Big things happening around here!

Well, Cooper slept decent last night, except for waking up at 4 am and thinking it was time to be up. It. Was. Not. It took me an hour and 45 minutes to get him back down, but finally at 5:45 am, we both went back to sleep until 8:30 this morning. AJ spent some quality time with our living room couch, unfortunately. Hopefully tonight he'll join me in our bed again. It's very unsettling to not have him in bed with me, even though I know he's only in the living room. Morning nap started promptly at 11:00am per usual, and last about an hour. Can't complain there. When CJ got up, we got ready and waited for Auntie Zibba to come over so we could go out to lunch. There's this awesome pizza place not too far from our house that lets you build your own pizza from like a buffet of stuff and then they fire grill it. A.W.E.S.O.M.E I put things on that pizza that I would never usually order on a pizza, but it was delish. Cooper enjoyed watching the people around us, and making friends with the lovely ladies sitting at the booth across from us. He really is quite the flirt. We took a trip to Bed Bath & Beyond so Zib could get some new bed sheets, and then headed home to meet up with AJ. We had a pretty chill Friday night, ordered some Chinese and watched the Hawks game. Bedtime thankfully wasn't too bad and he's only woken up once thus far. Keeping my fingers crossed for an easy night, with Cooper in his crib & AJ in our bed. =) 

On another note, while Cooper was napping this morning, one of the jobs that I had interviewed for called me back offering me the job! I will be working the night shift in the ER after I do my orientation the last week of February. I very excited to get back into the medical field after being out for the past almost 10 months. I love love love staying home with Cooper and not missing one single moment with him, but I really feel like I need to do something for myself, give myself purpose outside of the house again, put my education to good use and not to mention contribute financially to our family. It's going to be super rough working the night shift and trying to find some type of sleeping schedule that will allow me to catch up on hours that I'll be missing while I'm at work. I'll be working the 7pm-3am shift three nights a week along with a 7pm-7am shift every other week. Like I said, rough. But, doable, I think. Haha. The way I think of it is, I will only miss about a half hour of Cooper awake time and will miss bath/bed time a few night a week. I will still be able to spend all day with him while AJ is at work. We can bond during nap time together. I think it will be good for AJ to have that bedtime bond with Cooper for a while. I have always done the bedtime routine, with the exception of undressing Cooper since AJ makes a total game out of it for Cooper and he just loves it. I'm going to start giving Cooper bottles togo to sleep 1-2 days next week, and working my way up to four nights a week by the time I will start my night time hours, hopefully making the transition easier for AJ. I don't plan on weaning him (putting him on pumped milk until he's at least 2 years old) until he's 12-18 months, so hopefully this one bottle a day at bedtime a few nights a week won't mess up his desire to nurse. I'm glad that I will be home by the time he wakes up in the morning, God willing he starts sleeping through the night. It'll almost be like I was never really gone! I will certainly keep everyone updated on how this new journey goes! 

Wacky Wednesday & Tapout Thursday

Oh. My. Lord.  I have about run out of energy, patience, and happy thoughts. Cooper decided that he wanted to wake up ~6 times from the time I put him down at 8 until 10, at which point he woke up and started screaming incessantly. I of course thought that it was his teeth, because he has two coming in right now, so I gave him some of his organic baby orajel. My efforts were unsuccessful as the child continued to cry. I tried nursing him, twice, to no avail. Rocking, didn't work.. Bouncing, forget it.. Finally at 11:30 I put him down on his play mat while I heated up a bottle since I clearly had not replenished my milk supply yet to try nursing him again. What do you know, the crying immediately stops and he's happy as a clam playing with his toys. Once his bottle was done, I tried giving it to him while rocking him, which typically works to get him back to sleep, and 6 wasted ounces of milk later he was still wide awake, screaming again. At this point it was 12:15, AJ had to be up for work in the morning, so he decided he was heading off to the couch to get some sleep after spending a few minutes listening to Cooper "Blah Blah Blah" his way around the bed and jumping while holding onto the headboard. I tiredly watched as he exhibited this level of energy that no human begin, especially a 9 month old, should have at 1 in the morning. Finally, at 2 am I had had enough and after another nursing session that did not put him back to sleep I decided to bounce him for 20 minutes, kicking and screaming in my arms, until he finally gave up and passed out. He was up again an hour later, and an hour after that, however, nursing him or giving patting his back for a while put him back to sleep until 7:30 am when he decided he was going to be up for the day. We went all of today with only a 20 minute nap in the morning. I. Give. Up. We went by AJ's parent's house this evening for dinner, where I was basically a zombie. 

Again, bedtime was an issue with him waking up 4 times thus far, but he has yet to not fall back asleep for me. AJ has conceded and decided he's just starting his night off on the couch, so Cooper will probably just end up taking his spot in the bed. I cannot wait until we move out, and Cooper has his own room. I really feel like once we get that separation between us bedtime will get so much easier. I am not a CIO mom and I love snuggling with my babe in our bed like we have since we brought him home and he hated his bassinet, however, something's got to give. I feel like I'm creating a monster, who will never sleep through the night, let alone in his own bed. I know I need to break him of nursing throughout the night, and I need to get him to sleep in his own bed.. It's just so hard when he won't go back down without nursing and when he's done nursing he just rolls over and snuggles up next to me. Bah, I need help. More importantly, I need sleep. 

Throwback to when my babe actually slept. 

Two Tooth Tuesday

Well, Cooper cut two teeth today! We're up to five teeth now! He is quite the little shark lately. I'm glad that these little buggers have finally come through, they have been giving him a lot of problems. We have started "brushing" his little teeth twice a day now, and he just loves it. He laughs when I brush his bottom teeth. I let him have the toothbrush for a while to let him get use to holding it, and his face lights up when he moves the brush and hears the brushing sound on his teeth like when I do it. 

We all put away all of the big boy baby food that we made the other day! I like to make big batches every few weeks, and then freeze it in little bags. Since Cooper is eating "finger food" these days, I haven't been using my Infantino storage packs as much. I just store them in the snack size ziplock bags. It makes for easy grabbing when looking for his lunch or dinner. Pick two, place in bowl under hot running water, and enjoy watching your 9 month old smoosh and smash every bit before he actually puts it in his mouth. This batch we made apples, carrots, sweet potatoes and yellow potatoes. We always have blueberries, bananas, yogurt, applesauce and other fruits and veggies in the fridge but these things require the most cooking/prep so I like to do this before hand. I look forward to the day where I can just make him a plate of whatever we're eating and watch him chow down =) Chicken parmesan, anyone? 

Cooper's new favorite thing to do it say "blah blah blah blah blah" over and over and over again. AJ taught him this by sticking his tongue out and making the noises and so Cooper picked up on it and it's just the coolest thing to do apparently. We literally had a whole conversation with just the word "blah" this afternoon. We're secretly working on changing the "blah blah" to "Mama" =) 

Blood, Band-Aids, Tantrums, Headaches.. How was your week?

By some grace of God, we survived last week. I'm honestly not sure how. I have had a horrible headache, going on a week now, which sucks by anyone's standards, but when you're a mom it's like the worst, EVER. When it rains it pours, right? Well, Cooper was a mess last week. He is cutting two teeth at the moment, and he is letting everyone know that he is NOT happy! Whiney, crying, needing to be held All.The.Time. He has also started throwing tantrums. Not like I'm going to whine a bit when I don't get my way.. but legit kicking, screaming, air flailing kind of tantrums. I thought I had a few more years before this started.. Aren't they called the Terrible Twos, not the Terrible 9 Months? Leave it to Cooper to be super advanced. He also wants to get into EVERYTHING, including the empty pop can that I was carrying to the garbage while simultaneously carrying him (since he doesn't want to be put down, see my dilemma here?). This lead to him sticking his finger in the pop can hole and slicing his finger open. Splendid. Thankfully he didn't cry, until I had to pin him down to put a Band-Aid on it because it would not stop bleeding and he was making my house look like a crime scene. After a bit of a struggle, we were able to put on our first official (not from a shot at the doctor's office) Band-Aid. The first of many, I'm sure. 15 minutes later, I realized I am going to have to invest in some tougher Band-Aids because CJ had already gotten the Band-Aid off and was trying to eat it. Again, splendid. Thank the Lord that it was bedtime at this point so with the blood massacre coming to a halt, Cooper beyond exhausted, and this Mama needing a glass bottle of wine, I put the munchkin to bed and we called it a night. 

We finished the week off with a pretty chill weekend. We visited AJ's grandparents and the hung out at home the rest of the weekend, watching the NHL All Star skills competition and game and trying to keep the kid amused with his 2304834058203 toys that are so not entertaining in comparison to crawling all over the house and finding every bit of fuzz/dog hair/ crumb that could possibly be on the floor and trying to ingest it followed by attempting to pull himself up on any available wall/piece of furniture/human being/pet. I swear I could hibernate for a month after this week and I could still probably use more sleep. 

Poor Babe

Yes, that dog moves. No, he doesn't care. 

(Yes, we're still wearing Christmas jams because nothing else fits right now and Mama needs to go jam shopping) 

Confessions of a nurse-aholic

So I am by no means one of those people who will sit down in a public place and whip out the boob and start nursing Cooper. I don't push breast feeding onto other women, and I'm not all about the "Breast is Best" motto. That being said, I do believe in the benefits of breast feeding for both Mama and Baby. It's great for Baby's immune system, growth, and development and it's fast, easy, and not to mention (basically) free for Mama. I always had envisioned myself breast feeding my babies until they were at least one year old, then continuing to pump for them until they were 18 months to two years old. However, as Cooper is quickly approaching his one year birthday, I somehow am having trouble seeing how we're going to stop this. I've read countless articles on how to wean a baby, and I understand the science and mechanics behind it, I just can't grasp the emotional changes it's going to bring about. Nursing has always been mine and Cooper's special time together. Especially the past few months, he won't even latch if anyone (and by anyone I mean Adam, because he's pretty much the only one who I'll even try to feed in front of) is in the room. It's like the rest of the world is put on hold until he is full. I feel a certain sense of pride knowing that I (with AJ's contribution) created this tiny human, grew him within me for 9 months, and am still that vital source of life for him. Not to mention, it's so much easier to nurse rather than have to pump, or warm up a bottle, which saves us a lot of time and energy in the middle of the night when Cooper wakes up and feeding him is the only way to get him back down (which I know needs to stop..) With all of this being said, I have begun constantly thinking about how long I can carry this out. I am not being judgmental to anyone who does this, but it really creeps me out on a personal level to see a toddler, walking & talking, go up to their mother, pull up her shirt, and start nursing in public. I know it's natural, but ugh I don't know, I can't get over that. 

Since deciding to forgo medical school, and instead taking the Doctor of Nursing Practice route, I have been applying for part-time jobs in the hospital realm. Since we're not moving out of state we will finally be moving out of my parents home, which means we will need another source of income. I don't want to put Cooper in any sort of daycare until he's at least two, at which point I just want it to be more of a source of social development than a needed thing, so I am sticking to a part-time job, which allows me to work nightshift hours, so I will only be missing mostly sleeping hours with Cooper. As anyone working in the hospital world knows, most night shifts are 7pm-3am or 7pm-7am and sometimes 11pm-7am, which means that I won't be here for bedtime routine (which has always been mine and Cooper's thing, except AJ always undresses him because he makes a game out of it and Cooper just loves it) on days that I work. Now, Cooper is no stranger to bottles, we started him on bottles when he was 1 month old, and he takes them like a champ. However, unless it is one of those rare occasions that AJ and I leave to go out before Cooper is sleeping for the night, I always nurse him to sleep. I have this unwarranted fear that I will leave poor AJ with Cooper for bedtime and the child will not go to sleep and I will receive frantic phone calls begging me to come home to nurse him to sleep. While I will only be working maybe 3 nights a week, I cannot get over this irrational fear. I mean, he's gone to sleep with a bottle from my mom before when we've gone out.. what would be the difference if AJ had to give him a bottle, right? Then comes the fear that he will get so used to the bottle at night that he will self-wean and not want to nurse anyone and there goes our special time together.. Are you beginning to sense the irrationality of the whole situation yet? But these are the things that go through my mind during 2am feedings, yet another reason to at least start night weaning this child.

Nursing mamas... any advice would be greatly appreciated..

Our weekend

We took advantage of the decent Chicago weather this weekend & took Cooper out on his new sled that he got from Great Grandma and Great Grandpa for Christmas. He had a blast letting AJ pull him around! We tried yogurt and pancakes for the first time this weekend, and watched the championship game with AJ's family, who are very upset Packer fans right now. I cherish the moments that I get to see Cooper play with his grandparents and great grandparents.. It reminds me of all of the memories I have playing with my grandparents. He is a very lucky boy to have two wonderful sets of grandparents and thee great grandparents!

We are also happy to announce that Cooper finally cut his asshole of a top tooth today! It has been causing so much trouble the past few weeks! Now onto the next!

Pull Faster! 

I think he has enough toys for a while 

Mama & Munchkin morning yogurt date

Wheat bear pancakes! 

Wheat pancakes & bananas 

Until next year, I suppose. 

Cooper playing with Great Grandma Fran 

Happy 9 Month Birthday, Little Man! A Month Full of Milestones!

It's crazy to think that it took me this long to grow this little boy in my belly as it has for him to grow this much outside of my belly.. This little boy is just full of energy, happiness, and giggles. He. Never. Stops. Literally... I wish I had the amount of energy he has, it would make it a lot easier to keep up with him. He has two teeth and is working really hard on his top ones, but they have been causing a ton of problems and do not want to come out. Bastards. His eyes are bluer than ever these days, and he makes this adorable little scrunchy face and snorts when he thinks he's being funny. Everyone laughs at him, like all the time, so he just continuously does it, slinging boogers everywhere. Like I said, adorable. 

We went to the doctor today, and although I think their scale is off, they say he's doing awesome. 60th percentile for weight, 75th for head circumference and 90th for height. Clearly the boy didn't inherit my short genes, much to AJ's pleasure. We were told to start him on real people foods, three times a day. So, now he will be eating pretty much everything we eat except for no straight eggs, honey, or milk. I've decided to cut out one of his oatmeal feedings, the one before morning nap, and only give him oatmeal before bed. I figure he's getting plenty of calories from eating three times a day now that he doesn't need to calories from oatmeal anymore. 

Cooper James Holmstrom, your daddy and I love you so very much. We have loved every minute of the last nine months watching you grow. We can't believe that in just three short months we will be celebrating your first birthday! We cannot wait to see what the future holds for you, baby boy. 

How old: 9 months

Looks like: Mama's eyes.. Everything else still Daddy

Weight: 20 lbs 4 ounces.. I still don't believe the doctor's scale on that one

Height: 29 1/2 inches.. 90th percentile for height, clearly didn't inherit my shorty genes 

Likes: crawling, pulling himself up on things, eating everything we give him, clapping, gives high-fives and kisses

Dislikes: Still having issues sleeping through the night, wearing socks, getting dressed in general, being left alone.. The separation anxiety is just overwhelming at this point. I can't even put him down to get dressed without a full-blown meltdown 

Milestones: It has been a month of milestones around here. Cooper is growing up so fast, it's unreal! Cooper claps his hands, waves hello & goodbye, gives high-fives, gives kisses, walks along furniture, crawls up the stairs, has learned the word no, and is now officially half my size.. #ShortMamaProblems 

Waiting to see the doctor 

Playing with Sophie the Giraffe while waiting 

Poor babe after his flu shot booster! 

Mama & Munchkin Must Haves | Months 6-9

We have reached the nine month mark!! Only 3 more months until our baby boy turns 1 year old! Ugh! Where has the time gone?! Cooper has started crawling, is so interactive now, and has just the cutest little personality. He is getting so much hair, and his eyes seem to get bluer every day. He LOVES to eat, especially his applesauce and Gerber Organic Puffs, although we haven't found a food that he won't eat. We've even started him on purred meats, he wasn't too fond of the texture at first, but has since taken to it. I make all of his food, it's way cheaper and I know exactly what he's getting. He is a crawling machine, pulls himself up on everything and loves to stand on his own. We're still waiting for him to walk, so we're still getting some use out of his bouncers etc (see Mama & Munchkin Must Haves | Months 3-6). We wanted to get him a walker, but after talking with a very intelligent and informed sales associate at Buy Buy Baby, we decided against it. I felt foolish for not having researched it beforehand, as I have done with everything else I have purchased for him. Apparently, new studies are showing that babies that use walkers walk later than babies who do not use them, and they have a greater chance of developing pigeon toe, bowleggedness, and hip problems, but I still consider getting one every now and then, especially when he's sick of being held but won't stop pulling himself up on the cabinets or trying to climb the walls, which really puts my anxiety over the top. These are the things that I feel are must-haves when your little one is 6-9 months old!

Teething pods/gel: See my post for Mama & Munchkin Must Haves | Months 3-6. Teething is in full-swing around here. Cooper has his two bottom teeth and his first top tooth is just about to break through. Poor baby has been so miserable from that darn tooth. We started using Baby Orajel Naturals and even Orajel Nighttime Extra Strength for nights that he's really in pain. (We've been cleared by our physician to use these in small amounts, as they can numb a baby's swallow reflex, allowing them to choke.)
Blender/Food Processor: I LOVE my Magic Bullet Mini! I was actually planning on getting the Ninja Mega Kitchen System , and probably still will, but I found this mini Magic Bullet at Walgreens one day and decided to pick it up and have fallen in love with it. Not only does it do a great job pureeing food for Cooper, but I have made dips, salsas, smoothies and even coffee drinks in it! I find recipes for baby food online sometimes, but most of the time I just cook fruits/vegetables/meats and blend them up and make different combinations. (Note: do not combine different foods until your babe has tried each individual food for at least 3-5 days... We did a week for each food before we switched him to something new, and tried everything individually before I started mixing things)
Storage system for home-made baby food: I love my Infantino Squeeze Station, It is a bit messy, and the whole baby-food making process does take some time, but I find that it is so worth it. This system uses 4 oz. bags with twist on tops. Food can be stored for 48 hours in the fridge or 2 months in the freezer in these bags. They have a place you can write the date/what is in them. They also have these little spoon attachments that go right onto the bag that have a hole in the top of the spoon so food comes out onto the spoon when you squeeze the bag. Very nice when you're on the go and don't have a spoon/bowl etc.
Interactive toys: Cooper got (3) Scouts for Christmas, and he absolutely loves them. He also loves his TMNT Ball pit, He also got big piece puzzles and cardboard books for Christmas as well that he enjoys playing with. Pretty much anything that he can pick up an put in his mouth, bang together, or that makes noise/lights up.. he's more than happy with, for at least 5 minutes.

We are still using most of the things that are in my Must Have lists for months 1-3 and 3-6, like the bottles, pacis, breast pump, nursing pillow, pack'n'play etc.

I still keep the cabinets filled with granola bars and other snacks as I am still breast feeding Cooper and often wake up in the middle of the night starving. Water/gatorade bottles are a must as well.

Goodbye 2014.. It's been amazing!

This is our sixth New Year's together and our first with Cooper! In previous years, we have gone to my best friend Zibba's house and had a get together there and ended up staying the night so no one would have to drive. However, this year, since we had peanut at home, we decided we would have Grandma watch Cooper, we would go out to the city and come home after. We started off our New Years with an early dinner at this AMAZING french bistro, Mon Ami Gabi. We had never been before, but had a few Lettuce Entertain You gift cards so we made reservations at one of the only places that still had open tables on NYE. Turns out, it was a very smart decision! Both AJ and I had huge steaks which were literally mouth watering. I had a bowl of lobster bisque soup while Adam had there famous (no literally, famous) french onion soup, both of which were awesome. Our steaks came with these what resembled very thin cut steak fries that were almost chip-like. It was a strange combination to have this expensive piece of meat with fries, but oh-my-yummy-lord was it good! We both had left-overs to take home, which I enjoyed today for lunch. Equally delicious the second time around. 

After dinner, we headed home, spent some more time with the little man and then started getting ready to go out. I amazingly managed to get ready and have time to get through Cooper's bedtime routine before we had to leave. Very impressive for me, as I am perpetually late, even more so after I had Cooper. 

With the baby snoozing away, AJ & I headed downtown to meet up with Zibba, Sean, Aaron and Sean's parents (who pretty much partied as hard as we did). We went to Estate Ultra Bar and Yacht Club which was located right on the Chicago River, pretty cool. We were given drink tickets when we bought our tickets for the event and then the table Sean's parent's had reserved also came with a bottle and a bottle of champagne. A great time was had by all. Sent a text to my mom at midnight, having her give our baby a kiss for us. He was still up from having woken up at some point during the night, poor mom. We left shortly after midnight, hit up one more bar close to where we parked our car, helped some guy not kill himself or someone else or get a DUI by not letting him drive after he had passed out in his car and hit his head on the steering wheel. Thankfully his friend showed up after a few minutes of trying to convince this guy that driving in his state wasn't a good idea. Good times, good times. We then went back to Sean's, where our car was, used the bathroom, got some water, hung out with his ferret Dexter and headed home. 

After getting some food, we came home to a still sleeping baby, THANK JESUS! We got to eat and sleep for about an hour before he woke up. Put him in bed with us, and we all went back to sleep for a few hours. All in all, it was a very successful evening. 

2014 was such an amazing year for me and I am sad to see it go. We welcomed our precious baby boy into this world, I got engagement to my other half, and got into medical school. I can't wait to see what exciting endeavors 2015 has to bring. We cannot wait to watch Cooper continue to grow, are excited for our move, and ready to get as much wedding planning done as possible before we leave! Bring it on, 2015! 

Disclaimer: I decided on a scandalous dress this year, because minus my belly stretch marks and little bit of extra belly skin I am feeling great post-baby & more poor girls have been all work and no play for the past 8 1/2 months and they deserved a night out! 

Ridiculous hat Grandma got Cooper.. poor child.

Best friends

Ringing in our sixth New Year's together! 

Great times with great people 

Happy New Year! 

Our typical threesome photo