Ezra's Daddy

Believe it or not, Ezra is ONE today.   Reminiscing over the past year, I can’t help but think of how wonderful his daddy is. 

Fletcher was an absolute rock during a long, difficult labor, not once pressuring me to get meds and supporting the decisions I made.  Massaging and holding me and praying for 17 hours.

He has been nothing but supportive of nursing, never even mentioning formula during the painful first two months, as he knew that would be even more upsetting to me, and he’s completely supportive of nursing until Ezra makes the independent decision to wean himself.

When we’re having a rough night, he’ll get up and rock Ezra back to sleep, even when it takes an hour or more.

He leads our family, prays for and with us every day, and is willing to take leaps of faith that most would think absolutely ridiculous, but absolutely perfect for us. 

He takes time on his days off, the mornings he’s home, and when he gets home from work around 9pm, to just play with his son, give me time to shower, think, read, and have adult conversation with him.  He’s always looking for things we can do as a family.  He has never once said that he'll "babysit" Ezra.  He is his daddy and loves spending time with him when I have a meeting or run errands by myself.

  

He has been a huge cheerleader while I work towards a Labor Doula certification and is encouraging me to get a Certified Professional Midwifery license when the time is right.

He’s my amazing husband and Ezra’s wonderful daddy.  And we both love him so much.

Ezra is One!

Ezra is one today.  I’m gonna say it—this year flew by.  Well, parts of it did.  I never thought we would survive the first month.  Nursing difficulties until week 7, never really catching up on sleep after being awake for close to 36 hours by the time he was born, feeling absolutely zero connection to this creature that wanted to be constantly attached to me until he was right at one month old (no overwhelming feeling of love the moment I held him).  It was exhausting and hard.  But, we lived, my hormones eventually got their act together, and here we are 365 days later.

 So much has happened in the past year.  We moved halfway across the country, back to Virginia, when Ezra was 4 ½ months old.  A week of intense packing (so thankful my cousin was able to come out to be an invaluable extra set of hands, driving 1100 miles in 3 days.  Fun times.

While it wasn't what we were expecting, we were blessed that Fletcher was able to be home full time with us from mid-March until July 1^st.   Ezra and I were a little spoiled with that, and we’re still not used to him being at work all day. 

Ezra has grown like a weed.  He was never tiny, but here’s the year at a glance:

Birth: 8lbs 8.8oz, 20.5in

Discharge: 7lbs 13oz

2 weeks: 9lbs 0oz

8 weeks: 13lbs 10oz, 22.5in

4 months: 17lbs 8oz, 25.75in

6 months: 19lbs 3oz, 28in

9 months: 21lbs 4oz, 29in

12 months: 23lbs 6oz, 30.25in

And what’s going on now:

He’s eating 3 solid meals a day—loves avocado, peaches, chicken, pork chops, scrambled eggs, grits, green beans, corn on the cob, potato wedges, yogurt, cottage cheese, apples, spaghetti, and veggie chips.

He’s nursing an average of 8 times in 24 hours, including 1-3 times at night.  No plans to stop until he decides to wean himself.

He’s taking water from a straw cup.  I haven’t tried pumped milk in the cup, yet.

He’s cruising EVERYWHERE.  He’ll take a few steps between two people, or let go of a wall of the play yard and walk to another wall, usually falling into the other wall to stop himself.

He still loves to look at books and be read to.  He’s a cuddle bug and I like for him to stay that way as long as possible.

We love our baby boy.

Nine Months Old!

I can't believe Ezra is nine months old today.  Time is flying by way too fast.

{I'll have weight and length stats later today}

He started crawling at the beach, at 7m13d.  He has all four central incisors now, too.

We've switched to Baby Led Weaning when it comes to solids.  He despised purees and loves to feed himself.  He still loves avocado and enjoys green beans and chicken, too.  He continues to hate carrots, though.

He's nursing 8-12 times in 24 hours.  Sometimes he'll sleep for 4-5 hours at night before waking the first time, which is glorious whenever it happens.  He's on the move so much during the day that he's only "snacking" and nurses much better at night.

Ezra has been pulling himself up for a while and is cruising everywhere.  He's letting go of things and standing for longer periods of time every day.  He hasn't taken any steps, yet, but we're expecting it any day now.

He said "Dada" first and usually goes into, "Dadadadadada," when he's happy about something.  Up until yesterday, he would only say, "Mama," if he was mad.  He's used it happily a few times now.  And a few days ago we heard, "Nana," which I finally caught on video today.

He also went to his first baseball game last month.

Only three months until his first birthday...yikes.

Ezra- 6 Months Old

Hard to believe we've made it survived blissfully soared through the last six months.  Ezra is growing fast and hitting new milestones quicker than we've been prepared for.

Height: 28 inches (93rd percentile)
Weight: 19 lbs, 3.2 oz (80th percentile)

He's nursing on demand anywhere from every 2-4 hours.  Still won't take more than an ounce from a bottle of pumped milk, so we're just nursing.  Sometimes he'll sleep for a 5 hour stretch at night...other nights he's up every 2 hours.  Keeping me on my toes.

We've "played" with solids a few times and totally skipped rice cereal.  He really likes avocado and pears, and last night he was sucking on an asparagus spear like it was a candy cane.  He's not too sure about bananas.  But we're taking it slow and not rushing anything there.

Every baby book, parent, and pediatrician told us he would roll tummy to back first around 3 months, then back to tummy, and then he might be sitting by 6 months.  He was sitting unassisted at 4 months, 2 days, rolled BACK to tummy at 4 months 16 days, and the stinker held out on rolling tummy to back until 5 months 24 days, just last week on my birthday.  In the last week, he's started pushing himself up on all fours...not crawling, yet, but pretty darn close.

He LOVES books.  Being read to, looking at the pictures...chewing on the corners (trying to stop that before the teeth come through).  We have three songs we sing to him that usually calm him down.  When they don't work, Hush Little Baby (such a weird song when you think about what papa's gonna buy)...and then music from the Baby Einstein World Music album.

He's a really happy baby, except when he isn't.  He doesn't have an "in-between" mood.  He's either all giggles and smiles or in super-mad "my world is ending," mode.  He nurses himself to sleep around 9pm and usually goes down for at least a few hours after that.  At night, he only wakes to nurse.  He's not a "3:45...must be playtime" kind of baby.

The last 6 months have been FULL of learning as we go (as I know the next 20-some years will be), changes (some expected, some not-so-much), late nights, early mornings, and learning how to "be" as a family with a baby.  We'll see what the next 6 months will bring.