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!

5 months, 2 weeks

I'm officially at the point where I can't remember how many weeks old Max is!  So, for simplicity sake, I'm going to go by #month,#week (in that month). I'm pretty sure we're in week 23 now, but to know for sure would require me to go back, check my last post, and then return to this entry- and we all know that's a bit much :)

The biggest thing to be going on in Maxwell's world is that he is one step away from crawling!  You can't leave that boy anywhere, and expect him to be where you set him down.  He rolls and scoots all over the place, and now, he gets up on all four and rocks himself.  He ends up crawling backwards at this point, but soon he'll be moving forward!  Luke and I have no idea where to start with the whole "baby proofing" thing, so we better get on it soon...

Max is becoming more and more fun each day.  Yesterday, when I got home from work, the second I walked into the house, he was all smiles and gaspy laughs for me, and he clearly recognizes who I am.  He loves playing with the baby in the mirror even more, now that he has realized that he can swat at the mirror and touch hands with that magical handsome baby.  He LOVES that baby in the mirror, and seeing him light up while playing with his reflection is the only time I have any regrets about him not being in daycare.  I worry that he is missing out on that type of socialization.

Another change in our world is the introduction of the Baby Merlin Magic Sleep Suit.  While it doesn't help Max sleep through the night, it has made transferring him into the crib after being nursed to sleep a whole heck of a lot easier.  He doesn't startle himself awake, and force me to start the whole process over again.  It has also helped to use our electric blanket to pre-warm the crib mattress for him, so that makes the transition easier as well.

Yesterday, I made Max's next doctor appointment for the first week of February.  How can it be that we are already at the point of counting down to his six month check?  While I really enjoy that he is growing and learning new things, and becoming much more entertaining to be around, I find myself already getting nostalgic.  Yesterday, as I held him while he was napping, I just started to cry when I realized that these days are truly numbered.  While breastfeeding has been one of the hardest things I've ever done, I'm really going to miss the closeness and the snuggles.  One day, he won't want to be snuggled or carried around all the time.  One day, he's going to be a high schooler who is too cool for mom.  One day, he's going to be a grown man, with a family of his own, and I will no longer need to take care of him anymore.  Oh, man, I'm getting teary thinking about this- need to stop so my students aren't concerned when I come back in from my pumping break...

I love my little man with all the parts of my heart that I never even knew that I had.  

5 months

It's hard- I don't really know what to write tonight.  I'm struggling being back at work, and after my two week break from school, I learned that I would definitely rather be home with Max, experiencing everything he does and being there to take care of him, than deal with my students lately.  I really wish were able to afford for me to stay home for the year, and I find myself extremely jealous of those who took off more time than I did.  Oh, well.  There really isn't anything that I can do about that, but whine for a moment.

Over the last two weeks, Max has celebrated his first Christmas Eve with the Lorenz side of the family, Christmas Day with my family, and he has experienced his first New Year, as we celebrated the end of 2014, and the start to a fresh 2015. We also watched our little chunk turn 5 months old on January 4.  How is my baby nearly 1/2 year old already?

He tried his first solid foods (his doctor said we could try tastes of things if he seemed really interested), and so far he has hated avocado and sweet potato, but he LOVES bananas.  We might try applesauce next, but there really isn't any hurry, because we are going to start feeding him substantial amounts for another couple of months.  Eventually, we'll have him taste avocado and sweet potato again.  Along with trying out solids, he has been enjoying sitting in his high chair and throwing his toys off the tray.  He can sit up unassisted, and will scoot around the room by rolling or sliding his body to the side to get to where he wants to be.  The dogs are still his favorite thing in the whole world.

I don't have easy access to my photos at the moment, but if you are interested in checking out where I dump a good portion of my phone pictures, you can go to the following site:
https://maxwelljacoblorenz.shutterfly.com/
password: max

One other thing that I wanted to make sure to mention tonight is that Luke and I found out that his oldest friend, Aly, is pregnant!  She has had quite the journey and out of all the people in the world, she is the one I've been rooting for and thinking of the most.  They had been trying since 2012, and after numerous doctors appointments, unexplained infertility diagnosis, rounds of clomid and IUI, they are finally going to be blessed with the child they want so badly.  They were told that their only shot at having a child was going to be IVF, so they took a break from all the fertility drugs, and miraculously got pregnant!  We are so excited for them, and they deserve every bit of happiness that this baby will bring into their lives.  Luke and I might have to plan Max's first trip to Texas for next summer to visit Baby G after his/her arrival!

My apologies for this scattered post- you'd think I'd be better at doing these things on the fly, but I am tired, and also ecstatic that I get to stay home from work tomorrow (school was canceled due to extreme windchill)...

Updated: Here are the outtakes from our 5 month photo session!  Getting a squirmy baby to sit or lay still for a photo is definitely getting more difficult :)

Photo Dump!

An assortment of Maxwell photos from the last few weeks for your viewing enjoyment!

Hanging out with all my friends

All smiles

Christmas Elf!

Chatting with Papa

Bears at the Zoo

I love seeing myself in the 

Hanging out with my new Tapir toy

First trip downtown to have lunch with Papa!

That is one handsome baby!

Mama Lucy is always making sure my face is clean.

Where the Wild Things Are ornament with my name on it!

Jumping is my favorite

Sleeping like a boss at Target

Dang, I'm cute.

19 weeks- 4 month sleep regression. AKA Eff the 4th Leap.

This week has been a bit rough in the Lorenz household.  First of all, I had a tricky shopping trip all on my own with Max yesterday that required me (for many reasons) to nurse him while I pushed the cart around and shopped.  Thank goodness for my Beco Gemini.  I was able to rotate Max while he was screaming in the carrier so that he was at boob level on his side, threw on the nursing cover, and whipped out the boob.  I managed to get everything on our extensive shopping list (of course this was the week where we needed to replenish a lot of our household staples), while breastfeeding.  Luckily, he finished up right as I finished shopping, so I propped him upright in the carrier while checking out.  This was by far, the most impressive feat I have accomplished while breastfeeding.  I didn't even get any weird looks.  I'm pretty sure most people had no idea what was going on, and that he was just cold, so hence the "blanket" covering my sideways baby...

Maxwell McFussypants has decided that he wants to wake up about every 2 hours, and it's been taking its toll on all of us.  He's been a bit fussy with my mom this week (and though she'll never fully admit it), I'm sure it's wearing her down as well.  Winter break could not come at a better time- I need to be able to just spend time lounging in bed with my baby after these difficult nights.  I'm not sure if this new sleeping and waking pattern is due to being in the 4th Leap (according to The Wonder Weeks), or if it because we have been working on getting him to sleep in his crib for the first part of the night.

Max has been growing out of the Rock 'n Play, so we realized that it would be best to start having him sleep in the crib.  Now, instead of nursing him to sleep in bed, and then transitioning him to the Rock 'n Play, I have been feeding him in his room with the lights off, and the white noise machine/projector on until he's pretty passed out (typically by about 8:45pm).  Then I place him in the crib, and even if he starts to stir, I can typically get him back to sleep pretty easily right away.  We've been sleeping in the guestroom (right next door to Max's room), so checking in on him is much easier.  He has been waking up at about 11 or 12 wanting to eat, so I attempt to rock him and give him his paci first, but when that doesn't work after about 5 minutes, I pull him into bed, and nurse him until we both fall back asleep.  That wouldn't be so bad if he would just stay asleep, or be easily comforted by using me as a human pacifier for the rest of the night, but now he wakes up pretty upset.  I attempt to nurse him back down when he gets all huffy, but he refuses to be calmed by the breast, so I have found walking him around for a little bit (even if he's screaming) helps, and then he's willing to latch on again and fall asleep for the majority of the rest of the night.

I know this is all a phase, and one day, my child will no longer want anything to do with being cuddled by me at night.  I am going to look back on these days and miss holding my little bug in one arm, continuously kissing his cheeks and the back of his neck where he rocks his mini-mullet. I'll have blurry, sleep deprived memories of the first year of his life, and I'll have troubles remembering all the little details that have blended into a beautiful foggy memory.  That day is going to come faster than I'll ever be able to imagine.

Post-Birth Hospital Stay

After Maxwell was born, and got to see his little puffy face, Luke and I looked at him and determined that he was indeed a "Maxwell Jacob" and that our backup name ("Everett") was not needed.  The doctor had asked me at one point during his birth if it was okay to do the slightest cut to help our baby come out.  He had his little fist balled up right by his face, and just needed a little more room to make his exit, so while Luke and I were admiring what we had created, I received a couple of stitches after delivering the placenta (I seriously don't even remember delivering the placenta).  I never thought that I would want to see it, but when the resident who had observed the birth asked me excitedly if I wanted to take a look, I surprisingly said yes. It was pretty cool (and gross) to see what had kept my baby alive for the past 40 weeks.

At about 10am, we let my mom, and Luke's parents, who had all camped out in the maternity ward visitor's lounge since 10pm peek their heads in so we could introduce them all to their first grandson.  Since I was sitting naked under the sheet with the baby on my lap, there wasn't a lot of hugs at that point, but I do remember there being tears when we introduced him as "Maxwell Jacob Lorenz."  I didn't offer to let anyone else hold him at that point (I was still in a bit of shock that my baby was here, and I wasn't quite ready to give him up yet), but they were all going to stop by later that evening, so they would eventually get their chance.

**TMI ALERT** 

scroll down to the next paragraph if you have a weak stomach...

At about noon, my sisters all arrived to meet their first nephew, and Lauren was the first to arrive.  While she was holding Max, the nurse came in to do another fundle massage.  I told her when she was done that I thought I felt like there was some sort of blockage down there, and she did a massage with more pressure.  When she did that, I felt a huge clot shoot out, and heard blood splash.  By the looks on Lauren and Lukes' faces, I could tell that it was a lot, and probably not good.  By that time, Zibby and Paige had just arrived to see Max.  The nurses definitely seemed concerned, but hadn't really spoken to me yet, and I could only see them calculating how much blood I had lost.  They put me on a pitocin drip to stop the large clots from happening, and to keep me from hemorrhaging more than I had already.  

I knew that it had to be serious when the doctor came in and asked my sisters to leave the room so she could talk to me.  I had surpassed the acceptable amount for blood loss, and if they couldn't get it to stop, they would have to either do a blood transfusion, or do a D&C procedure.  Luke had been out of the room when I talked to Dr. G, so I was all alone, and scared that I would have to leave my baby or somehow be separated from him.  They determined that they would take my hemoglobin, and if it came back at 10 or less, I would have to have interventions.  After my blood was run through the lab hours later, I found out that it was at an 11, so I just barely escaped.  While I was there, I remember feeling fine (a bit dizzy from the lack of sleep, but all together fine), but I look back at pictures and I was grey.  I had lost all color in my face (I had a pretty good tan going on!), and my eyes have a slight dullness to them.  Thinking back, I realize that things could have taken a turn for the worse, and I am grateful that I was okay. 

18 weeks

As of December 4th, MaxJack is officially four months old.  I've made it a third of the way to my breastfeeding goal, and we're still going strong!  Everyday, Maxwell gets more and more fun, and it's amazing to see him take in the world.  Today, I took a comp day from work to spend time with Max before teaching night school, and it was wonderful to just have a morning and afternoon with my little man.  After getting lots of snuggle time in with him, we bundled up, and trekked out to see Luke at work.  We met up for lunch, and walked around the skyways for Max's first downtown experience!  He enjoyed seeing all the people running around, and he LOVED it when he realized that we had found his papa.

This past weekend, I met up with Lindsey and Owen to get some steps in at the MN Zoo.  I had never been there during the winter, and we just stuck to the inside exhibits and the MN Trail.  Max was mesmerized by the aquarium, and had fun being worn front facing so he could see everything.  He passed out about 2/3s of the way through.

Max's four month well-child doctor's appointment went well last night.  He is now 13.8lbs and 25.75" long.  That puts him in the 24th percentile for weight and nearly the 75th percentile for height.  This is a pretty good, especially since he was only in the 12th percentile for weight two months ago!  Our doctor also said that he has the most perfect head that she has seen in at least a decade, and mentioned that he must get a lot of tummy time, and is held a lot (no flat head for our child!), which are both true.

I feel like I miss a lot being away from him during the day.  I never saw myself as a stay at home mom, but I find myself wishing we could afford for me to do so until our children reach kindergarten.  I love seeing him grow each week, and I know that this time is going to go fast, so I need to soak in as much time with my kid(s) as I can before they become independent, and not need me as much.

One of my high school friends had her baby last week (5 days overdue, all ready for an induction).  I was chatting with her about her daughter, Irene, and about her birth experience, and it got me thinking about how my life changed just four months ago.  All of the emotions from that day came flooding back as I thought back to Max's birth and those first few weeks at home with a newborn.  It's all such a blur at this point- I wish I written more down while I was experiencing it all.  I do need to write down what I do remember post-birth for my next post...If I remember to do that :)