Crawling just wasn't good enough.

About 3 days after Reuben turned 8 months old, he decided that crawling didn't quite get him where he needed to go. He now climbs on everything. He is pulling himself up by the sofa and the stair gates, trying to climb the stairs, and CONSTANTLY using ME as a climbing frame. It's a little annoying. haha. He is SO cute and SO happy lately. However, I'm sure at this rate he will be walking well before 10 months. He has no fear. He pulls himself up and stands holding on by one hand to the stair gate, then just LETS GO. Needless to say he has lots of bumps and bruises already - he doesn't quite understand that he can't walk yet!!

I have about 3000 photos to upload from the last 2 weeks. He is so much fun and WAY too cute.

Oh, and last night he slept 8:30-11:30, 11:45-5:20. PERFECT. This is the second time in 2 weeks that he's "slept through the night" (Technically 12am-5am is sleeping through the night. It was a good thing too because I was beyond exhausted last night and went to bed at 11pm.

It's very strange going to get him from his crib to see him standing there wanting to be picked up.

Seriously, where did my baby go?

Happy 8 Months Reuben Matthew!

(Ok, so he was 8 months yesterday, but these photos are from yesterday!)

And to top it off, he is doing much better - last night he slept SO WELL in comparison to the last couple weeks. I only fed him twice in the night, and he slept 9-something to 1:30, and though he woke up a couple other times he slept 5-something (I didn't look at the clock) until 7:45am which is the latest he has EVER slept. I think he's just catching up on all the sleep he has missed in the last three nights. Either way, I woke up before him this morning at 7:05 wondering if I had overdosed him or something. I went and checked on him though and he was breathing sleeping happily away!

Love my little man SO much. And he's napping right now. JOY. <3

8 Months Ago Today....

...at this very moment, I was getting ready to go into the hospital. I had no idea what my future held - except that I was soon going to be a mommy! 8 months later, I am the very, very proud mommy of the most beautiful, amazing little boy I've ever met.

The last 8 months have not been easy. They have been challenging in so many respects. In fact, one of the biggest challenges yet has been in the last few days. Reuben has a bacterial infection and has been miserable for two days last night Adam and I took one-hour shifts rocking him as he dozed. I got up this morning after a night of 3 hours of broken sleep. Out of all the times I have said "I'm exhausted," nothing quite compares to how I feel right now. I dread how much sleep I am not going to get tonight. But, I am so proud and so very lucky to be taking care of my beautiful boy. What a priviledge it is.


In the last month, Reuben has changed SO much. He is now crawling ALL over the place - getting into everything, opening drawers and doors and pulling things off shelves. He is very, very giggly and ticklish which I LOVE. His hair is growing at a rapid pace, which is hilarious. He has the emo "side-sweep." hahah.

He is now eating more, feeding himself sandwiches and baby cookies. He eats most things now but isn't really as big of an eater as I had anticipated. I'm still breastfeeding and he seems to prefer milk to food at the moment, which I've just been told that all babies are different and some take a little longer to want to eat. He's not very big for his age - he was weighed last week and hes 17lbs 4oz - but the health visitor said it's because he's so active! Very understandable, he NEVER wants to sit still.

So what have we done in the last month?

We...


Went to the Beach






Had our first sandwich!





Went on a picnic with our friends Laura and Amelia







And my FAVORITE: We went to Tropiquaria as a Mother's Day gift!! So much fun.










It's been a good month, and I am thoroughly enjoying spending time with my rapidly growing little boy! I am so proud of him and amazed at how quickly he learns things. He's become quite the little cling-on though, always crawling towards me and grabbing my legs. When I pick him up he gives me the biggest hug, I love it!!

7 Months Old!

7 Months. SEVEN. I'm pretty sure that once a baby turns anything past 6 months old, they are getting big. How has time gone by so quickly? Before I know it, it will be his birthday. Oh my little baby where have you gone!?




In the last month, SO many things have changed.

First off, we went to America. I tried not to get too stressed about the flight but I think that on the first journey - the way there - this was unavoidable. I was so nervous that his ears would hurt, slightly nervous that he'd scream the whole way, and scared at the thought of me not getting ANY sleep (it was an overnight flight.) It didn't go ALL bad - the most difficult part was (other than the bus ride TO the airport) the first 15 minutes before take-off. Reuben does not like sitting still and waiting! I got really frustrated/flustered at my squiggly crying baby on my lap, but once that was overwith he slept on and off the whole way with only one or two tantrums. We landed and were greeted by some wonderful friends, Jenny and Jimmy and their BEAUTIFUL little girl, Lizzy, who is 10 months old. Reuben has a lot of girlfriends and Lizzy is definitely one of them. Our friends drove us back home, to South Portland, and our "vacation" commenced. Vacation MY BUTT. The second day we were there, all of us were sick with something. Adam was throwing up, my throat was on fire and Reuben was coughing up a lung. By day 5, we took Reuben to the doctor and it was confirmed that he had bronchiolitus - a respiratory virus which lasted exactly 2 weeks. Yay. He stayed sick until the day we returned the England. Fortunately towards the end of it he was smiling a bit more and my family and friends got to see him more himself than he was in the beginning!


Reuben and Lizzy playing!



The trip as a whole - while not perfect, a lot of plans got changed or didn't happen, we were sick, and my nana ended up in the hospital (she's doing better now though), was good. I was so happy for my little boy to meet his Uncle Joe and Auntie Julie, his cousins Amelia and Andrew, his Uncle Ed and his Great Nana. He also got to meet literally about 100 of my friends. It was an insane couple of weeks but we enjoyed it as much as we possibly could.




On the way home, the flight was not NEARLY as bad. It was probably the best flight I've ever had, with or without a baby. It was really relaxed and before we got the the airport we went and visited our friends Ashley and Eric and their incredibly beautiful little girl, Addi. She's another one of Reuben's girlfriends. It was so much fun seeing them, we took pictures which you can see at http://ashsarconfess.blogspot.com. After our visit we headed for the airport and Reuben was PERFECT on the flight. All was as perfect as could be and we are so glad to be home. Only bad part of the flight was my losing my cell phone. Blah.


Ashley, Addi, Reuben and I.

Okay. That's one thing thats happened in the last month. But for Reuben, developmentally, he has changed drastically! While his sleep was destroyed by time differences and jetlag, he is doing much better. At night he doesn't need me to rock him back to sleep after I feed him. He is going to bed at his normal time (around 7pm), and his daytime naps are much more regular - which is a HUGE stress relief for me. I'm still working on getting his naps to MORE than 35-45 minutes at a time, but I know we'll get there.

Reuben can move now. He can get up on his knees and "rock", and he can crawl in a circle and backwards. That whole "moving forward" is overrated anyways (we'll get there someday!)

He is sitting up completely on his own now. He is so much more independant than he was even 3 weeks ago, which is crazy.

He is now eating anything! While we were in America I gave him some squash (yes, the VEGETABLE) and he LIKED it! It was a miracle. haha. When we got back last week, I offered him some mixed vegetables and what did he do? Ate all of it! Since then he has been having and enjoying everything. Squash, sweet potato, parsnip, peas, any fruit still, and more. He even had pureed pasta with zucchini and tomato the other day. I don't know what happened or why he all of a sudden decided to like stuff but I won't complain! So happy to have gotten through that phase without a battle.

I think that's all for now, I must get going - I'm trying to get the little nugget to take a nap. He must know that I'm saying good things about him - he's refusing to sleep.

Until next time!

6 Months Old!

I meant to post yesterday on Reuben's 6 month birthday but just didn't have a chance! We did spend yesterday taking some photos which was fun and then our friend Amanda took Reuben for 2 hours while we packed our things for the States! It was an incredibly productive 2 hours.

Reuben got home around 5:15 and we had dinner, played, had a bath then story and he was in bed asleep by 6:15. The night wasn't great but not horrible either. I'm still exhausted but I feel like he is making progress - for the last few days he has been having long afternoon naps and sleeping 3 hours at a time during the night. Last night wasn't AS good - but it was still like this:

6:15-9:00pm
9:15-11:00pm
11:30-3:00am
3:30-5:30am

We were then up for a while then he had another 30-40 minute nap around 7. I did some reading online about "breaking the overtired cycle" and everyone says to put them to bed really early so thats what I've been doing. It has helped in the fact that he now has long afternoon naps and like I said, is sleeping in longer chunks at night. He is now waking up because he is hungry and not for no reason like he was before!

We've also got him "Ewan the Dream Sheep" which is a stuffed sheep which plays 4 different sounds with a heartbeat - womb, rain, vaccuum, and lullabies. He does seem to calm down with it (it makes REAL womb noises, which is really cool).

This morning at around 10 Adam and I went out and finished shopping for our trip. We got some last minute gifts and things to bring to the States with us, and Reuben fell asleep for 30 minutes. He woke up for about 15 minutes and now he is asleep again! Been down for about 30 minutes now and still snoring away :)

As far as hitting his developmental milestones, Reuben is doing well! He can now sit up on his own for quite a few minutes at a time. He picks up objects and throws them then looks at them. This morning he was holding onto my legs and standing!! He turns to the sound of voices/his name.

Feeding Reuben solids continues to be fun and challenging! He is very picky but is enjoying Baby Led Weaning. He had some jam on toast this morning (just a tiny peice..way too much sugar in there...haha) and I let him taste some cream cheese too. He had some fruit for breakfast though..typical.


What else? Not much other than heading to the states in just FOUR days. I am ready to go. I am ready for my little munchkin to meet all the people in his life that already love him before they have even met him!

26 Weeks / 6 Months - Holy Cow!

Every week goes by so quickly, but I never know where to start! Reuben is learning new things at a rapid pace. Getting more and more able to move around while he's on the floor, but not crawling yet though he is desperate to!

His sleeping is getting better, I think. I did some reading online on how to break the "overtired cycle" - and everyone says to put them to bed really early. So I've been getting him to bed around 6:30-7:00, with trying to encourage naps all day, any time he is tired. So far it SEEMS to be working as he slept 7pm-10pm, 10:30-1:15, and 1:45-5:10 this morning!! He then slept another hour in bed next to me. This is really good, considering he's been getting up every hour or so (sometimes less) in the last 2 weeks.

A BIG event this week - we left Reuben with a friend for the first time! On saturday we left him with our friend Sarah for 2 1/2 hours while we went out to lunch. It was so strange to be without him, but I have to say I really really enjoyed spending time with my husband! It was as if we had never been on a date before though, haha. On top of the wonderful meal, he leaned over to kiss me and POOF he put a box on the table ... he bought me a beautiful necklace for valentines day! Yes, I admit I've been pleading for a necklace for a long time but I had given up hope of ever getting one..haha. We had such a fun day! Then on Sunday, our friend Karen watched him for 3 hours. We went out for coffee then went home, snuggled on the sofa and watched a movie (Cemetary Junction - REALLY good!) I have to say that I could get used to this life! So easy. And it gave me time to miss my little man!

Reuben's also started eating some new foods! We've taken to "Baby Led Weaning" - where basically I just give him foods and he explores them/eats them. It's fun, messy, and highly ineffective and nearly none of the food actually gets digested. haha. So far he loves toast, and can't get any scrambled eggs into his mouth. I'm going to try making him an omelet later in the week and cut it into strips for him. He has so much fun with it :)

And the biggest news at the moment is that we are leaving for the States in just one week from today!! I'm trying not to get stressed out about the traveling - it will be whatever it will be. In a way I'm planning for the worst but I don't think my mind can really comprehend how bad it could end up being...haha. Oh well, I cannot WAIT until we get there. I am going to hug my mom and dad like they have never been hugged before!!!!

I think that's all for now. I won't be updating for a couple weeks - next time I am on here my little boy will be a week away from 7 months old. Holy moly.

25 Weeks and a lot of changes!

Reuben is 25 weeks old tomorrow. This is insane.

Anyways, in the past week it's like he has just all of a sudden learned so much! He is rolling around with such ease. He's reaching for things, passing things between hands, blowing raspberries, and sitting on his own. He is enjoying being on his tummy a lot more lately as well.

His nighttimes are still difficult, though last night he slept 3 hours, 3 hours, 2 hours 15 minutes, an hour and a half, then an hour. This might sound rough but it was the best night he has had in several weeks. He was getting up every hour - I actually felt refreshed today. haha.

His bedtime routine is lots of fun. I don't know if I already wrote about it before but I'm loving it. At 5pm he has dinner (which is now a mix of vegetables and fruit - I've tricked him!) We then play for a while. At 6pm we have a bath, then get our pj's on, I give him a quick massage with Johnson's bedtime lotion (I swear it actually helps). We then have storytime (currently reading through "Old MacDonald's Farmyard Tales). After that we go into his room, put James Taylor on the record player and I rock him to sleep. Tonight and last night I've rocked him to sleep without a dummy which is awesome. I then put him in his crib before he's actually asleep and just rub his tummy til he falls completely asleep. Then he gets swaddled and I've been leaving the radio on although I haven't done that tonight - we'll see if it makes it worse I guess!

I LOVE evenings. I think he likes the consistency of it and I know I do. From 5pm I never have to think, "What do I do with him now?" and I like that. It eases a lot of stress. I do wish he was going to bed later than 7:15 but it will do for now!

This morning there was a new milestone as well. I was laying in bed and Adam got up with him and I could overheard him changing his diaper. I heard Adam shout "oh my!" to Reuben and I assumed he just had a big poo. It was true. He had a big poo. But it was not a baby poo! He had a REAL one. haha. I feel a little mournful to his baby poos which I find amusing, but it's just another thing proving that he isn't a newborn anymore which is a little sad.

I love my little man. This mom/parenthood thing is definitely hard work - much harder than I had imagined. I love it more every day though. It's so amazing to see a little person Adam and I created learning and developing, growing into a little man. Crazy stuff.