blah).  It was always a welcomed chunk of cash that we could put toward something fun.  Then, two years ago, Luke got a promotion and it bumped us into the lowest part of the next tax bracket.  That year, SURPRISE!  We owed a couple grand in taxes.  We made some adjustments for the next year, but apparently we weren't actually savvy enough to figure out the amount we needed to have withheld, because again, we got slammed in April, owing another couple grand.  Thank goodness I have all the money I make for night school deposited into an extra account, so about half of that went to paying off the amount owed each year.  For this tax season, we were excited to add Max as a dependent.  The second I entered his SSN, I watched our total owed roll down, and this year we only owe about $150 (much better than the thousands we thought we might owe!).  Just for shits and giggles, I took out my night school job to see how much we would owe if our income dropped, and I found that if I didn't work my night school job, we would get back just about what I make teaching 1x/week (after we take out what we typically owe).  Which takes me to my big announcement:

I'M QUITTING NIGHT SCHOOL!

I've totaled it up, and after tonight, I have only 14 more sessions to teach, and then I'll be free.  While this year has actually been the most rewarding night school experience I have had in the 5 years of working here, I miss being with my son more than I am enjoying teaching at night.  You have NO idea how badly I want to run around the halls, telling people that I'm not coming back next year, but I figure that I will save that conversation for May.  I really like the students I have had this year, and I will miss them, but I will definitely be much happier spending the evenings with my kid.  I know it's cliche, but he is growing up SO fast, and I don't want to miss a minute.

Speaking of my kid....

Coasters are the best.

Max and baby cousin Adeline chilling in their carseats.

He's been a blast lately (90% of the time).  He's so smiley, and so proud of his ability to get himself wherever he would like to go.  His crawling skills have improved even more, and he crawls up on all fours without dragging his belly on the ground!  He also does a perfect downward dog, and attempts to "walk" like the dogs do in that position.

We have found that he really likes the Happy Baby sweet potato pouches.  He has been wary of the spoon lately (probably from the time we tried to feed him pear with cinnamon, and he HATED it), so it has been helpful to let him play with the pouch, open it, let him put it in his mouth, and then give it a little squeeze so that he eats a bit directly from the pouch.  Once he's remembered that he likes the sweet potatoes, he'll accept it from the spoon (with occasional slurps from the pouch).  He wouldn't be a member of our pack if he didn't have some strange little quirks :)  He also likes the Happy Baby teether wafers.  He had his first one yesterday, and it was fun to see him feeding himself.  He's also tried feeding himself steamed broccoli and seemed to enjoy the fact that he could put the food in his own mouth.  Luke and I get nervous when he tries pieces of real food, but he's getting pretty good at figuring out how to mash things with his gums.

My kid now has chunky thighs!

The other 10% of the time, he's been a bit of a terror.  This happens almost exclusively at night.  The last two nights, he's been so clingy, and refuses to sleep in his crib for longer than 1-2 hours, and then he needs to be touching me.  Two nights ago, he was up nearly every hour, and it was hard to get him to go back to sleep (he hadn't pooped yet, so he was uncomfortable).  Last night, after his hour in the crib, he woke up SCREAMING, and it took us a good 20 minutes to comfort him to the point where he was ready to go back to sleep.  It hurts me to see him so upset :(  I'm glad that these moments aren't too frequent, and that he is a perfect kiddo for my mom during the day.

Hopefully next week's update will include more positive sleep news, but if not, that's okay.  He won't want to sleep in bed with us when he's a teenager, so it will end someday... I hope...

6 months 1 week!

It's tough being 1/2 year old...

But most of the time I'm a happy camper!

Max had a great 6 month appointment last week.  I tried to update the blog this past weekend, but he kept us very busy since Thursday!

The official 6 month report for MaxJack is:

• 16lbs 12 oz (~25th percentile)
• 28 inches long (~95 percentile)
• Perfect head shape
• Minor Eczema (prescribed a cream to help with the spots on his back)
• Possible allergy to something (he's had reoccurring minor redness, with no goop, under his right eye)

As of Thursday, I made it half way to my initial breastfeeding goal of 12 months.  Originally, I was dead set on 12 months, but when I had some issues with my supply dropping a bit last week, I realized that for my own mental health and well-being, I needed to make a mental adjustment to take breastfeeding one month at a time.  Yes, my long-term goal is still 12 months, but after having exclusively breastfed for 6 months already, I know that is a huge accomplishment in itself, so every extra month I make it past this point is a great bonus.  I've read that many women experience a scary supply drop around 6 months, so hopefully that's just what I am experiencing (Maxwell may also be going through a growth spurt- causing him to eat more at night, and making my 5am pumping session less effective).  I'm loading up on oatmeal, drinking lots of water, and keeping up with eating enough calories, so hopefully my supply will adjust itself again.  I'm still meeting all of Max's nutritional needs, so I shouldn't panic, but the crappy thing with pumping is that the change in output is glaringly obvious, and can be very stressful. I have a decent freezer stash now, so when I have an off day, I can pull a few ounces from the freezer to make up for what I didn't produce.

Now that we have hit the 6 month mark, we are being more purposeful with his solids intake.  For awhile, we'll be making sure that he gets at least two sessions of solids, and eventually bump it up so that by 9 months, he's getting a lot of his nutrients from solids (in addition to however often he wants to breastfeed).  Last night, I pushed his final solid feeding to closer to 6:30pm, and with that, we managed to get a much longer stretch of Max sleeping in his crib for the first part of the night!  He slept from 8:30pm-12:30am before needing to eat again, so I'm hoping that we can start to get a bit more food in him before bed, and perhaps he'll sleep even longer!  We'll be attempting some sort of sleep-training come the end of March when I am on Spring Break and can afford to be lacking in sleep for multiple days in a row, but for now, I was just grateful to see him sleep so soundly for that long of a stretch.

As for the solids, he was on a bit of a strike a week ago, and was refusing much of what we offered to him (though, I am attributing that to the fact that his tummy seemed to be a bit upset, which resulted in a huge increase in his #2 output).  After his appointment on Thursday, I decided to try plain oatmeal cereal, not expecting him to swallow any of it, but he really enjoyed it!  I had mixed it with warmed breastmilk, so I'm sure that the flavor was a bit more familiar to him.  Now, I've been adding apple puree to it, and he's been chowing down.  It takes a few spoonfuls to get him into it, but for the most part, he's been a happy camper.  With the introduction of a better routine with solids, we've been offering a sippy cup.  He LOVES our glasses (especially my water bottle), and freaks out whenever he sees us drinking, so we figured that now would be a great time to let him practice drinking on his own.

Baby Man continues to improve on his crawling, and seems to love the fact that he can make decisions on where he wants to go, and decides what he wants to see.  As of Saturday, his newest obsession is the dog dishes.  He can be anywhere in the back room, and as soon as he lays eyes on the shiny silver bowls, he is on a mission!

Tomorrow...

... Maxwell will be 6 months old.

His doctor's appointment is on Thursday, so I will update after I have his newest stats to report!  In the meantime, I'll leave you with this adorable face:

5 months, 4 weeks

Over the last couple of months, my enrollment for night school had been waaaay down, allowing me to more easily update this blog and how things are going with Max.  Last week, I had an influx of new students, and a lot of them are pretty needy, so my posts may be shorter as I work with getting them acclimated to the courses they are taking, and build up their confidence to get through a chunk of work before needing my help.  I'll continue to update while on my 20 minute pumping break!

Max is now 25 weeks old.  Next week, my baby will be 6 months old.  It's been almost a year since we first got to see our little man on the ultrasound screen.  It was a surreal moment.  Yes, we had heard his heartbeat with the doppler by this point, but to actually see him squirming around, looking like a real little person was astounding.  During that visit, we learned that he was healthy and that our chances of him having Down Syndrome or Trisomy 18 were 1 in 10,000 (basically the best odds they can give anyone).  Now our squirmy baby is SO close to crawling, it's still hard for me to really believe that Luke and I made him, and that he grew so much in the 40 weeks he was couped up inside me.

I've been uploading videos off my phone (apparently being a new parent means that you use up all the space on your phone regularly, so you need to upload everything to the cloud frequently!), and thought I'd share a few recent ones of Max:

The last week has been pretty eventful in Max's life.  On Saturday, Luke and I were supposed to have our first baby-free date since October.  Granny was going to babysit, and since we didn't want Grandpa Lorenz to miss out on seeing Max, we brought in him to Byerly's to see Gampa at work.  Max is at the developmental stage right now where he doesn't give away his smiles to strangers as freely as he used to.  Now, he looks at them with a bit of concern while he tries to figure out who they are.  He was a bit wary of Gampa at first, but then warmed up to him right away, so it was nice to see Max hanging out in his lap, looking at him as he talked, playing with the wrapper of his breakfast sandwich... It warms my heart to see Max interact positively with his family.

Then, just as we were about to leave to go drop Maxwell off with Granny, she called to let us know that we needed to get over there ASAP so that we could drive her to Becca's house.  We had been on Lewis Baby Watch for the last few weeks, ever since she was placed on bed rest.  At just over 36 weeks, we were no longer nervous about the arrival of our newest niece.  At 36 weeks, developmentally, she would require little to no medical interventions.  It was go time.  I had a feeling that this was going to happen.  I had been emailing with a friend the day before, and I had mentioned that I thought that there was a good chance that our date would be canceled anyway, and low and behold, it did get canceled!  We picked up Katy to take her to Becca's so we could watch Lily while waiting for their friend to arrive.  By the time we got to the Lewis house, we saw Mike and Becca tearing out of the neighborhood, and we saw their friend's car in the driveway, meaning that Lily was taken care of.  Since Luke's mom didn't have a car, we drove her to the hospital.

Little did we know, that despite being only 5 minutes behind them, by the time we got to the hospital, our newest niece would already be born.  Adeline Marjorie made a fast and exciting entrance into the world- she apparently feels the need to keep up with her big sister already!  We had no intention to have Max meet his little cousin so soon, but since we were already at the hospital, we took advantage of the fact that we didn't have anywhere to be, and hung around until we had a chance to say hi to Becca, and meet Baby Ade for the first time. We are so happy that they got to bring Ade home yesterday, and that they all got to leave the hospital together, rather than spending weeks in the NICU.  Once they are all settled in, and the influx of visitors dies down, we'll take Max to go see Lily and Adeline at home.

On Sunday, Max got to see his friend, Penny again!  The last time we got our babies together was back in September.  Penny is about 3 weeks older than Max, so it was fun to see how much they have both grown since her last visit.  I'll have to add photos from this meeting later, as they are all on Luke's phone.

One of my all-time favorite photos!

First time sitting in a restaurant high chair (At Key's Cafe)

Sitting up in the bath

He absolutely LOVES frozen bananas in his mesh feeder

Hop on Pop?

His chins crack me up!

So happy

Awesome sweatshirt

Sleeping habits have been a bit better lately, though we do end up co-sleeping at some point during the night.  He at least has been spending the first part of the night in either the crib or the pack 'n play.  For foods, MaxJack recently tried pears for the first time, and love them!  We also reintroduced sweet potatoes, and he likes those as well (not as much as banana or pears, but he'll still eat the entire tablespoon- though a decent amount of it winds up on his face or hands).  It's cute- when he eats he likes to shove his little fingers in his mouth at the same time.  He has also learned that slapping his palms against my skin (mainly my chest) makes an awesome thwap sound.  It's cute right now, but I'm sure I'll have to put a stop to it, and stop laughing at it so that he doesn't think that hitting is an acceptable thing. For now, we'll allow it as he explores cause and effect!

Winter walks

Blue-eyed boy

What does one do with their best friend? Chew on their face, of course!

As bittersweet as it is, I enjoy seeing his day to day changes, and catching new quirks before they disappear!