Sunday Funday at Sweet Peas!

Yesterday was another scorching hot summer day but it was not going to keep us from getting out and having a little fun!  We decided to take a little drive down to Sweet Peas (A BBQ place on the river) to enjoy a little Southern cooking. Since it is located on the river, it is a favorite of all the little ones because they can look at all the boats and boaters who come to enjoy the food.  Its always a fun experience every time we go there and this time was no different.  With Luke being 10 months, he was able to enjoy some green beans and Mac and Cheese with us!  All and all, it was a fun relaxing Sunday!

Luke's feeding/sleeping schedule for the first year!

After talking to a friend this weekend about feeding/sleeping schedules I realized I had not blogged near as much as I had hoped to about Luke's exact schedule each month.  I want to use this blog as a reference for my next child so I figured I better write this info down before I forget it and end up kicking myself later.

Lets be honest, Month 1-3 were really just about survival but I did manage to follow a pretty strict feeding schedule.  Nap schedule....well not so much!  I "tried" to get on a nap schedule but got overwhelmed and quit before I really gave it a good shot! Lucky for me, Luke decided to take it upon himself and sleep through the night (8pm-8am) just a few days after his 3 month birthday so I didn't have to work too hard to train him in that department either.  I will say, I did start to get a little stressed when I read that others had gotten their newborns to sleep through the night at 7wks,8wks, etc. But once I let that go, he decided he was going to do it on his own anyway.  One thing that I think helped was that after the 3rd night he slept through the night, we moved him to his room where he could sleep in peace in quite and get used to his surroundings.  I remembered my doctor telling me that if I didn't move Luke to his own room by his 3 month birthday or a little bit after, he would probably be there till he was 2yrs old.

One thing that I will probably do different with the next baby is that I will probably never wake them at night to feed once they surpass their birth weight.  I would continuously wake Luke every 3 hours the first two months to make sure he was getting enough to eat.  I now know that he would probably would be just fine if I let him sleep. I probably wouldn't let him go past 5 hours in the beginning but now knowing how precious sleep is in the early months, I would not be crazy enough to wake a sleeping baby every 3 hours.  Ok below I am going to post Luke monthly schedules!

Months 0-2:
7am   -feed
10am- feed
1pm   -feed
4pm   -feed
7pm   -feed
10pm -feed
1am   -feed
4am   -feed

Month 2
* Luke was sleeping 6 1/2 - 8 hrs a night.
*Last feeding - 11:15pm-12am
*Wake up anywhere between 6:45-8:00am
*A few weeks before you were able to do long stretches at night, I would try to feed you a bottle at   12am and let you sleep 4 hours till 4am and then give you at bottle at 4am and then hopefully let you sleep until 7 or 8am.  This way I would only have one middle of the night feeding.  I felt comfortable letting you sleep 4 hr stretches by this point.  I will probably definatly begin letting my next baby sleep 4 hour stretched early than this next time.

Months 3-4:  (5-6 feedings a day- 3 hours apart)
Feedings-                            Naps-
8am                                     9:30am
11am                                   1:30 (I gave him his 2:00pm bottle
2pm                                              before this nap all the time)
5pm                                     5:00 (cat nap 45min -1 hour)
8pm
(12am-1am feeding for a short while until he decided to drop it all together at 13 weeks old.)

*At 4 months old- we added in rice cereal and Oatmeal 2 times a day (Breakfast 9am and Dinner 6pm)

Months 5+:   (4 feedings a day- 4 hours apart)
Feedings-         Food-                                                       Naps-
8am                  Cereal + stage 1 foods 2-3X a day           10am
12pm                                                                                 2pm
4pm                                                                                   5pm cat nap
8pm


* Luke dropped the 5 pm cat nap around 7 months.
* At 7 months we were always doing 3 food meals a day.
* Morning- Oatmeal and Fruit
* Lunch- Fruit and Veg
* Dinner- Rice and Veg
* At 9 months we added in Meat


Number of Feeds/Ounces per feeding/ounces a day:
Baby's Age        Feedings per day   Amount per feeding       over 24hrs
Birth- 1 week           6-10                    2-3 fl oz                    21oz (21-30 oz)
1 wk- 1 month          7-8                      2-4 fl oz                   23 oz (14- 32 oz)
1-3 months                5-6                     4-5 fl oz                    25 oz (20-30 oz)
3-6 months                4-5                     6-8 fl oz                    30 oz (24-35 fl oz)
6-9 months               3-4                      7-8 fl oz                    27 oz (21-32 fl oz)
9-12 months               3                       7-8 fl oz                    23 oz (21-24 fl oz)
*At 9 months old we decided to stick with 4 feedings a day but drop down to 6-8 oz in the bottle.
 8 oz the 1st and 4th bottles & 6 oz during the day.

Next step: dropping bottles and condensing to one nap a day.  Stay tuned after L's first birthday!

Vivi's Finally Home! (5/5/2012)

 

After two years of waiting and praying, the big day was finally here!  Saturday, May 5th was the day that our family went from a family of 12 to a family of 13.  It was the day that Mark and Lynn gained a daughter and Hudson and Brody gained a sister.  We had all prepared for this day for months but no one really knew just how amazing this day would be until we experienced it.  

Here are a few pictures of Vivi's arrival into Knoxville and Meeting all of her family for the first time.  (detailed story to follow later).