Five!

LATE! Again, I am beyond late with this post, but I just cannot seem to get on here in a timely manner anymore. So please forgive my tardiness and enjoy this post about our magnificent first-born, who turned 5 almost 2 weeks ago now.

5 years and almost exactly 2 weeks ago, I was about to go into labor with the original Goonie. My, how unprepared I was, but how I felt an instant and overwhelming instinct to be a mother the second she was born. Maybe that’s why we now have 3.

Della turned 5 on August 1, and she is simply the most incredible, beautiful girl in the world. She’s smart, she’s silly, she’s extraordinarily kindhearted, she’s beyond conscientious, and she’s just wonderful.

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She was a fantastic biggest sister to Morrison before he was even born, she and Lana adore playing together and have had the best days ever this summer (her words), and she is the amazingly innocent epitome of a kid.

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She learned to ride a bike with no training wheels just a few weeks before turning 5, and she could not be prouder. She’s now a pro on that thing! Frozen still rules as her favorite everything, and she’s getting more excited by the day to start K5 in September. For as much as it kills me to know she’ll be away from me all day every weekday now, I know she will thrive at school. K4 was great for her, and I hope every grade continues that way. Now if only all the other kids she’ll encounter along the way would be, too, my heart would rest much more easily.

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Can you believe how tall she’s getting??

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We love you beyond words, Della Jolee, and are so very, very proud of you. Happy belated 5th birthday! May you have many, many, many more!

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2010

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2011

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2012

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2013

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2014 (sorry this one’s tiny)

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2015

M 2 month stats

We had Morrison’s 2 month well check last night, and here are the official stats:

  • Height:  24″ (83%)
  • Weight:  13 lbs. 10 oz. (72%)
  • Head:  40.5 cm (82%)

He got his first round of real vaccinations then, too, and he definitely was not a fan. Just like the girls, though, he screamed as the shots went in and for just a minute afterward, then stopped and quieted right down. He is running a very mild fever today, though, and slept horribly last night, so hopefully those side effects wear off soon.

Before I forget, for posterity he wears size 1 diapers still but is just about ready to move up to size 2 once we use up the 1s we have left (he wore size 1 at his 1 month update post, too, i just forgot to mention it), and he wears mainly size 3 months clothes but can still fit into the majority of his 0-3 month outfits.

Sleeping: He’ll go to bed usually between 9-10, sleep a solid 4-5 hour stretch, then sleep another 2-3 hour stretch, then sleep anywhere from 1-3 more hours until his main morning wakeup, just depending on the day. Those days where his final stretch is only 1 hour, though, are killer. Sleeping in 3, 4, and 5 hour chunks is doable, but when I only get 1 hour at a time, hoo boy, that’s rough on the psyche. Once he’s up for the morning, I’ll change him, get him dressed, feed him, and then he’s usually back down within about an hour for a solid morning nap that is generally in the 2-3 hour range. Then he’s up again for an hour or so, naps another good block of 2-3 hours in the afternoon, up around dinner time for a little while, then most days takes another big evening nap for a couple hours before actually going to bed. Sounds like a lot of sleep, yes. However, the stretches at night still aren’t long enough for me to feel any less of a zombie than I did the days after he was born. I’ve just gotten much better at hiding it. 😉

I am trying to phase out that evening nap, though, in the hopes of getting him to sleep possibly through the night by the time school starts in September. I’ve also begun giving him a 4 oz. bottle of formula for his bedtime feeding instead of nursing him to bed, which will hopefully keep him fuller longer and allow for longer sleeping. I’m not switching any other feedings to formula, though, unlike when Lana switched and she went to all formula all the time. I just want this little dude to let me sleep through the night before I have to be the first one up again on school mornings. And I won’t lie, I want to keep burning those calories from breastfeeding.

Activity: He’s already rolled over! 3 days ago he rolled off his play mat from stomach to back twice, then 2 days ago I finally caught him in the act in his crib. That is way earlier than either of his sisters. Lana rolled at 4 months, and I’d have to look in Della’s baby book to see when she rolled, because I don’t remember. His doctor said this is actually on the normal scale of timing, not super early like I thought, but she said most babies don’t even roll anymore because they’re always on their backs and don’t need to; they can already see everything around them. Morrison is on his stomach so much, though, because that’s how he naps well. He almost never falls asleep on his back except for nights, when I still swaddle him. Otherwise his arms and legs are all over the place and he wakes himself up constantly.

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He also scoots himself along on his stomach. A week or so ago I heard him crying in the living room, and he had scooted himself all the way off his giraffe/turtle play mat combo onto the hardwood floor on his stomach and had his face pressed against the floor. Poor kid. He digs his little toes in, pushes his buns up in the air, then motors himself forward. As soon as he figures out that he can get his arms and hands underneath him for leverage, he’s going to fly across the room. Let’s not tell him about that quite yet.

He almost always smiles back at you now, and within the past week or 2 has started making more and more little noises. I love to say hi to him and hear him answer with his little version of “hi” or coos. It’s the most adorable thing ever.

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Now for the tri-parison shot. As usual, Della on the left, Lana in the middle, and Morrison on the right. I forgot I could do post comparisons, too, so here’s Lana’s 1 month update to compare for last month and her 2 month update to compare this time for your reading enjoyment.

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