The Baylor Family Blog

Though I haven’t been successful getting a sibling shot with all of their faces, I’ve managed to get quite a few combinations with two of them! Enjoy…

Finding the time, energy, and motivation to blog is a bit hard right now. I’m afraid, my third is going to get shorted in the number of blog posts he gets as a babe. Hopefully he’ll find it in his heart to forgive me!

Micah is almost two months old! His 2-month check up is on Monday, along with Abi’s 18-month check up. So I figure I better try to catch up a little on his first two months of life.

I don’t exactly want to place a label on him, but Micah has turned out to be a bit more on the fussy side. He really likes to be held and likes movement. He actually prefers to be held with movement if at all possible. He doesn’t sleep well in a crib or bassinet, simply because its not moving. Thankfully, we have a swing, which buys us a few moments of not holding him and some sleep at night!

He isn’t exactly on a schedule at the moment, but tends to feed every 2-4 hours in general. He is still nursing well and appears to be satisfied and gaining weight well. He has done well taking a bottle several times and doesn’t seem to have any trouble switching between the bottle and nursing.

Micah has great head control and loves being on his tummy. I’m pretty sure the kid will end up as a tummy sleeper, though we still have him on his back until he gets stronger.

Micah isn’t a fan of his car seat and makes a loud announcement every time the car stops at a stop sign or stop light. Its wonderful. Thankfully, the moving car usually calms him right down. My best bet getting out with the kids is putting Micah in the baby bjorn. He is cozy and happy and goes right to sleep. If I leave him in his car seat and the shopping cart or stroller stops moving, he tends to cry.

He is having some short moments of happy awake time and is just starting to have an occasional smile. Its super cute. I feel like I hardly have any pictures of the kid. Every time he is content, I want to snap a picture. Unfortunately, he dislikes the flash and it makes him cry. So I’m learning to keep those moments to myself and not take a picture!

Micah started in newborn diapers. Around a month, he moved up to size 1 diapers and is still wearing size 1. He was in preemie clothes for about 2 weeks, then moved up to newborn, which is still mainly wearing. He has some summer rompers that are 0-3 months that he wears, too. They are more like pants than shorts, but it works! I bought the smallest summer hat I could find before he was born, but its still HUGE on him. Oh well. I just spray his head with sunscreen when we are out!

Micah hasn’t shown any signs at this point of a cow’s milk allergy, like his older two siblings. That being said, he still seems to have some digestive woes that make him appear uncomfortable. We’ve started giving him a dairy-free probiotic, and it seems to really help him. Its a pain to give (and I’m sure Micah would add it tastes terrible), so we are trying to find out the least number of times necessary to give it, but still keep Micah as comfortable as possible.

Though Micah rarely spits up and when he does its only the size of a quarter at best, he does seem to have some choking/coughing episodes after feeds occasionally. We haven’t been overly concerned, but we are considering starting him on some medication for reflux to see if that might decrease some of his fussiness and make him more comfortable.

Micah has been spoiled with lots and lots of DIAPERS! He may not appreciate the gift as much his parents, but we’ve been very blessed to not have to spend much on diapers and still have plenty left to use! Matt’s parents threw a diaper party for Micah. Each of our kids got a matching teddy bear, as well, that was a huge hit. Eli, especially, has enjoyed dressing his bear with Micah’s outgrown clothing! Though we had the camera, I managed not to take any pictures of Micah meeting his great grandparents and great aunt and great uncles. Opps.

Hmmm. After reading this it sounds like we have a super fussy baby. But I also want to add, he has some very cute and sweet moments, too. The fussiness seems to go in cycles, and there are days that he is as sweet as can be. We are still figuring our new little guy out. You’d think by the time we had a third the process would go faster! We love Micah and are so happy to have this little guy in our family!

Abi Joy is now 17 months, just shy of a year and a half old. Somewhere along these months, she seems so much less like a baby and so much more like a little girl.

She is loving exploring the outdoors and is walking so much better than a month ago! There are moments she wants a finger for security to hold while walking, and there are other moments where she announces her independence and refuses to hold anyone’s hand. Abi is enjoying touching trees, rocks, grass, water, flowers and so much more.

Abi loves to eat paper. I have no idea why. Any piece of paper, envelope, kleenex, or toilet paper is now something we have to keep out of Abi’s reach. For a while, she was even opening trash cans looking for paper to eat. Gross! A couple weeks ago, she even ate Matt’s paycheck. While Matt and I were cleaning up after dinner, Eli loudly announced, “Abi is eating something that she really shouldn’t be eating! Help!” And sure enough, most of Matt’s paycheck was being digested by our little girl.

Abi enjoys carrying around a pink purse and filling it with treasures in the house. She plays with the shape sorter, but only the circle shape. She likes to hold a ball when she is in her car seat travelling around town. She is starting to enjoy being read to, but only books that have a couple words per page. She recently has started chomping on books, too, as several books now are missing corners. She has been going around opening her own and her brothers’ drawers taking out clothes and trying to put them on. She also loves shoes and can entertain herself playing with shoes for a long time! She is also quite fond of trying on hats, too.

Speaking of shoes, we recently bought her a pair of summer sandals in size 2. I thought she would surely need size 3, but they were quite big on her. She definitely has some small feet. She is wearing a combination of 12 month and 18 month clothes and seems to be growing like a weed at the moment. She has her 4 front teeth and two molars on the top. She seems to go in teething spurts frequently, but at the moment appears to be comfortable. And she LOVES to brush her teeth. Its another of her favorite past-times.

Our sweet little girl enjoys giving kisses, one on each cheek, followed by a “mah” sound. She’ll put her head on our shoulder, clinging to her blankey, and say “nigh nigh.” Very sweet. She is still taking two naps a day, a one hour nap at 9 in the morning and a 1.5-2 hour nap at 1 in the afternoon. She is still doing great in her twin bed, surrounded by lots of pillows and stuffed animals. Before sleep, she lays down in bed and drinks a bottle, then turns over and goes to sleep when she is done.

Her most favorite song at the moment is Itsy Bitsy Spider. While I’m nursing Micah, she is often standing right in front of me, so I often sing songs to her. She tries and does the motions to Itsy Bitsy Spider and its so cute! She is learning new words everyday and is very willing to imitate sounds. She has the sweetest voice right now…I don’t want it to ever change!

As for her new baby brother, Abi likes to pat his head and tickle his toes. She always makes sure there is a place on mommy’s lap whenever I am holding Micah. She absolutely refuses to try and hold him, immediately pushing him away and saying, “No!” We’ll give her some space for now! She is very curious of his equipment, like his swing, bouncy seat, car seat, etc. and loves to try them out. She loves to “rock” Micah in his swing, too.

Eating-wise, Abi continues to only eat a handful of foods. She isn’t very interested in trying new things, either. We are offering her new foods, but not fretting when she refuses them. Some of her favorite foods right now are fruit (she’ll eat most fruit), raisins, cheesy puffs, cheese, and pretzels. I’ve never been successful with getting her to eat any vegetable. Oh well. She still primarily drinks water and milk out of a bottle, though we continue to keep sippy cups near her. We’ve tried to take the bottle away since Micah was born, and that was a complete failure once again. Oh well. Hopefully it will work out in time.

Abi continues to bring so much joy to our family. I don’t think we could have picked out a more appropriate middle name!!

Eli is thoroughly enjoying his fourth summer! More days than not, he is wearing his swimsuit it seems.  He’ll start in play clothes and end up playing in water. Eventually he’ll decide he doesn’t want to be in wet play clothes and strips down in the back yard, asking for his swimsuit.

The other day, he decided he wanted to paint his bug house that he made at a Home Depot Kids Workshop. While his two younger siblings were sleeping, I brought paint and brushes outside and he got to paint with “real” paint for the first time. He was quite proud. He also still loves to paint with water colors.

I recently picked up some finger paint, too, so we’ll be trying our “fingers” at that pretty soon. I love doing messy things outside and then running over to the sprinkler or water table to clean up! Eli has disliked being “dirty,” but is slowly warming up to “messy” crafts. Its good for the kid and lots of fun!

One of Eli’s favorite outside toys this summer is the watering can. He loves to fill it up and water everything (trees, flowers, grass, sprinklers, concrete). He recently started filling it up with rocks, too. He gets lots of entertainment from the cheap plastic toy!

Matt recently pulled out the fountain for the kids to play in. The kids enjoyed filling the fountain with rocks and splashing.

This is a picture of Eli jumping up and down on the water table. It wasn’t exactly safe. So I quickly took a few pictures before instructing him to get down and not climb on the water table again.

Eli still has lots of fun with his imaginary friends, Dude and Ream. Matt and I often have the opportunity to interact with them as well! Eli also enjoys driving around in the Cozy Coupe shopping and visiting the mechanic.

Eli had a blast this morning at a preschool event at church. He came home telling me all the fun activities he got to do. It really encourages me that preschool will be a good thing for him come this fall. He seems to thrive off the structured social interaction!

Eli is participating for the first time in the library’s summer reading program. He gets so excited wanting to read lots of books in a row so he can color in rain drops and earn prizes. He begs to go to the library. Its been fun! His latest obsession is Arthur books. We recently found a book by Arthur’s little sister about preschool that Eli is very fond of, too!

Eli has surprised me with how kind and gentle he has been with his new baby brother. When Micah is crying, Eli will lean over him and hold his hand whispering, “Its okay Baby Micah. I love you.” Its so sweet. And it often calms Micah down. Eli also enjoys doing tummy time with Micah, too. Eli is very curious about what Micah is doing, and doesn’t seem to fight for my time when I’m caring for his little brother.

His kind behavior doesn’t always translate towards his little sister, but I’ll take whatever I can get! Some days he seems to do great. Other days, his three-year-old behavior is so evident, as he intentionally goes around disobeying and breaking as many rules as he can. Its hard to be patient and know how to handle him when he goes on a rampage. Fortunately, not all days are like that!

Regardless of the hard days, Eli sure is growing into an energetic, articulate, and smart little guy!

Wow. I have three kids now.
Three very cute kids, I might add.

When did my baby girl get so big?

And when did my big boy find his nurturing side?
I’m very blessed.

The temperature hit 90 degrees earlier this week, so Matt pulled the pool out for the kids to have some fun in the water. We all enjoyed lots of time outside. Its been so nice to be together as a family!

Have I mentioned lately that Eli LOVES swimming? This kid had a huge smile on his face most of the day!

Abi splashed in the water for a few minutes before going off to explore the backyard. She quickly found a bowl of snacks and plopped down to enjoy!

Micah enjoyed soaking up the rays during one of his many naps. This was also therapy for helping keep his bilirubin under control!

We also enjoyed a picnic lunch outside.

Abi was amused by the fact that Micah was “wearing” a hat, too.

She then showed Micah her trick of taking her hat off. Of course, she helped Micah take his hat off, too. What a helper…ha!

After being stuck in the house with sick kids and a baby on bili lights, we took a desparately needed outing as a family to Garden of the Gods, or as Eli calls it, “The Rock Park.” Eli and Abi loved playing in the rocks and dirt. Micah pretty much slept through our outing. Matt and I enjoyed getting a little fresh air! We also managed to get our first family photo as a family of five! Enjoy the pictures!

Abi had another molar cut through…

and she’s not very happy

about it.

Poor girl

As of today, Micah now has a belly button! To celebrate, we bathed all three kids together in the bath tub tonight! Although shocked at first by being placed in water, Micah quickly calmed down and was very content during his bath!

Micah had two very curious siblings, both of which behaved very well during bath time! Eli and Abi earned lots of bubbles in the tub after Micah was done!

We noticed Micah was getting fussy and starting to turn yellow again, warranting a call to the pediatrician on Tuesday. She ordered another bilirubin lab, which came back just below 12. Instead of bili lights, the doctor ordered for us to undress Micah and bring him outside a couple times a day for 20 minutes. He does seem less jaundiced, so it appears to be helping! You can see the yellow in his eyes in the picture below.

Just over three years ago, Eli was born weighing 4 pounds, 15 ounces. We took a picture of him next to a Nalgene bottle to show how little he was.

We decided to do a similar shot of Micah and the Nalgene bottle, too. Micah weighed 6 pounds 3 ounces at birth.

It probably has something to do with the angle of the shot, but I think Micah looks smaller than Eli. But don’t worry, he’s almost a pound and a half bigger than his brother was!