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: