Meet Rocky

Well, it’s been almost a month since I’ve posted. A fact that I am not too happy about. But we’ve been keeping busy and I haven’t had much time at all to post or even to read the blogs I follow. I’ve fallen a bit behind since I usually try to read a bit while I nurse Zane but he only nurses for 5 – 10 minutes at a time, so not much reading is happening. 😉 He’s not in the sleepy newborn stage anymore where they just lay there and sleep. Nope. He’s a big boy now and loves to smile and coo and be talked to. We have lots of sweet talks together. He’s very expressive with his cooing and will string lots of coos together like he’s trying to tell a whole story. His little eyebrows bouncing up and down while he tries to convey his feelings…. and he laughs… he’s also super ticklish. He’s really just an altogether wonderful little person! So happy and easygoing. I am so spoiled with this one! 😉

 

 

Really though, all this should be going in Zane’s update which is 3 weeks overdue now. I need to write an update for Levi too because I don’t even know the last time that little boy got a proper post!

 

 

But the reason I’ve popped in today is to introduce our new little pup, Rocky. We have been talking for quite some time about getting a dog since we all miss River so much. The boys are under the impression that River is just back in our neighbors woods and we can go look for him. That idea is reinforced by the fact that some people on our road have beagles and the boys can hear them barking and they think it’s River. So, yesterday we decided to take a look at our local shelter and the dog pound. We saw this one puppy at the shelter and he took an immediate liking to the boys. DH and I really liked him as well, although we had intended to get a female. The boys seemed to like him alright, Levi especially, but they weren’t giving us the vibe that they HAD to get him, so we left and went to look at the pound. Well, Tru just kept crying for that puppy after we left and we didn’t see any dogs that seemed like a good fit for us at the pound, so we drove around and talked about what to do and found ourselves at the dollar store picking up a bag of puppy chow and some treats and a bone. Tru had the dog named before I got out of the store. 🙂

 

 

Once we got back to the shelter, we were happy to see that the puppy was still there. The ladies who work there said they were crying to see us go because they thought we would be so great for this little guy. As soon as Rocky saw the boys again, he cried and cried to get out of the crate. When they opened it up, he ran straight to the boys like “These are my kids!”. 🙂

 

 

He did great on the drive home, alternating between my lap and DH’s. DH sat in the back with Tru so he could hold the dog too. When we got home, the boys spent 4 hours playing with the dog before bedtime. Even when he fell asleep, Tru laid right next to him till he woke up again. This morning after church Tru couldn’t wait to get back home to his puppy. Levi likes him a lot too although the puppy jumps on him and that makes him nervous. A little training should fix that in short order though.

 

 

We have no idea on his breed or his age, although he’s obviously just a few months old. I feel like his face resembles a pit bull but certainly there is a lot of other stuff in there too. He’s got a sweet personality and is very protective seeming. He heard a sound in Tru’s bedroom last night and was growling about it. He also had a barking/growling fit at their rocking horse right after we came home. Haha!! He seems to have some herding instinct in him too, which is good. I really wanted a border collie but worried it may be too aggressive with the kids herding them. But Rocky was watching my sister’s horse and he looked just like a herding dog the way he would lay down and watch and then jump up when it moved.

 

 

Anyway, thought I’d jump on here and post real quick. Zane wants to nurse now but maybe I’ll get some more updates out soon. 🙂 And hopefully I’ll get to catch up on a few blogs later on. I hope everyone is doing well! God bless you all. 🙂

Zane – 7 weeks

Whoa! That week went by in the blink of an eye! We have settled into a deep freeze the last couple weeks and have barely been climbing out of the single digits during the day, into the teens or low twenties on a good day. Today was 8 degrees for the high… so, yeah. It’s been in the minus degrees overnight and I’m just really, ugh. Cause our water froze several times already. One day we woke up and it was frozen so DH thawed it and it froze 3 more times WHILE WE WERE USING THE WATER to wash dishes and laundry. It froze today, in spite of the heat tape and the straw bales along the back of the house, but thankfully DH has it thawed again… for now.

 

 

Anyway, enough of that. My beautiful baby is still being adorable and growing ever so fast! He was weighed today but it was so chilly in the exam room that we left his sleeper on. He was 12lbs 8oz and over 23 inches long! I can’t get over how fast he is growing even though he only nurses for 5 to 10 minutes per meal. He has a nice strong suck though and even though I feel like he doesn’t nurse often enough or long enough, he’s growing great! He’s hardly spitting up anymore, so I’m sticking with the Zantac once a day at bedtime. He’s still just taking the .03ml dose, so it’s a small dose. But he will occasionally throw up mucus so I don’t want to take him off of it just yet.

 

 

We had another good week of sleep too. No more 8am wake ups, but I think he slept until at least 5:15-6:30 every day this week before getting up to nurse. Then right back to sleep. 🙂 I hope he will keep being such a great sleeper! One can hope, right?

 

 

Zane is such a fun baby! He’s so smiley. I often-times look down at him and he’s just smiling up at me. 🙂 He does a little giggle too and it’s so cute! I haven’t gotten him smiling or giggling on camera much yet. I want more pictures and videos! It’s so cute!!

 

 

I’ve still been having DH give Zane a 1-2.5oz bottle at night with his gripe water and vitamin D drops. He really isn’t too big a fan of the nipple on the drop-ins bottle. I think he just prefers the cheap disposable nipples the hospital gave us. But either way, he takes his bottle ok most nights.

 

 

One cute story from this week: I usually pump at night before bed and then take Zane to bed with me and nurse him before putting him in his bed, but one night I decided to fold laundry during my usual pumping time. So I went ahead and laid Zane down since he’d just had a bottle and I went to pump, but I told him that if he was still awake when I came back, that I would nurse him in my bed. I was gone a solid 15-20 minutes and when I came back, there he was, still wide awake in the dark, like he was really waiting for me! Of course when I nursed him he went right to sleep. 🙂 Obviously I know he can’t understand me yet, but it was really cute.
I had another blocked duct this week but I caught it early. It’s still sore and I’m still nervous that it will turn into mastitis, so I’m on edge and being careful. I’m not sure if it’s from lifting too much weight or from sleeping on my side. And one other issue which is a bit TMI, I started having spotting this week, so I don’t know what that’s about…. I’m hoping AF is not trying to start back up already!

 

 

Dear God, please continue to watch over Zane and keep him healthy. Thank You for how happy of a baby he has been. I pray that he will keep being a happy, healthy and strong baby. In Jesus’ name, amen.

 

He still loves to lay on the floor on his belly.

He must have a nap on my chest every morning about an hour after he gets up. It’s our time to reconnect after being apart for the night.

Truett’s 4 Year Update

This post is long overdue. I wrote it in October but somehow failed to post it. I’m good at making drafts that don’t get published. 😉 But anyway, here ya go!

 

 

I can hardly believe that my tiny little baby Tru is already a big 4 year old! He had a very low-key birthday this year and I think he was just a touch disappointed that he didn’t have a party… he didn’t know that Grandmama had a special party for him that weekend! She did a bird theme complete with wearable wings and bird nest treats and everything!

 

 

I let him pick out his own cake supplies. (He still talks about this almost 3 months later! It must have been very exciting to him.) He chose strawberry with vanilla icing, sprinkles and of course, we bought the number 4 candle. 🙂 I had planned to let him skip his naptime and make his cake with me, but he wanted Levi to make the cake with us too. 🙂 So since Tru seemed pretty tired that day, I went ahead and had him take his nap. In the morning when I got him up for the day, I told him “You’re not 3 anymore! You’re 4 now!” He was a bit perplexed and asked me why, even though we had been talking about this for days leading up to his birthday. 😉 Considering that he had been insisting that he was still 2 until very recently, this was quite a jump in age for him!

 

 

When DH came home, I asked Tru if he was ready for his present. He walked straight out to the garage! I was so confused how he knew his present was out there. Turns out, my sister had told him not to follow her to the garage because his present was out there. She didn’t know that we hadn’t told him that. But when he walked straight out there, we figured he was just that confident that we would get him what he had asked for. For weeks whenever anyone would ask him what he wanted for his birthday, he would say that he was getting “a car that drives by itself”, meaning a ride-on car. We looked all over for a good deal and then DH’s co-worker told him that she had one her kids had outgrown that we could pick up. She didn’t even want any money for it! And it’s in great shape. It needs a better battery because the one it has doesn’t last long, but otherwise it’s like new! Anyway, Tru was thrilled!! And so was Levi. 😉 Tru drives them around the yard almost every day. I love it! I’m glad he’s so happy with his present. We got him a few small items to open but they paled in comparison to the Jeep.

 

 

Things Tru loves to do lately:
⦁ Use his dry erase board. Sometimes he draws something so creative that he doesn’t want to erase it. haha The other day at church, he drew a really cool little guy. I whispered to him that he should show Daddy. Next thing I know he was running up to the front proudly holding his drawing up…. oops!
⦁ He also loves coloring and is getting really good at staying in the lines. His favorite color is black. Just in the last week, he’s become super conscious about using the proper color for the picture he is coloring.
⦁ Tru loves working on craft projects and has so much fun doing the craft at story time at the library every week. I hardly have to give him any direction at this point. He looks at the example project and can usually figure it out. I know I’m sounding super silly now, but I am impressed! 😉

 

I love snuggles with my little guy. They are getting farther and fewer between, which makes me sad. But I’m also loving watching him grow up. He’s a very compassionate and loving soul. I’m so thankful that God blessed us with this special person to love and care for. He was worth the wait!

 

Dear God, thank You for our sweet Truett and for the beautiful person that he is. I am so happy to watch him grow and I pray that he will always love and serve you. I pray that he will keep his compassionate and loving heart and always seek Your will. Please bless and protect him all the days of his life. In Jesus’ name, amen.

 

The cake we made at home. Ignore the mess please.

Treasure hunting.

The cool bird nest treats.