4 Months Old

4 month check up

Isaac is 4 months old! In this past month it has been very busy and filled with lots of holiday fun. Team Tostado is learning so much of what it is to be a family of 3. I am loving this stage of life because it seems like changes are weekly or even daily at time. Isaac had his 4 month check up and our big boy is weighing in at 14lbs 4oz, and he is now 24 3/4" tall. He has come a long ways since birth :) It is amazing to look at his growth over these past months and imagine him growing from the size of a bean in my tummy to a healthy and happy 14lbs baby. According to his pediatrician he is right on schedule with all the milestones and making excellent progress towards the up and coming ones. He sure is a wiggly worm and loving to use his voice. 

Christmas in one word a BLAST!

We are so very blessed to have so much family leaving here in Fremont with us. We got to have multiple celebrations with both sides of the family, and Isaac again proved that he is a party animal. He just loves to be around people and be in the mix of what is going on. I see the way that he looks at his older cousins and if he had a little caption bubble above his head I'm sure it would say, "Hey wait for me...I want to play!!" Celebrating our first Christmas as a family was amazing in many ways. We started a few new traditions with Isaac even though he will not remember next year what they where Eddie and I both just wanted to start them this year. Isaac also impressed us with his skills of unwrapping presents. Most kids his age (and even older) have little to no interest in opening a gift, but Isaac sure does. He will rip and grab at it! Of course being a little one it is limited in how much he can open and do but we sure were impressed. Another thing that he impressed us with was his ability to take a liking to unwrapped gifts. Because he is so little we made no effort to hid his gifts. I just left them in the bags in the front room. Well, to our surprise he kept lunging and reaching for his 49ers pillow pet! So much so that we gave it to him early. He just loves his pillow pet!!This years we also started another extended family tradition, Snow on the Farm. There was so much to do there for any and all ages. It was a great day to get out of the house and hang with the fam. We all had so much fun that we decided for sure this will be a continued tradition that we do each year.

Isaac getting into his stocking

The party animal needed a nap

Not my little traveler he is a little wiggly worm

Isaac has come a long way in the past few weeks, but lets just say that traveling in the car seat is not one of his favorite or even likeable things to do.We have dubbed the car seat his baby jail. This makes trips in the car really interesting, I often see people looking at me at a stop light and they must be thinking "what in the world is that lady doing!??" Because I have come up with various ways to entertain him and try my very best to stop him from crying. We are keeping the hope alive that he will get better with age as that already seems to be the case. 

wiggly boy

I think that the car seat holds him back from what he really wants to do. He loves to be a wiggly worm on the go. He loves to use his body in the ways that he knows how and his newest thing is that he wants to grab everything and put it in his mouth. I know that I am in for it when he is mobile he will be keeping us on our toes at all times. It is so awesome to see his desire to move around and go. He just fully discovered his feet around the 4 month mark. Watching him wiggle and move to grab his feet can keep us entertained for sure. Also as if I didn't have a hard enough time keeping this boys socks on before...now that he can grab them he like to pull them off and then put them in his mouth. So, we mostly like him to stay in his footed pjs and pants. He likes to just hang out on the play mat and wiggle his way around in a slow circle.In the past few days we can tell he is working on getting ready to roll over. If course I am not pushing him I know it will happen when it does so I am keeping the camera at my finger tips these days.

Got my toes!!

Scheduling

I didn't go all out to buy a bunch of books or anything but we have tried to nail down a schedule for Isaac in these past months that I was home. All I can say is...we know who runs our household and its not Mommy and Daddy. In doing some research online I felt that a "Parent led / Baby led" or "Combination Schedule" would work the best for us. At times it sure seems to be more Isaac led than anything, however I don't feel that I am just some slave to my child or that I give in at every whim. I more feel that he is too young to express himself more that in a way that a baby would. So there is no need to punish him for what he cannot understand.

I need sleep

 I can attest that once you have your first baby the "this is what I would do" attitude before you had a child goes right out the window. You really start to understand what they mean by "Every baby is different". Although I can see similarities in stories that I have heard from family and friends about their children or what worked and didn't work; we are still really trying to develop what will work for us. Isaac is not sleeping through the night consistently, which is more physically draining that I could have ever imagined. His napping is almost nonexistent (he takes three 20-45min naps a day) and he is proving himself to be our little turbo baby. I don't want to make it sound like he never sleeps because he does. He usually goes down around 7:30pm and then is ready to get out of bed and play around 8 or 9am. He is somewhat predictable just not always the same everyday yet. Another thing that we are hoping will work itself out in the months to come.

Breakthroughs and Break Downs with Breastfeeding

Direct quote from a stranger -"Those are some nursing cheeks"

Finally after several weeks of feeling like we would never get there Isaac is exclusively been nursing since 6weeks. I must admit like most who nurse there little ones that it is much easier than a bottle in many ways. It comes in handy during those midnight feedings when the thought of getting out of bed just seems impossible, there is no wasted ounces left over, and if he get hungry I can just feed him with out any fuss. I also must admit that it gives me joy that one item from my original plan did work! But, nursing him did not come easy. Some women have told me there stories of how easy it was, and I have heard the horror stories from some as well. I would place myself in the middle of the road. It sure wasn't the easiest thing to get him to nurse but it was by no mean so traumatizing that I wouldn't go through it all over again. There are the breakdown moments with breastfeeding too! It isn't all easy go all the time. We have been battling Thrush for the last month and a half (NOT FUN), he is refusing a bottle which makes it darn near impossible for me to be away from him for more than 4 hours, and feeding outside the home are not as easy as a bottle eventhough I am slowly but surely getting use to feeding him in public with my nursing cover. I could go on and on about this topic and do plan to dedicate an entire blog to this topic in the near
future.
 
Back to work

I working again or I should actually say I'm back to work outside the home. January 2nd I returned to work with completely mixed emotions.I'm not full time, but it is the most time that I have ever been away from my little man. At first I  thought there was something wrong with me because everyone said, "oh you'll cry and break down at work" and well...I didn't.. I did cry the first day on my way to drop him off but since then I haven't. This leaves me a bit shocked because usually I am the one always crying. I know that because I didn't cry it doesn't make me a 'bad mom' and that it doesn't make me miss Isaac any less its just another lesson learned in the adjustment of parenthood. Maybe it would be a different story if had returned full time. The goal is to get back to full time work but that will be a slow process. When we thought it was all figured out for who would watch Isaac my Mom was rushed to the ER and had an emergency  surgery to have a pacemaker installed. Praise the Lord she is at home healing and getting better and stronger with each passing day. In many ways this is a blessing in disguise. We have been hounding my Mom to go get checked out for some dizzy spells she had been having and although I am happy to be back working I have missed Isaac and being a Mommy at home. We have yet to get it all figured out on what to do but we are also blessed with wonderful friends and family that will help out when they can and our jobs are very understanding and working with us the best they can.

What a way to start out a new year! I am excited for all that is to come and what the Lord has planed for us. This has really been a time of trust and patience and I hold fast to God's word. Things that we are looking forward to in the coming month are: More moving and grooving from the Isaac, starting solids and Isaac learning to take the bottle, going to see Daddy coach bball for MSJ, and cousin Fiona turning 1.