17 Weeks with Drake

Drake turned 17 weeks on Sunday...the best 17 weeks of my life so far! Also the hardest and most exhausting but he's so worth it.

Good- Drake rolled over from back to stomach for the first time today! He did it twice in a row and the second time was super fast! The flip side of that was he rolled over in his pack n play tonight and got stuck and scared me. We're working through sleeping so we were letting him cry for a few minutes and when I went up I was so surprised to find him face down. It was scary and I felt so bad for him that we had just been letting him cry. When we move him to his crib on Thursday we'll have a video monitor on him which will make it easier to avoid that.

A half good is sleep and Derrick gets all the credit here. I was so exhausted and Derrick insisted that I sleep in the guest room for the past three nights while he got up with Drake. They worked through five or six wake ups a night but Derrick only brought him into me twice a night to eat. I had a hard time falling asleep the first night but the second two nights were great and Drake made huge improvements each night. Tonight Derrick's in the guest room so he can sleep well before work tomorrow so I'm hoping I can keep us on this upward trajectory and not cave.

Bad- I started feeling sick on Friday during the day and ended up with a 102 fever on Friday night. I was really worried it was the flu because I had body aches and chills but I think it was just a bug brought on from exhaustion. My body was too tired to fight it off. Drake's been up almost every 2 hours for the past 2-3 weeks and I think it finally caught up with me. I had to miss our ultimate tournament but we were very lucky that Derrick's mom was planning on coming into town. I was able to rest most of the day Saturday while she kept Drake. I'm feeling almost 100% today after a good 3 nights of sleep and a restful weekend.

Also...kind of a funny bad. I went into the office for the first time in a while to print some things off. I had everything emailed to myself so it would be a super quick in and out. Drake had other plans and had a massive blow out. Thankfully I had an extra change of clothes for him. As for me, I thought I grabbed a clean jersey from the back of my car but it was a dirty Derrick jersey....aka stinky. We're going back into the office tomorrow so we'll see if we have a repeat!

The picture above cracks me up with his concentration and his feet off the ground. We got him a new activity center because he wasn't loving the other one we had with springs on it. It was too unsteady for him and once he lost his balance he would over correct and it would just spring him all over the place. He really likes this new one and is happy in it for quite a while...plus I feel like I don't have to be sitting right next to him while he's in it.

Funny- We taught him how to splash in the bath and he loves it. He'll get his feet going and now we have to make sure nothing valuable is in the splash zone. He's almost outgrown his baby tub so we might be looking for a seat for the big bathtub soon.

Drake is the best. He's such a sweet guy and is really only upset if he's hungry or tired. He's go with the flow and gives Derrick and I the best smiles. We've even gotten a few giggles...I can't wait for those belly laughs! He's wanting to be on the move so bad and the rolling seemed to happen quickly so I think he's going to keep working on getting moving. He did the back to belly for the first time this evening and has already done is twice more. He's also scooting himself in circles and using his toys for leverage to pull himself to his side and to rotate. We have his 4 month check-up on Thursday and then the big transition to his nursery. Big changes are coming but I think it's going to be good for everybody! Except maybe Crosby...she likes having us all where she can keep us safe together.

My Favorite Valentine

Drake is my newest valentine but Derrick stole my heart 9 (10?? Derrick knows..) years ago and continues to be the sweetest valentine I could ask for. I feel like my love for him as quadrupled since seeing him as a dad to Drake. Drake bursts into the biggest grin when he sees Derrick after work everyday...it's the sweetest thing. We had a lovely date-night-in last night after Drake went to bed capped off by a Wolfpack win! Thanks for loving us so well babe! I love you!

16 Weeks with Drake

We're creeping up on 4 months with Drake and so far this is my favorite age. He is so fun and interactive right now. We're pretty sure we got our first real laugh tonight and it is SO cute!

Good: This book! This book is a current favorite and keeps Drake entertained in the car which is huge. He's reached a stage where he is usually crying if he's awake in the car because he wants out of his car seat but, if you give him this book, he'll entertain himself for ages. It's a tails book by Jellycat and there are several versions. This is the fish version gifted to him by Grandma and Grandpa.

Good Again- Alison took some pictures of Drake and I at lunch late last week and I am so in love with them. She got so many great ones. They are all the same series of us sitting at the booth and I love every single one of them. I'm so grateful she snapped these...I'll cherish them forever.

Bad- Sleep. Same as before. I'm writing this at 10:45 (should probably be in bed!) and he's already been up twice since 7:15. We're working on it.

Funny- I have a tendency to put my foot in my mouth accidentally. The point I'm trying to make is usually pure but the way I say it or it comes out is wrong sometimes. Derrick and I were talking about future kids and I asked him what he would do if I really wanted 4 or more. He jokingly said he'd be a worse dad to our kids so I wouldn't want him to father anymore kids. My response: "There is no way you could be a worse father to Drake!"   My intention was there was no way he could be anything but amazing to Drake because Drake is so awesome and he makes you want to be the best you can be. Yeah...I should have said it that way :)

Besides working through our sleep issues, Derrick and I really feel so lucky. Drake is go with the flow and a typically happy guy. He's now recognizes Derrick from far away when he gets home from work and busts into a huge grin. It's so adorable and I know makes Derrick feel better than when it took 5 minutes for Drake to look at him.

Another good from this week was breastfeeding. I remember even 7 weeks ago I wasn't sure if we were ever going to make it work or if it would ever be easy. This was snapped by a friend last week when Drake needed a food break in Target. I borrowed a chair from the furniture aisle and he was taken care of in 10 minutes. If you're struggling, hang in there! We had a rocky road and we made it!

This week we are trying to stay dry (come on sun!) and continuing our work on crib naps. I've got a listing going live next week so that will test my working mom desires and we have Nana coming to visit this weekend.

I hope that you all have as much fun this week as Drake is having looking at this ceiling fan!

15 Weeks with Drake

Sweet Drake is 15 weeks old this week and changing every day! He's getting so tall and strong and turning out to be a pretty happy little guy. He's starting to give smiles out more freely to people other than Derrick and I with Crosby being his next most frequent smile receiver.

Good- Naps! His naps are still pretty short if he's in the crib but I think we've at least established that the crib is for sleeping now and he know the nap time routine. The past few days there has been very minimal fussing for naps which has been an awesome new development. Now if we can just push them past the 30 minute mark!

Bad- The bad is still sleep. I don't know if we can call this a regression anymore or if he's just out of the newborn haze and this is the type of sleeper he is but I've consistently been getting up every 1.5-2 hours and it's been rough. He goes to bed fairly easily but is usually up within the first 2 hours and then we're up consistently from there. He used to give us a good 5-6 hour stretch but we've lost that. We've been feeding him to sooth him back down and it's so hard to know if we're setting ourselves up for failure by doing that because there is no way he should be hungry every 1.5 hours...I mean, have you seen him?  We'll do some cry it out early in the evening but we aren't starting official sleep training until his 4 month appointment and then we'll move him to his room and get to work. February 22! Not that I'm counting down or anything! Derrick has been sleeping in the guest room that past couple nights just so he can function at work the next day and that's not ideal either.

Another bad is he is really rejecting the bottle. I practiced for 3 days before my DPAC show last Thursday and he took it fine for me but Derrick called at 7:00 saying he was screaming and refusing to take it. Derrick essentially put him to bed without dinner and he went straight to sleep so he wasn't starving but he just stubbornly digs his heels in and waits for me to come home to eat. It makes me more reluctant to leave during a meal time for Drake's sake, of course, but also for Derrick who will be left with a crying baby while I'm gone and no way to calm him down. I guess he'll eat if he's hungry enough but it's a challenge we're going to need to work through if I'me ever going to get a break. Even when I was gone last Thursday, my mind was frantic knowing he was at home and refusing the bottle.

Funny- I have some pretty funny sleep talking instances over the years and I typically wake up in the middle of it and realize that no, Derrick is not squashing a baby seal in our bed or a teeny tiny snake. Derrick has gotten used to these, talks me out of it, and then we go back to sleep. A few nights ago Derrick woke up with me frantically patting him all over asking where Drake was. We pull him into our bed sometimes so I think I sleep-thought he was in our bed and I could not find him anywhere! Derrick very calmly told me he was in the pack-n-play and to go back to sleep. Funny now but probably a little freaky to Derrick at the time.

Funny 2- Vampire baby. I was taking him out to check the mail the other day with him sitting up over my shoulder. The house was blocking the sun all the way down the driveway but when we got to the mailbox, the sunlight hit him and he almost flipped backwards. Both hands went flying in to the air and he shot backwards. Clearly we don't get this kid outside enough!

All in all Drake is doing awesome and we're getting into the swing of things with him. I'm primarily staying home with him and am going to be really selective about taking on clients, limiting the number of people I'm working with at a time, and limiting it to only clients that understand my schedule with Drake and who understand he may be with me while I work. I was getting really anxious trying to decide what to do with work but, he's only young once and I'm really enjoying being with him during the day right now. He's only 3.5 months old so everything is still so new and I may change my mind down the road but, for right now, Derrick and I are happy to prioritize my time with him even if that means my career slows down for a while now.