7 Months Old

Nursing: Cash is still exclusively breastfed. We decided to do baby led feeding so when Cash can sit up on his own, unsupported and reaches for food on his own, we will give him some solids to try. I’m not in any hurry for him to start solids, but when he is ready we will probably start out with some cooked carrots and avocado. He still loves his mama’s milk though! While we are home Cash likes to nurse every hour or so. He sometimes goes a couple hours, but no more than three hours at a time. Cash is such a curious little boy! He likes to sit up and nurse sometimes and when he is done nursing he likes to flick, twist and/or pinch my nipple. Last week he squeezed it and milk shot out onto his face! Needless to say, he was a bit shocked! Cash also pulls on his ears when he is nursing! It is so precious!

Cloth Diapering: We love cloth diapering! I know it will change when Cash starts solids, but I’m so glad that we decided to use cloth diapers with wool covers. Cash’s Sloomb basewoolies and baseshorties are so much fun and people compliment us on them almost everywhere we go.

Sleep: Cash set his bedtime quite some time ago and he sticks to it for the most part. We change him into his nighttime diaper and knit wool cover around 8:30 and then we nurse to sleep for the night. Cash still wakes to nurse every couple hours but he just needs a little milk to go back to sleep. He will fuss a tiny bit until I help him latch on and then he is completely happy to nurse and go back to sleep. Cash sleeps until 7 AM sometimes 8 AM. As far as napping goes, we don’t have a set schedule. Cash like a morning nap and then a couple small afternoon naps most days. Unfortunately, I still have to lay down with Cash for most of his nap. I have been able to sneak out a few times and he stays asleep for another 15-30 minutes. I’m hoping this changes in the coming months, but for now I’m ok with it. I know that this time will fly by, so I’m trying to cherish every moment.

Likes/Dislikes: Cash has so many things that he likes! He is such a happy baby! He loves anything silly, especially the dogs and their toys! He laughs at the dogs all the time and when I say laugh I mean he REALLY laughs! The dogs like to share their toys with Cash, which he just loves! I feel like the second I take my eye off of him he is sucking on a dog toy! Cash also like to read the newspaper with daddy. Nick will hold Cash on his lap while he is reading the trustee sales and Cash shakes the paper like crazy! He also tried to put the newspaper in his mouth every 2 seconds! When Nick is finished reading a section he lets Cash tear up the whole page!

Another thing Cash loves are our wool dryer balls! He thinks they are better than most of his toys. Harrison likes to steal the wool dryer balls from Cash when he’s not looking!

My mom taught Cash how to smack her water bottle one day and now he likes to hit all of his toys on the ground and on his thigh. He loves it when he hits his wooden toys against the wood floors because it is really loud! I can only imagine all the fun I’m in for with my little busy body!

We are still having a tough time in the car seat, but I think it is getting a little bit better. I would say we have an equal amount of good and bad trips now. As soon as he hits that 15-pound mark we are going to try the toddler car seat to see if that helps. Other than the car seat Cash is pretty easy going

Activities: We try to go to the breastfeeding group at Mother’s Haven on Tuesdays whenever we can. Cash just loves to see all the other babies and he loves to watch them nurse! My friend, Laura, was in town from Utah this week and we got to meet up with her and her other friend Christina (Teeney) at the splash pad at Manito Park. Cash loves seeing baby Finn nurse and really enjoyed watching Liam and Teeney's kids swing and play.

We also try to get together with Katee and Davey once a week. Since Cash and Davey are BFFs they just love to chat it up

Health: Cash weighs about 14 and ½ pounds now. His hair is really growing and his eyes are a grey/blue with hazel centers. He is so close to crawling! When he is on the ground he does a push up with his arms and gets on his tip toes. From here he balances and sometimes gets up on a knee. Even though he isn’t crawling he is rolling like crazy! He rolls from one end of carpet in his room to the other. He can also scoot backwards. Cash is quite the chatterbox. He is always talking to us and has just started saying lots of ma ma ma mas!

Best Moment: Cash just loves to laugh and scream! I feel like this month he has really stated to laugh like a little person! When he finds something funny he just laughs and laughs! My mom was holding him and she when moved Addy’s beaver toy with her foot Cash though it was hilarious! He seriously laughed for 3 or 4 minutes straight! He laughs at the dogs all the time! We also discovered that Cash is super ticklish! His feet and sides are very sensitive and he loves to be tickled. I see many tickle fights in our future!

We are so blessed to have such a happy little boy!

Out First 4th of July 2015

We had a nice relaxing 4^th of July at our home this year. We normally go into Coeur d’Alene to watch the fireworks but decided to just have a low key holiday this year.

We had a nice surprise when Cash’s Auntie Shanna called and told us that she was in town for a surprise visit. We haven’t seen Shanna since Cash’s baby dedication and Cash has been missing his auntie so it was such a nice surprise!

Nick’s family brough the BBQ to us and we barbequed steaks and veggies and enjoyed some yummu caprese salad! After dinner we hung out on the back patio while we passed Cash around from aunti to Gigi to papa.

You can just see the love that both of our families have for our son and there are just no words to describe how amazing it is to see people love our child.

Our First Father's Day 2015

We had a nice first Father’s Day. It didn’t go exactly as I wanted it to, but it ended up being nice nonetheless.

I wanted to make Nick breakfast in bed but he played at church so he was up at 6 AM and Cash was not ready to wake up. Nick went to church and a very fussy Cash and I met hi there for the 11:15 service. Since Cash is a chatterbox we sat out in the lobby for the service and watched it on the TV. After church we went home and I attempted to make an omelet for Nick while I wore Cash in the wrap. I ended up cooking the omelet too long but it was still edible. Cash was so fussy so we laid down for a nap.

After a very long naptime our day turned around. We had my dad and Nick’s dad and mom over for a bbq. Steaks were cooked, beers were consumed (Kombucha for me) and a good time was had. We opened present after dinner and Nick was really touched by the cards that Cash and I picked out for him. We also got him a picture frame with a picture of him holding Cash when he was 6 weeks old and a gift certificate for a 90-minute massage.

I feel so blessed to have such an amazing husband and am so proud of the man and father he has become.

6 Months Old

Nursing: Cash has been exclusively breastfed for 6 whole months now! It’s hard to believe he has been with us for half of a year already! Cash has been pushing the boundaries with nursing this week. He will then lightly bite down on my nipple look up at me as if to sat “Is this ok mama?” Ummmm answer is most definitely NO! Cash has also started to sit up in my lap and nurse. This is just about the most precious thing ever – it makes up for his “bad manners” at the breast this week!!!

Cloth Diapering: Cash consistently poops once a day. Thankfully we haven’t experienced any more nighttime poops. His poop is definitely thicker more often than not. I have slowly been building Cash’s basewoolie stash for the fall and with the 2 recent stockings I was able to score some super cute pairs!

Sleep: I have been working on transitioning Cash to a solo nap time this week. I have tried nursing him to sleep and then laying him down in his crib, but his eyes pop open the second I lay him down. I have also tried laying down in the bed with him to nurse and then slipping out after he is asleep. This works a little better but he only stays asleep for 20 minutes max. He is a great sleeper at night as long as he’s in my arms or on my chest. I don’t sleep too great, but I do sleep better than I did in the beginning so I can’t complain too much.

Likes/Dislikes:  We started reading books and Cash just loves to look at the pictures while we read to him! His two favorite books every night without fail are The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See? He also tries to put every book in his mouth, but that’s no surprise since everything goes in his mouth. Nick also spreads the books our on the wool rug in his room and Cash lays on his tummy and reaches out to play with the books.

Cash just loves the dogs too! He gets so excited when they jump up next to him or lay next to him during tummy time. It so cute to see him get so excited! Unfortunately, he isn’t very gentle with them so we have to really watch his grabby little fingers. We show him how to pet the dogs and then take his hand and help him pet them, but he always tries to grab their fur.

Activities: We celebrated my mom and Tony’s birthdays this week by going to dinner at Angelo’s on Saturday. Cash was happy to be passed around the table and then he fell asleep in the wrap right before our food arrived.

We also ate lunch at Red Lobster and Cash LOVED playing with the bread plate! Nick and I were so entertain by it that we didn’t realize how noisy he was, but luckily the restaurant wasn’t too crowded.

Health: We had our 6-month checkup with Dr. Morical and Cash is healthy and hitting all of his cognitive and emotional checkpoints. He weighed 13 pounds 6 ounces, measured 25 ½ inches and his head circumference was 16 ¼ inches. Her baby scale wasn’t working so his weight was based upon my weight holding him minus my weight not holding him so I’m not sure that it’s super accurate. When I weigh him at Mother’s Haven he weighs more but who knows about the accuracy of each scale.

Cash man is a rolling machine! This boy flips more than a pancake! We lay him down on his back and he immediately flips onto him tummy and pushes himself up with his arms. He also rolls from his tummy to his back. He isn’t crawling yet but we think he’s getting close. He rotates in a complete 360 on both his tummy and back and he scrunches his knees up every once in a while.

Cash’s eyes are still the grey/blue with the hazel center but they are very very pretty! His hair is also finally starting to grow!

Best Moment: Nick played his guitar for Cash this week and Cash was so mesmerized by it! He loved hearing his daddy play the guitar and sing to him! After Nick played several songs I sat next to him and Cash got to strum and “pet” daddy’s guitar. He absolutely loved this! I think he played the guitar with daddy for about 30 minutes. I really hope that Cash grows to love the guitar just as much as his daddy does.

24 & 25 Weeks Old

I came down with a really bad stomach flu that lasted about 5 days so blogging and taking photos were the last things on my mind that week. We have been so busy I simply forgot to post this!

Nursing: We were on a family walk this week and Cash was a little fussy in the wrap so I tried nursing him in the wrap for the first time. It was a success! It was actually way easier than I thought it would be. He nursed a bit and then fell asleep. Easy as pie! I felt like a nursing pro!

Cloth Diapering: Cash normally poops once a day but for some reason he has a pooping spree one day this week. We were all sleeping soundly until Cash decided he was going to wake up and start chatting around 1 AM. I tried to get him to go back to sleep but he was just a chatty Kathy. This quickly turned into fussing and then around 1:30 he pooped! Bu that time we were all awake so Nick helped me change his diaper. It was a H-U-G-E poopy mess! Once Cash had a clean diaper we went back to bed and nursed a little bit. Right around 2:30 AM he was just about asleep when he pooped again! We couldn’t believe it! Once again we were changing his diaper! We had the diaper cream on his little bum and were just about to put his new diaper on when he decided to poop again! It got all over the changing pad cover (because I forgot to put a flat under him) so we put a towel down under him. We wiped him up and started to put diaper cream on when he pooped a fourth time! At this point I was laughing and Cash thought that it was pretty funny too. I looked at Nick and said, “You have to admit, this is pretty funny…” Nick just looked at me and said, “Tomorrow it will be funny.” After the new diaper was on we all went back to bed. By this point it was around 3:30 AM. We were tired the next day but we were able to laugh about the whole thing.

Sleep: Besides the “pooping spree” night, Cash has slept pretty well. He did have another night where he was a bit fussy and I was pretty tired, but in general, he is a great sleeper.

Likes/Dislikes: Cash loves ceiling fans! When we go to Pilgrim’s Market he loves to stare at all the fans on the ceiling. We also have a ceiling fan in our master that he loves to watch. He also likes his 4Moms Rockaroo swing now! He likes the mobile that hangs above him, but I think he really just wants to put it in his mouth. He has even realized that he can reach up and pull it down...he just can't quite get it in his mouth.

Cash is definitely a sensitive little boy. He normally likes other people but if he is tired he just likes to be with his mama and daddy. He may be starting to shows some “fear of strangers” but for the most part he is great with new people.

Activities: Since we had the 3-day weekend we planted our flowerpots around the house. I put a bug beach towel down on the grass for Cash and put all the flowers in front of him to look at. He loved looking at the flowers and he also enjoyed ripping the grass out of the ground.

Health: Cash definitely had a growth spurt! We just switched to some 3-6 month Burt’s Bees jammies and this week we moved up to the 6-9 month jammies. I feel like he only wore the 3-6 month jammies for 2 weeks! It’s just crazy how quickly he is growing. Cash also put his toes in his mouth during a diaper change for the first time. 

I had an awful stomach flu this past week that lasted 5 days! Thank goodness Cash didn't get it! I felt so blessed to have such wonderful hubby this past week. Nick took care of Cash pretty much the whole time I was sick. He is such an amazing daddy! I sure am a lucky lady!

Best Moment: My breastfeeding/teething necklace came this week and it was just in time too! Cash loves the necklace! It was the best $20 purchase ever!