• Baby

    Shane Thomas: Eight Months

    I’m still so behind on these as Shane is now 9.5 months old (😅) but I refuse to give these up so I’m going to keep posting, even if they are super late!

    What is your baby’s favorite toy? He has a few — he loves his Nuby teether, activity cube, and his activity table.

    What new tricks can your baby do? Just a couple of days before he turned eight months he started saying dada. He has not stopped saying it since. 😉

    How is your baby sleeping at night? To maintain my milk supply, I still nurse him at 1:30. He will 95% of the time just fall right back asleep after. Then he wakes back up around 6-7 to nurse again, and only sometimes will go right back to sleep. I think Shane is a morning person!

    What noises does your baby make? Shane babbles a lot, mostly only when you are home and comfy. Sometimes he likes to yell too.

    What foods are your baby’s favorites? Shane loves pumpkin and yogurt the most.

    What size clothes is your baby wearing? He still fits in 3-6 month pants, but is in 6-9 month sleepers.

    What does your baby dislike? He does not like being held too tightly, like if you are trying to give him a hug. He loves to explore and does not like if we try to stop him.

    This was the last time he ever sat in this toy… haha

    What is your baby’s relationship like with you? I feel like mine and Shane’s relationship has grown a lot this month. When I’m close by, he will sometimes put his arms up for me to pick him up. Or if someone else is holding him he will sometimes reach for me. I feel like he looks to me for comfort and it’s the best thing.

    Blurry but so cute

    What is your baby’s relationship like with his dad? Shane’s relationship with his dad is so precious to watch. Tommy is such a good dad and is always trying (and succeeding) in making Shane laugh. They have so much fun together!

  • Baby,  Life

    Baby’s First Beach Day!

    On Saturday we had our first family beach day! It was honestly so much fun. We are even debating on going back this weekend because we had so much fun. Not to mention we want to soak up all of the good weather before it starts getting too cold.

    We decided to leave around Shane’s first nap time so that hopefully he would sleep all of the way down. It was about a 1.5 hour drive to not too bad. This part of our trip was the only time we had a bump in the road. We had to stop for breakfast and the food store for lunch. My plan was to nurse Shane in the car after we ran those errands so that he would go right to sleep.

    Shane had other plans though, ha! He was way to distracted to nurse so after trying for a little while I just gave up and decided I would just have to stop on the way at a rest stop and nurse him then. So we left and this did not make Shane happy one bit. He had a breakdown because he was so tired and didn’t want to sleep. We had to pull off an exit on the highway and I had to nurse him in a random parking lot lol. He fell asleep right after and I put him in his car seat and off we went!

    He did end up sleeping all the way down though so that was great. We ended up getting there around noon, which wasn’t too bad. We decided to walk the boardwalk for a bit, then head to the beach.

    We spent most of our day on the beach and we got to put Shane’s toes in the water and sand and see how he liked it. He was having such a good time! It made Tommy and I so happy to see how much he was enjoying our favorite place.

    We even got him to take a nap on the beach, which was the cutest thing ever.

    After spending most of the day at the beach we decided to pack up and go for one last walk before leaving.

    We left around 6 and made it home by 7:45. It was such a fun little successful getaway. I’m so glad we had the time to do this as a family!

  • Life

    Hello Is This Thing On? — Blogging Update

    I don’t even know how to start this post! Yesterday I revamped my blog and realized that I have not really blogged much about anything other than pregnancy and having a baby in so long. Recently I’ve been thinking about this blog and have really been trying to decide what to do with it. At the very least I knew that I wanted to keep this blog up to continue documenting memories. I’ve just been debating about whether or not I’ve wanted to actually try to be more consistent or to just leave it here as a memory book.

    I’ve had a heart for blogging ever since I started back in 2015. This makes me really not want to give it up or to decide to only keep it as a memory book. Now that Shane is getting a little bit older, I have some more free time and I’d really like to devote some of it back into blogging.

    I’d like to better document our every day life and to connect with my readers a bit more. Also, I am thinking about renaming my blog so that it better represents my content. I’ve basically treated my blog as a lifestyle blog from the very beginning so I’d like to have a name that shows that. I still will be blogging about my faith too, but since that isn’t the only thing I blog about, I think a different name would be better suited.

    This post is all over the place, but that’s basically how my life is right now with an infant, haha! I’m also just still working out the details of this as well, but I wanted to write them down here in case anyone might still be reading this! 😉

    So to sum it all up, I want to be more consistent. I want to also have more intentionality here. I’m brainstorming some topics that I could write about more consistently and will be updating you guys along the way as I figure things out. I will definitely be continuing to write about Shane, my faith, and my marriage, but is there any topics that are interesting to you guys that you would like to see me write about? I’d love to hear from you!

  • Baby

    Shane Thomas: Seven Months

    Okay so Shane officially turns eight months old tomorrow so uh this is a little bit late. Oops. Better late than never though I guess. I did update in his baby book and take pictures on time so at least the information is on time. 😉

    I am going to be using the information that I recorded in Shane’s baby book for this update.


    STATS: I don’t know exactly how much Shane weighs but I know he’s growing right on track still because I weigh him every once in a while and keep track of how much he’s gaining.

    Shane laughs when… when we act like we are going to “get him”. He gets slightly scared and laughs so much. He’s also quite ticklish so he laughs when we tickle him as well.

    Sleep + Schedule: His sleep and schedule is just about the same as last month. If you missed that post, you can check it out here. The only difference is that he has dropped a nap and also a bottle. He generally only naps twice a day and takes three 2 ounce bottles of formula.

    What do people point out about your baby? How happy he is, how big his eyes are, and how much he looks like his daddy.

    Us at Lake George 🙂

    New Trips We’ve Taken: We took our first family vacation to Lake George this month! Traveling with a baby is quite the experience though. Shane did great on the car rides both to and from Lake George. (It takes about 3 hours to get there.) Although it’s quite interesting taking care of him when we aren’t at home.

    Does your baby have any teeth? Nope, still nothing!

    Solids: Shane still absolutely love eating. He’s had many new foods this month although I don’t know exactly which ones because I haven’t been keeping track.


    That’s all for this month! Check back soon though because his 8 month update should be up shortly. This next month was a big one!

  • Baby

    Shane Thomas: Six Months

    Welp guys I’ve dropped the ball this month on blogging. Something I have not blogged about yet is that Tommy and I are starting our own furniture business through Etsy. This is honestly the reason that blogging has been taking a backseat. We are trying hard to get the shop up and running as fast as possible so every bit of free time I’ve had has been working towards that.

    To be honest for the first time ever, I’ve reconsidered if I even wanted to keep blogging, but for now I definitely want to. Even if that means for a while that I am only about to get one or two posts up a month. I think eventually I will be able to blog more often – when Shane doesn’t need me quite so much.

    Anyways, speaking of Shane, let’s jump right into his update! Oh and also, I decided to change up the format of these updates. That was another reason why I haven’t blogged, the format I was using I didn’t like so it made me not really want to do these updates. I have been filling out a baby book for him so I am going to use that as a format for these as well.


    STATS: At Shane’s six month doctor’s appointment he weighed 14 pounds 10 ounces (5%). He was 26 inches tall (20%) and his head size was 16.5 inches (11%). He’s just a little guy like his daddy and I.

    New Foods: oatmeal, strawberries, and sweet potatoes

    How does your baby like solid foods? Shane looooves eating solids. He particularly likes eating sweet foods, like most babies I believe. It’s been really fun feeding him new foods and seeing his reaction to them.

    Sleep: Shane has always been a decent sleeper. This month he has started wanting to stay up and play for an hour or two in the middle of the night, which has not been fun. 😅(Only on some nights, thank God!)

    Does your baby sleep through the night? I have been avoiding this question on the blog (and in real life if I’m being honest) because I may be one of the only parents who doesn’t want Shane to sleep through the night. Say whaaat?! I KNOW. But there is good reason for it. So Shane is mostly breastfed, but also gets about 6-8 ounces of formula a day. If I cut out his nighttime feed then he would need about 4-6 more ounces of formula a day, which honestly is totally fine. But my goal has been to provide as much of his daily milk as I can so that means I will dreamfeed him in the middle of the night so that he can get that extra amount of breastmilk. I know there many be some people who won’t understand this but then again I know that there will be some people who will. It’s just personally a sacrifice I do not mind doing for Shane and I actually love that I am able to do, so for now it works for us.

    DAILY SCHEDULE (24hr: food + naps):

    • 8:30-9:30am: Wake up, nurse, take the dog out, play while mommy eats her breakfast.
    • 10-11am: Nurse, 2 oz bottle of formula, nap
    • 12-1pm: Wake up + nurse + 1-2 oz of solids sometime before next nap
    • 2-3pm: Nurse, 2 oz bottle of formula, nap
    • 4-5pm: Wake up + nurse
    • 6-6:30pm: Nurse, 2 oz bottle of formula, nap
    • 6:30-7pm: Wake up + 1-2 oz of solids sometime before bed
    • 8:30pm: Nurse, 2 oz bottle of formula, down for the night
    • 12:30-1:30am: Nurse + back to sleep
    • 4:30-5:30am: Nurse + back to sleep (sometimes right away, sometimes it takes about an hour)

    Just keep in mind this is a pretty rough schedule. Sometimes Shane doesn’t want to take his last nap, sometimes we are very busy and only get around to giving him solids once a day, sometimes he only takes an hour and a half nap. But for the most part this is the schedule we follow most days.

    Does your baby have any teeth? Nope! Still waiting on our teeth, which is A-Okay with mommy. 😉

    LOVES: His puppy, being in water, his mommy, and eating!

    Describe your baby’s temperament and disposition: Shane is such a happy baby! But he also knows what he wants and definitely lets us know what that is too.

    Favorite toys this month: This turtle toy, Skip Hop activity table, + this teether. (affiliate links)


    That’s all for this month friends! Thanks for stopping by! 🙂

  • Baby

    Shane Thomas: Five Months

    It’s about time for Shane’s five month update! (Since we’re two weeks late 😅.) This month everything finally seems to feel even more normal. Let’s jump right in!

    Size: I do weigh Shane at home but I don’t have his exact weight for when he turned five months old. He is still in 3-6 month clothes and moved up to size 3 diapers.

     

    Sleep: Shane is a pretty decent sleeper. He takes 3 naps during the day and wakes up around 1:30-2:30am and again around 5:30-6:30am. During his first two naps he usually wakes up halfway through and we have to rock him back to sleep but he will usually sleep for about 1.5-2 hours. His last nap of the day is usually around 20-30mins.

     

    Loves: Mommy and daddy, playtime, his puppy, and being held in his carrier on mommy.

     

    Hates: Being tired

    Milestones:

    • We have lots of fun milestones from this past month! We went on our first plane right this month to Florida to visit my grandparents. Shane did so well on the plane both times and also did well while in Florida. His sleep was a bit disrupted but nothing too terrible. He got to meet my grandparents for the first time and it was so special! I was going to just add the pictures for the trip into this months recap but I was just looking through them and decided I’m just going to do a separate post on our trip since I have more pictures than I thought!
    • We also started solids this month! So far Shane has tried bananas and avocado and I can’t tell if he loves them or not haha. He doesn’t show too much of a reaction but he does keep opening his mouth for more so it seems like he likes them. It’s been so fun to feed him and I can’t wait to keep introducing new foods to him!

    So that’s about it for this month! I cannot believe how much he’s grown! Where did my baby go?!