Just in case you were worried, the Hicksters are alive!
This mama has had very little time to do anything lately so blogging has been on the back burner. Gray hasn't been napping well and we've been super busy in between. I've had a blog in draft mode all week and finally sat down to finish it but it's not letting me upload pictures because my free storage is full. ?? Any of you bloggers know anything about that? I guess I'll look into it when I have the energy and hopefully get caught up on some posts. It would kill me to write a post with no pictures. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, got a massive Christmas tree, Gray was dedicated at church last Sunday and there has been a whole lot of cuteness going on in the Hicks house with a certain baby boy. All of which need to be documented. But not without pictures.
On a random side note, I am TIRED y'all! Being a parent ain't no joke! But it's seriously the best job I've ever had and I feel so blessed to get to be a mama.
Since blogging isn't going to work out tonight, I'm off to start addressing 75 Christmas cards. Does anybody else get crazy excited about Christmas cards? It's ridiculous how much I love getting them. Checking the mail has never been so fun.
Hopefully I will figure out this picture thing and be back soon.
Friday, November 30, 2012
Monday, November 12, 2012
5 months
Gray continues to grow and change so fast. It seems like he is still doing something new almost every single day. He is finally being able to stay awake a little longer at a time and sometimes he can stretch it out to three hours in between naps. I know me staying at home with him has a lot to do with it, but he is extremely scheduled/routine oriented. I think some of that is just his personality and that part he definitely would have gotten from his mama! We've been gone a lot over the past week and a half visiting my grandfather in the hospital and then over the weekend at his funeral service and it has just taken a toll on our poor little guy. Either dragging him with us or dropping him off at someone's house has done a number on his sleep. Until yesterday, he hadn't napped longer than 30 minutes in the last week. I want him to be more flexible but at the same time I know how much he wants and needs his bed and his normal nap schedule. We both might as well get over it though because as soon as we get him back to normal, we'll be heading out of town for Thanksgiving and he'll be re-introduced to the dreadful pack-n-play and his not-so-perfect nap schedule.
Anywho, let's talk more about Gray at 5 months...
He started playing in his exersaucer. At first he didn't know what to think and he just sat there taking it all in. Within just a week, he is already turning himself around and grabbing at and playing with some of the toys on it.
He discovered how to put his feet in his mouth and they have now become his new favorite chew toy. Sometimes when I go to get him in the mornings or from nap, the feet of his pajamas are soaking wet.
He started eating baby food about two weeks ago. As I mentioned in his 4 month post, our pediatrician told me I could wait until 6 months or I could go ahead and start and we felt like he was ready. So far he's had bananas, peas, apple sauce and sweet potatoes. He wasn't a huge fan of the peas or apple sauce but the sweet potatoes were a huge hit! We are just feeding it to him once a day for now and will move to twice soon and then by 6 months, three times a day.
He's finally reaching for things and can hold something with both hands now and have more control over it. The first few weeks we gave him teething beads, he would get so frustrated because he couldn't hold it and keep it in his mouth for very long. Now he loves to have something at all times that he can hold in both hands. I can't wait to see what stuffed animal and/or lovey he chooses to get attached to. He is also starting to take his paci out and put it back in more.
When he is laying on his back, he can pull up if you hold his hands. He seems strong enough to sit up but just doesn't quite have the balance yet.
His laugh has become more of a chuckle, like a real laugh. He doesn't just do it all the time yet so we get so excited when we're able to get a good laugh from him. It's one of the sweetest sounds I've ever heard.
He is back to enjoying tummy time again and when he's on his tummy he can move around A LOT! It's amazing how he can scoot and turn. It seems like he could just start crawling at any point, though I am sure it will be several more months until he does. This is my favorite picture of him on his tummy.
He is wearing some 9 month clothes already, especially pajamas because he is so long. He continues to grow out of clothes left and right and it's hard not to shed tears when I pack yet another outfit away. Not that we are thinking about another baby any time soon, but I'd love to have another boy to be able to wear his brother's sweet clothes so I can enjoy and remember them one more time. I know I've said this before but about 90% of Gray's clothes are hand me downs and I just love knowing what good use all of those clothes have gotten. If we don't have another boy, I sure hope we can pass them down to someone else's little guy and they will be blessed by them like we have.
Sleep is still going great (unless he's off his schedule of course). He usually still takes 2-3 naps a day, ranging from 2-3.5 hours. He sleeps 12-13 hours a night with one feeding during that time. We still haven't weaned him from his one middle of the night feeding. We were waiting for soccer season to be over because Paul is going to help and he needed all the rest he could get while he was coaching. Last weekend was his first weekend off but with everything that happened with my granddaddy, the last two weekends didn't go as planned. Our weaning plan is going to go something like this-we plan on using a bottle for the middle of the night feeding and Paul will get up and give it to him. Our pediatrician recommended this for two reasons. One being that it won't be mommy and Gray won't have the comfort of nursing, which is a lot of what he wants at that time. Another reason being that we can tell exactly how much he is eating and we can decrease the amount of milk each night. We'll start with his usual 6 ounces the first night and eventually get down to only one ounce. Gray's doctor and also the book on sleep that I read, both say that the baby will think it's not too worth getting up for just one ounce of milk, especially if it's not straight from mama. Now we have decided to wait until after Thanksgiving to start it because as great as the plan sounds, I have a feeling it's going to take some crying it out too and we want to be able to be consistent until he is completely weaned. I plan on still waking up once during the night to pump and hopefully get some milk saved up in the freezer. One of these days I look forward to knowing what it's like to sleep through the night again. It's been since I was about 4 months pregnant. That's a long time y'all.
We just retired the car seat adapter on Gray's stroller. He looks so tiny sitting in that big 'ol thing but I think he will like it much better now that he can see everything. I will sure miss looking at him on our walks though.
Here's our chunky monkey at 5 months...
I can't believe in less than a month now, we'll be headed to Gray's 6 month check up. And I don't really love to go there, but I can't deny that that means our boy will be half of a year old. Still trying to soak up and treasure every single second with our sweet boy.
Anywho, let's talk more about Gray at 5 months...
He started playing in his exersaucer. At first he didn't know what to think and he just sat there taking it all in. Within just a week, he is already turning himself around and grabbing at and playing with some of the toys on it.
When he is laying on his back, he can pull up if you hold his hands. He seems strong enough to sit up but just doesn't quite have the balance yet.
His laugh has become more of a chuckle, like a real laugh. He doesn't just do it all the time yet so we get so excited when we're able to get a good laugh from him. It's one of the sweetest sounds I've ever heard.
He is back to enjoying tummy time again and when he's on his tummy he can move around A LOT! It's amazing how he can scoot and turn. It seems like he could just start crawling at any point, though I am sure it will be several more months until he does. This is my favorite picture of him on his tummy.
Sleep is still going great (unless he's off his schedule of course). He usually still takes 2-3 naps a day, ranging from 2-3.5 hours. He sleeps 12-13 hours a night with one feeding during that time. We still haven't weaned him from his one middle of the night feeding. We were waiting for soccer season to be over because Paul is going to help and he needed all the rest he could get while he was coaching. Last weekend was his first weekend off but with everything that happened with my granddaddy, the last two weekends didn't go as planned. Our weaning plan is going to go something like this-we plan on using a bottle for the middle of the night feeding and Paul will get up and give it to him. Our pediatrician recommended this for two reasons. One being that it won't be mommy and Gray won't have the comfort of nursing, which is a lot of what he wants at that time. Another reason being that we can tell exactly how much he is eating and we can decrease the amount of milk each night. We'll start with his usual 6 ounces the first night and eventually get down to only one ounce. Gray's doctor and also the book on sleep that I read, both say that the baby will think it's not too worth getting up for just one ounce of milk, especially if it's not straight from mama. Now we have decided to wait until after Thanksgiving to start it because as great as the plan sounds, I have a feeling it's going to take some crying it out too and we want to be able to be consistent until he is completely weaned. I plan on still waking up once during the night to pump and hopefully get some milk saved up in the freezer. One of these days I look forward to knowing what it's like to sleep through the night again. It's been since I was about 4 months pregnant. That's a long time y'all.
We just retired the car seat adapter on Gray's stroller. He looks so tiny sitting in that big 'ol thing but I think he will like it much better now that he can see everything. I will sure miss looking at him on our walks though.
I can't believe in less than a month now, we'll be headed to Gray's 6 month check up. And I don't really love to go there, but I can't deny that that means our boy will be half of a year old. Still trying to soak up and treasure every single second with our sweet boy.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
My heart is heavy
I lost my Granddaddy yesterday. He fell at his house on Friday and hit his head really bad. He had severe brain damage and bleeding in his brain and was in a coma. Nothing the doctors could have done would have changed his quality of life and he would have remained in a coma until he died. So my grandmother made the decision not to do anything to sustain his life, which is the decision I know he would have wanted. The doctors assured us all that he wasn't in any pain but he was on morphine just in case and to help him breath more comfortably. Paul and I spent most of the weekend at the hospital and we even took Gray for a little while one day. He was such good medicine for everyone. Since getting to the hospital Friday evening, the doctors had been saying he could go within a few hours or a few days.
God showed his perfect timing in so many ways. My cousin is 39 weeks pregnant with her second child and lives in Wilmington. She was distraught that she wasn't able to come and see our granddaddy and tell him goodbye. At her doctor's appointment on Monday she showed no signs of the baby coming anytime real soon so her doctor gave her permission to go to Greensboro for one night. She was able to spend a lot of time with our grandparents, her mom and brother and some other family. She was able to tell Granddaddy goodbye. Cole, our godson and my cousin's first child, and Granddaddy were good buddies. Cole sang Granddaddy songs and gave him hugs and brought smiles to everyone in the room. When I heard yesterday morning that Granddaddy would probably go sometime that day, I immediately began getting ready to head to the hospital one last time. I started praying right away that God would keep him holding on until I could get there and say goodbye one last time. I told my aunt to tell him I was on the way and to wait for me. Paul had a teacher workday yesterday and his workshop only ended up being a half day. Not a coincidence! I was so happy that he would be able to go with me. So I waited for him to come home and at the last minute we decided to take Gray to my friend Kristen's house in case we ended up being at the hospital for a long time. I was sad I wasn't going to get to see my cousin because they were going to head out at noon to get back to Wilmington. We got to the hospital at 2:00 and because Ashley had such a hard time leaving our Granddaddy, she was just leaving and we literally ran into her on her way out. We got to hug and cry together and Paul and I got to see sweet Cole for a few minutes. Then we headed up to Granddaddy's room. His breathing was so slow and although he looked peaceful, I could tell he was close. I talked to him for a few minutes and thanked him for waiting on me. Just a few minutes later he took his last breath. I'd never witnessed that before but it was as peaceful as it could have been. God allowed everyone who wanted to, to come and see him and say goodbye before he passed.
Granddaddy would have been 87 on the 30th of this month. His physical health had declined quite a bit over the past few years but he was still living in the same house my grandparents have been in for 45 years. He never wanted to go to a nursing home and always said he wanted to be at home. He loved going to the grocery store more than anyone I've ever known and had just gotten a good Harris Teeter senior day trip in the day before his fall. Though it was unexpected, he went the way a lot of us would want to. He never suffered and seconds leading up to his fall he was at home with my grandmother, doing what he loved. My grandparents celebrated 63 years of marriage this past September. What a huge blessing that was!
Granddaddy would want us rejoicing over his long life and remembering funny stories about him. Like last year when Paul and I took him to Cracker Barrel for his birthday. It was early December and we had just told them I was pregnant. He was so excited. There wasn't much I was wanting to eat at the time so I just ordered a few vegetables. We told Granddaddy to order whatever he wanted. He ordered the small trout plate and went on and on and on about how good it was. We certainly shared a love for food. After talking about how delicious the trout was, he told me he was going to change his order to the large size because it came with two pieces of trout but mostly so he could give me the extra vegetables. His meal came and he woofed the whole thing down, including those extra vegetables, never mentioning another word about giving them to me ;) My grandmother was telling us about their trip to Harris Teeter the day before he fell. She said a lot of times they would each get a cart and split up, so they could get done faster. They always met back at the register and checked out together. This day she couldn't find him at the register when she got done. She went back up and down all of the aisles and he was nowhere to be found. She finally saw him on the other side of the registers sitting down. He had already checked out. Finding that odd, she decided to see what was in his grocery bags. Not to her surprise, he'd snuck a bunch of junk food and checked out in hopes of "not getting into trouble". He was a little stinker like that.
Though he is already missed so much, those are the memories I know my family will focus on at his funeral service this weekend. For that and for his long, healthy life I am thankful.
God showed his perfect timing in so many ways. My cousin is 39 weeks pregnant with her second child and lives in Wilmington. She was distraught that she wasn't able to come and see our granddaddy and tell him goodbye. At her doctor's appointment on Monday she showed no signs of the baby coming anytime real soon so her doctor gave her permission to go to Greensboro for one night. She was able to spend a lot of time with our grandparents, her mom and brother and some other family. She was able to tell Granddaddy goodbye. Cole, our godson and my cousin's first child, and Granddaddy were good buddies. Cole sang Granddaddy songs and gave him hugs and brought smiles to everyone in the room. When I heard yesterday morning that Granddaddy would probably go sometime that day, I immediately began getting ready to head to the hospital one last time. I started praying right away that God would keep him holding on until I could get there and say goodbye one last time. I told my aunt to tell him I was on the way and to wait for me. Paul had a teacher workday yesterday and his workshop only ended up being a half day. Not a coincidence! I was so happy that he would be able to go with me. So I waited for him to come home and at the last minute we decided to take Gray to my friend Kristen's house in case we ended up being at the hospital for a long time. I was sad I wasn't going to get to see my cousin because they were going to head out at noon to get back to Wilmington. We got to the hospital at 2:00 and because Ashley had such a hard time leaving our Granddaddy, she was just leaving and we literally ran into her on her way out. We got to hug and cry together and Paul and I got to see sweet Cole for a few minutes. Then we headed up to Granddaddy's room. His breathing was so slow and although he looked peaceful, I could tell he was close. I talked to him for a few minutes and thanked him for waiting on me. Just a few minutes later he took his last breath. I'd never witnessed that before but it was as peaceful as it could have been. God allowed everyone who wanted to, to come and see him and say goodbye before he passed.
Granddaddy would have been 87 on the 30th of this month. His physical health had declined quite a bit over the past few years but he was still living in the same house my grandparents have been in for 45 years. He never wanted to go to a nursing home and always said he wanted to be at home. He loved going to the grocery store more than anyone I've ever known and had just gotten a good Harris Teeter senior day trip in the day before his fall. Though it was unexpected, he went the way a lot of us would want to. He never suffered and seconds leading up to his fall he was at home with my grandmother, doing what he loved. My grandparents celebrated 63 years of marriage this past September. What a huge blessing that was!
Granddaddy would want us rejoicing over his long life and remembering funny stories about him. Like last year when Paul and I took him to Cracker Barrel for his birthday. It was early December and we had just told them I was pregnant. He was so excited. There wasn't much I was wanting to eat at the time so I just ordered a few vegetables. We told Granddaddy to order whatever he wanted. He ordered the small trout plate and went on and on and on about how good it was. We certainly shared a love for food. After talking about how delicious the trout was, he told me he was going to change his order to the large size because it came with two pieces of trout but mostly so he could give me the extra vegetables. His meal came and he woofed the whole thing down, including those extra vegetables, never mentioning another word about giving them to me ;) My grandmother was telling us about their trip to Harris Teeter the day before he fell. She said a lot of times they would each get a cart and split up, so they could get done faster. They always met back at the register and checked out together. This day she couldn't find him at the register when she got done. She went back up and down all of the aisles and he was nowhere to be found. She finally saw him on the other side of the registers sitting down. He had already checked out. Finding that odd, she decided to see what was in his grocery bags. Not to her surprise, he'd snuck a bunch of junk food and checked out in hopes of "not getting into trouble". He was a little stinker like that.
Though he is already missed so much, those are the memories I know my family will focus on at his funeral service this weekend. For that and for his long, healthy life I am thankful.
Friday, November 2, 2012
Catching up
Holy moly I can't believe it's already November! And in just about a week our baby boy will be five months.
I spent almost every day the past two weeks babysitting Selah, my friend Ashley's sweet baby girl who is only two and a half weeks younger than Gray. Can I just say I am thankful I didn't start motherhood with twins?! Dang y'all, it was no joke! Thankfully it was only four and five hour days and they were really pretty good for the most part. It just seemed like they were on the exact same schedule, which made some of the time pretty crazy. They wanted to eat at the same time and they wanted to sleep at the same time, which meant one or the other (and sometimes both) were crying at several times during the day. Gray slept in a pack n play there so he didn't nap nearly as good as he does in his crib at home. Selah only sleeps about 30 minutes at a time. Needless to say, I had my hands full-literally! But I was thankful to be able to help a friend and make some money.
Soccer season is officially over. It's bittersweet. Bitter because Paul really enjoys coaching and it would have been great if the team could have made it further in the play offs. But mostly sweet because it means a lot more time spent together as a little family. Paul got home at 4:00 yesterday!! I didn't know what to do with myself. Gray didn't either. It was like he could sense his daddy being home and he woke up right when he came in the door from sleeping only an hour. So we went and voted early and ran some errands and had dinner at a normal dinner time. Hello, "normal" family life, I have missed you so!
Gray has been doing great lately. He has discovered his voice which has made things a bit loud around the Hicks house. He loves to squeal. The louder, the more fun for him. He still can't seem to stay awake for more than two hours, which doesn't seem very long for a baby his age. My boy loves some sleep and I guess I should be thankful for that. It is still making errands and going places difficult though. However, I am not taking for granted the fact that we can go out, even if it's not for long, and he doesn't scream in the car or while we're out. But when we hit that two hour mark, he lets me know it's time to go. I stay out sometimes and try to make him fall asleep in his car seat, but he usually wins and we head home to his bed. I am trying to let him spend time by himself every day. It's hard because I want to interact with him every second that he's awake but I don't want him to be spoiled and I think him learning to be independent is so important. One day I just let him play for as long as he'd do it to see how long he would hold out. Y'all, he entertained himself for over 30 minutes!! Maybe that's normal for his age but I was excited nonetheless. He is just so much fun right now. He is really starting to laugh more and more and I cannot get enough of that sweet sound. Daddy normally gets the best laughs out of him and I love that for both of my boys. My heart feels like it could explode any minute.
Blessed continues to be such an understatement.
I spent almost every day the past two weeks babysitting Selah, my friend Ashley's sweet baby girl who is only two and a half weeks younger than Gray. Can I just say I am thankful I didn't start motherhood with twins?! Dang y'all, it was no joke! Thankfully it was only four and five hour days and they were really pretty good for the most part. It just seemed like they were on the exact same schedule, which made some of the time pretty crazy. They wanted to eat at the same time and they wanted to sleep at the same time, which meant one or the other (and sometimes both) were crying at several times during the day. Gray slept in a pack n play there so he didn't nap nearly as good as he does in his crib at home. Selah only sleeps about 30 minutes at a time. Needless to say, I had my hands full-literally! But I was thankful to be able to help a friend and make some money.
Soccer season is officially over. It's bittersweet. Bitter because Paul really enjoys coaching and it would have been great if the team could have made it further in the play offs. But mostly sweet because it means a lot more time spent together as a little family. Paul got home at 4:00 yesterday!! I didn't know what to do with myself. Gray didn't either. It was like he could sense his daddy being home and he woke up right when he came in the door from sleeping only an hour. So we went and voted early and ran some errands and had dinner at a normal dinner time. Hello, "normal" family life, I have missed you so!
Gray has been doing great lately. He has discovered his voice which has made things a bit loud around the Hicks house. He loves to squeal. The louder, the more fun for him. He still can't seem to stay awake for more than two hours, which doesn't seem very long for a baby his age. My boy loves some sleep and I guess I should be thankful for that. It is still making errands and going places difficult though. However, I am not taking for granted the fact that we can go out, even if it's not for long, and he doesn't scream in the car or while we're out. But when we hit that two hour mark, he lets me know it's time to go. I stay out sometimes and try to make him fall asleep in his car seat, but he usually wins and we head home to his bed. I am trying to let him spend time by himself every day. It's hard because I want to interact with him every second that he's awake but I don't want him to be spoiled and I think him learning to be independent is so important. One day I just let him play for as long as he'd do it to see how long he would hold out. Y'all, he entertained himself for over 30 minutes!! Maybe that's normal for his age but I was excited nonetheless. He is just so much fun right now. He is really starting to laugh more and more and I cannot get enough of that sweet sound. Daddy normally gets the best laughs out of him and I love that for both of my boys. My heart feels like it could explode any minute.
Blessed continues to be such an understatement.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
