Brown County July 2012

The Helm family has had a tradition for a long time of going to Brown County State Park together and staying in the family cabins.  This year almost everyone was able to come, and we had a great time.  Heidi and her family were the only ones not there, and we missed them.  Hopefully we will all be together next year, and maybe on the beach!  

If I'm being really honest, leading up to this week I was excited, but part of me was also dreading it.  As the time came closer to leave, though, I felt like I needed a vacation from normalcy ASAP, so I was ready to go.  I was nervous about almost a whole week with 20 people in 2 cabins getting less than adequate sleep and going almost nonstop during the day, but it actually turned out great!  The first night was a little rough, with Tenley being awake and up from 2-7am, but once she got comfortable in her new surroundings, she slept her normal 12 hours for the remaining 3 nights.  Woohoo!  

I really enjoyed spending time with our great family the whole time.  I am so thankful to have in-laws who accept me without question and unconditionally love me as a sister/daughter of their own.  They are some of my greatest friends and allies - all of them.  Praise the Lord for this incredible support system He has blessed us with.  

This week we hiked, swam, rode horses/ponies, shopped/walked the shops in Nashville, read, talked, cooked, ate, and played games together.  We were wiped out by the end, but it was worth it.  Below are 2 videos of what I believe were Tenley's favorite highlights of the week: riding a pony and going on the big slide!  She had so much fun!

Hayden 6 months

My baby boy is getting big so fast!  Hayden had his 6 month check up today.  It was a little late because of vacation and other scheduling issues, so he is really 6 1/2 months old.  The measurements in the picture above were taken at home the day before he turned 6 months.  He has grown an inch since then, in only 2.5 weeks!  Today he measured 27.5" (77th percentile), 17lbs 12oz (44th), and head circumference of 44.5cm.  This boy is tall!  He is as healthy and happy as ever.  Hayden is not eating any solid foods yet - still nursing exclusively.  Since that is proving to be nourishing and growing him quite well, we will continue with only nursing for at least a couple months more.  Babies get all the nutrition they need from momma's milk through their first year.  I'm not sure if we will wait that long until giving him solid foods, but that is for sure an option. We'll just play it by ear considering what I feel like doing, what Hayden seems to desire, and how his growth progresses.

Hayden is rolling over from back to belly and belly to back, but isn't sitting up yet.  Tenley was sitting up by now, but the doctor said Hayden is still in the normal range of things and we shouldn't be worried about it unless he is still not sitting or having the reflexes that come before sitting (putting your arms out to catch yourself in front and on side) by 8 months or so.  Another thing I asked about was Hayden not wanting to use his legs to support his weight when we stand him up.  He kicks like crazy, and the doctor saw that full well.  He agreed that it may just be that Hayden doesn't really care to stand right now, and it is nothing to worry about because his legs seem to work perfectly fine and his muscles seem good and strong and everything else seems perfectly healthy.

I am not worried about him at all, and right now I am just thanking God every day for keeping my baby boy in this baby stage for as long as possible.  It is so hard to let go of each stage, even though I know I will enjoy the next stages just as much.  Being able to cuddle on Hayden without him running (or crawling, scooting, etc) away fends off baby fever and for that I am thankful.  :)  I think 6 months is one of my absolute favorite ages so far.  They adore Mom and Dad, smile and sleep a lot, learn new things every day, and don't rebel much yet.

Just to compare, at 6 1/2 months Tenley was 25 3/4" (almost 2" shorter) and about 19lbs (almost 1.5lbs more).  Haha!  I don't compare to say that they should be the same, but it is just fun to see how each baby is different in their own little ways.  They are both perfect in this mommy's eyes.

Summer Fun; Potty Training (take 2)

When summer weather comes, we love to spend time outside as a family having fun.  So far this "summer" (even though it's not technically summer yet), we have been to the zoo many times, taken lots of walks, had picnics in our yard, played with sidewalk chalk and toys and books in the backyard, gone swimming a few times, and played in the Boonville splash park. 

Tenley and Hayden both love to be outside.  Tenley is always saying "go, "shoes," "bye-bye," and "stroller" to try to get me to take her outside.  Hayden is also learning to love the outdoors; his favorite things outside are taking walks and laying under a tree with us on a blanket.

swimming together

fun dunking daddy

Tenley and Navy - splash park with cousins

Hayden joining in the fun at the splash park

picnic under our tree

Wesselman's woods with cousin Annie

backyard fun at home

Tenley like to push Hayden in the stroller

Tenley and friend Satori at the zoo

Another thing we tried this week was potty training Tenley.  We tried around 17.5 months and she just wasn't ready physically, but she thought it was fun.  She is 20.5 months now, and we have learned after the last 2 days that she is now physically ready, but just doesn't want to do it.  Hopefully third time will be a charm (whenever that may be), and she will be BOTH mentally and physically ready!  I'm glad we tried, though, and it just helps me know what to watch out for later.  It's a learning process for all of us.  Here is how the day and a half went:
Day 1
9:15 wake
10:30 pee on floor
1:30 start to pee on stool, carry to potty still peeing, finish on potty
2 nap
5:30 wake, dry!, pee on potty
6:15 poop on floor, carry to potty, finish on potty
7:45 pee on floor
8:30 bed

Day 2
8:30 wake
10:30 pee on floor, slip, smack head hard on the floor
Diaper back on!!

My strategy was no diaper or underwear - she was naked from the waist down.  I treated it as something she needed to learn, not something she was doing wrong on purpose.  So I would say "uh-oh" and explain it to her, rather than say "no" and act disappointed or frustrated.  This was harder for Stephen, so I've also learned that it may be better to start on a day he is working next time.  :)  She got a treat (dried fruit) for getting anything in the potty.  I started out trying to take her every 15 minutes, but quickly learned that wasn't going to happen.  She didn't want to, and really didn't need to - she held it for 2-4 hours each time.  So I just took her once or twice every hour, and asked/reminded her MANY times in between.  My conclusion is that she knows how to hold it and knows what we wanted her to do, and I think she could really do it if she wanted to.  But for some reason right now, she has no desire.  It may have to do with the slight jealousy that has been popping up because Hayden is getting bigger and becoming more interactive.  Whatever it is, she isn't ready right now, and that is okay.  We will keep assessing along the way, and when the time is right and she is ready, it will all click!

Hayden 5 months; Tenley 20 months

 

Hayden is 5 months old!  I couldn't get this picture to rotate, but at 5 months, he is 16.5 lbs and 26".  That is funny to me, because Tenley didn't hit 26" until older than 9 months.  At 9 months old, Tenley was 25 3/4", but 19.5 lbs!  That's my little chunker.  :)  Here are pictures of Tenley at 5 months, and Hayden at 5 months.  Neither had started any solid foods at this point - only the same ole breastmilk for both of them.

BIG difference!  haha!!  They probably weigh about the same in these pics, but Hayden is just a lot longer.  It is a little weird for me to have a baby that is so long, but not very mobile.  But I am enjoying every day with my baby boy.  I keep telling him not to grow up so fast, but he's not listening.

His "skinny" legs are the biggest reason I haven't done cloth diapers with Hayden full time yet.  The other reason is I am just lazy and love the convenience of disposables.  But I do honestly try for a couple full days every month or so, and he just leaks probably 4 out of every 5 diapers.  And I like the convenience of disposables too much to spend a ton of time trying to fix this problem yet.  Maybe next month.  :)  Tenley still does great in them, though!

Recently, we got to take our first swim in Grandma and Grandpa Helm's new pool.  It's so pretty and SO much fun!  Tenley wears water wings or a swim vest in the pool, but is too cautious to let go of Mom completely yet.  I am totally okay with that.  She does love to "kick, kick, kick!" though, and when she is feeling brave, she will let me hold her to back float a little bit.

We are also enjoying the outdoors at home.  We go on at least one walk almost every day in our neighborhood.  We also had a picnic last week under the tree.  Tenley and Hayden both enjoy helping me water our plants, although it takes every ounce of self-control within that little girl not to pull flowers and leaves off the plants.  I don't have any recent pictures, but Tenley also enjoys sitting around the fire pit with us in her little pink chair when we fire it up with friends.

I'm not very good at getting pictures of the kids together yet, but here is one that is not completely terrible.  Sometimes I just forget, but mostly this is because Tenley still loves to "explore" Hayden, and if I look away for 1 second while they are close together, she is either trying to poke out his eye or rip out his tongue.  All in love, of course.  :)

Hayden 3-4mo; Tenley 18-19mo

Apparently I forgot to do a post last month!  So I will just combine them into one today.  It seems like time is flying by.  I can't believe Hayden is already 4 months old and Tenley is closer to 2 than she is to 1!

Life with two kids is very different than life with one.  I won't lie, at first it was hard.  I have always needed a good amount of sleep, and when my sleep is broken up by a newborn, and I don't get naps because I also have a toddler, life seems hard.  I felt like that stage would never end.  I found myself almost wishing away Hayden's newborn stage just so I could feel normal and get some sleep again.  Thankfully, we have settled into a comfortable routine, and I am loving being a Mommy of 2!  Although having them 15 months apart probably made the first few weeks with Hayden even harder, I am so glad they are this close in age now.  Don't hear me wrong - Lord-willing, we won't have babies this close together again!  Haha!  But I am so glad the Lord planned Tenley and Hayden with his perfect timing, because these kids are just great.

Hayden took longer to sleep through the night than Tenley did.  I think it had to do with his belly issues.  He was pretty gassy for awhile, and it seemed to upset him quite a bit.  Thankfully, he is past that now, and sleeps through the night like an angel.  Around 3 months old, he was sleeping 9-10 hours at night.  He had a couple weeks where he stretched out his nighttime sleep to 14 hours each night, but now, just past 4 months old, he has settled into a nice 12 hour sleep.  He and Tenley are on the same night sleep schedule: 8-9pm to 8-9am.  Love it.  Hayden is still napping so much right now that I don't even count the naps.  He is on a good eat-wake-sleep-repeat routine throughout the day, and eats about every 2 1/2- 3 hours.

When Hayden was 3 months old, I decided to start running.  The weather outside was unseasonably awesome, and the baby weight was just not coming off so easily like it did with Tenley.  I have always hated - no - loathed running.  Well, the day before I started running I got mastitis.  I am so glad I caught it early and was only sick and good for nothing for 1 day, and that day happened to be one of Stephen's normal days off work.  So I started antibiotics and started running on the same day.  My milk supply dropped noticeably, and I assumed it was because of the antibiotics.  We suffered through those 10 days, and I figured my milk would come right back within a week after finishing the meds.  I drank Mother's Milk tea to give myself a boost and noticed a slight increase, but still not enough.  After struggling through this for awhile, I asked some of my friends for advice and some of them thought the drop in supply could have to do with me exercising.  I was really bummed.  It had taken me 3 full weeks to work up to running a mile without stopping, and then I had to stop.  So I quit working out, except I decided to continue going to Zumba class once a week.  I noticed a very good increase in my milk.  But it still wasn't where it had always been.  Another friend suggested I work on trying to drink more water.  So I decided I would make sure I drank 100+ ounces each day.  I actually drank like 130 the first day.  My milk came back with a force immediately!!!  I was so happy!!  After over a month and a half of feeling like I could never have enough milk to satisfy my baby boy, this was an awesome day.  So now I am drinking water like crazy and peeing every 15 minutes.  Ugh.  But I guess that is a really small price to pay!!  I am still pretty bummed that I did all that work running and I might have to start all over again later.  Man, it felt SO good to be able to run a mile and not hate it.  I actually found myself wanting to run.  That is craziness for me.  I am afraid to start back up again with all the problems I've had with milk supply in the last 2 months, but I will try to start up slowly again soon.

 When Tenley was almost 18 months old, we decided to have a go at the potty training thing.  I was potty trained by 18 months, and I have quite a few friends who have potty trained their children this young or even younger, so we decided to try.  We did one solid day, and that evening I got sick with mastitis.  So we stopped.  I haven't had the motivation to clean up more pee from the floor yet, so we are waiting for awhile longer!!  We did get some cute pictures, though.  For now, we are just talking a lot about the potty, I take her with me, she says bye-bye when I flush, and she knows to wash your hands after you go.  Sometimes she will sit on her potty or the big potty, but she will rarely actually go.  She now like to take her baby to the potty and pretend with her.  The first time she did this, I played along and pretended with her, and after the baby was done on the potty, she took her baby to the pile of diapers and wanted to put a diaper on baby.  I 

 told her no, baby pee-pees in the potty, baby doesn't have a diaper.  I think she understands what pottys are for, but doesn't understand yet that when you go on the potty, you don't get to go in your diaper too - only the potty.  When we do start again, I think she will get it quickly, but I think I will wait another couple months to make sure she is ready.

everything you need for potty training (take 1)

princess underwear

reading on the potty

At the kids' checkups last week, Hayden was 25" long and weighed 15lbs (both 50th percentile), and head circ 42.5cm (75th percentile).  That is all steady with his growth pattern from birth.  (Yes, how lucky was I to push out a 8lb 5oz baby with a big head!?)  Tenley measured 31.5" and weighed 27.6lbs, with head circ 48cm.  Her height is 50th percentile, which is short for her.  But this was the first time they had measured her standing up.  Weight and head is 75-85th percentile, which has always been normal for her.

Tenley is learning new words every day.  I don't keep count anymore.  It seemed like for a very long time, her only word was, "Hi!"  Oh, but she was a pro at saying hi.  Anyone who had ever seen her before knew that.  Ha!  She is now saying and repeating all kinds of words, which also means we have to be very careful about what words we say around her, because she very well might repeat them - a lot!  Her first phrase was "more cheese."  She is so much my child.  I think that is still the favorite phrase for almost every Roehr family member. Tenley eats great - lots of fruits and veggies.  I'm proud to say she is not the picky eater I was when I was a kid.  Good for her.  And she has finally started to enjoy holding my hand when we walk.  I love it.  It used to be impossible to get her to hold my hand, but last week at the hospital, she got to walk through the parking lot and the building all by herself because she would hold my hand like a good big girl.  She is such a good girl.  Sure, she has her moments, but if you ignore her fussing/"tantrum," she stops.  She loves to help me dust, put away dishes, sweep, fold laundry, take care of Hayden, vacuum, organize, etc.  If something is out of place, she quickly corrects it or lets me know and we cannot move on until it has been put in the correct place.  I'm not sure where she got this cleaning gene from, but I like it!!  Hopefully she will still love all of this when she is actually old enough to really help out.

Hayden is finally getting good control of that big ole head of his, and he is such a happy baby.  He laughs and smiles and loves to talk to people.  He loves to kick and punch and grab toys.  He is also trying to roll over from back to belly, but Lord help him when he finally does, because he HATES to be on his tummy!  He will have to learn quick to flip back, or to just stay where he is, or else we could have some interesting nap/nighttimes.

Every day, I am amazed at Tenley and Hayden.  I am amazed at everything they learn.  Not because I think they're not smart, but because I am amazed at how God created them so wonderfully.  Having the two of them around all day constantly reminds me to stop and praise my Creator and Savior for his good work and his grace.  They are both such great gifts from Him.  I am so, so thankful that God chose me to be their Mommy.
                    

Hayden 4 months - he loves baths

Tenley 19 months - playing with her favorite baby doll  

 

Hayden 3mo pics/ Tenley 18mo pics - by Jessie Mason

Hayden Titus: 2 months old!

On Februay 28, Hayden turned 2 months old! He had a doctor's appointment that day and is now 23" and 12lbs 9oz (50th percentile in both areas). I looked up my record on Tenley, and one week before she turned 2 months, she was 22.5" and 12lbs 14oz. Haha, I think that is about the time she started to chunk up!

This month, Hayden has slowly started to fall into a better routine. He still only sleeps about 5 1/2 hours at night, eats, and will go right back down and sleep 3-4 hours more. I am trying to be patient and tell myself this won't last forever. Tenley was sleeping 8-9 hours at this point, so this is a new experience for me. Hayden also eats pretty frequently during the day still. We have gotten into a decent eat/wake/sleep routine, and much of the time he doesn't cry a bit when going down for a nap. But I'd say at least 75% of the time, he wakes up in the middle of his naps. Half the time he will cry himself back to sleep. The other half he won't, and will have to wake up and eat. So depending on how his naps go, he eats every 2-3 hours during the day. Even though this schedule is not what I would call ideal, I will say that Babywise has still helped a lot. If I had not worked with Hayden to get him to fall into a schedule this month, life would be a lot more difficult. He is so unhappy when he doesn't get enough sleep, and I have learned that it is much harder for him to fall asleep and stay asleep if you hold him. He would rather just work it out on his own in his crib! That is very nice for me when we are at home. It causes some issues when we are gone a lot during the day, but I think he will learn to adjust more easily as he gets older.

When he is awake, Hayden is developing such a fun personality. He loves to smile and coo and talk to you! He also loves watching his sister - she is such an interesting character! His favorite toy is the basketball that hangs from his car seat. He could stare at that thing all day I think.

Hayden had his first trip to the zoo yesterday, and slept through the whole thing. He loves the stroller. Tenley had so much fun watching all of the animals. I think the monkeys were her favorite!

Tenley and Hayden are about to go on their first overnight trip. We are going up to Indy to see my Aunt and Grandma. I'm excited to see them and introduce them to Hayden for the 1st time.

Thank you, Aunt Michele!

Last Sunday, Michele gave her old bean bag chair to Tenley. She was a little sad to see it go, but Tenley loves to use it. We added it to her "reading corner" that is filled with pillows. Tenley's eyes lit up right away when she saw it. She ran over and jumped on top of it, and has played on it every day since. Thank you, Aunt Michele!