LUCA THE LION // 8 MONTH UPDATE

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LUCA AT EIGHT MONTHS

Okay, I am completely ONE month behind...lols. He'll actually be 9 months tomorrow!! I have all the 9 month info, fresh in my mind and I'll be getting that post out soon but I'll do my best to try to remember last month, ha!

Here's the Lion's 8 month update:

WEIGHT: 20 lbs
We just had him weighed this week at the doctor and he was 21.5 lbs! So I'm going to guess he was around 20 at 8 months.

HEIGHT: 28 inches
My little baby is no longer a little baby :( 

WEARS: Size 9, or 12 month clothes!

SLEEPS: Ohhh at 8 months, I'd say he went through a bit of a regression. It wasn't terrible but he started waking up at about 5am. We also had international students staying with us, so we felt a bit bad about doing our normal CIO method....thankfully it's resolved and he's gone back to sleeping 6:30-6:30...PS...I'm sooo excited about the time change this weekend!! Really hoping he'll go to 7:30-7:30!!!

EATS: He loves, loves, loves food. Seriously, it is his favourite thing. He still feeds from me but real food is his deal. He'll eat whatever we give him, it's amazing!

HIGHS: Oh gosh, I'm trying to remember last month, but my mind is such a blur, ha sorry! Oh, his separation anxiety calmed down, so that was amazing! I went away at the end of January and James took care of him and he did so well! We also got to go to our church's couple's retreat and my mom had him...other than waking up at 4 am for a quick diaper change, he did amazing!

LOWS: The waking up at 5am (one day it was 4:30am) was super wearing on me! That was definitely not my favourite part but thankfully he's over that for now!

Sorry for the short update, just wanted to get this out before he turns 9 months old tomorrow!! But I'll be back soon with his 9 month update!

XOXO!
Laura

MAMA + SON PHOTOSHOOT

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Have you seen the movie Lion? I saw it this weekend and OH MY HEART...bring kleenex because you will be crying multiple times throughout it! It's a heart wrenching (but also happy story) about a little boy who gets lost in India. So many things stood out to me in the movie (Nicole Kidman's monologue about adoption, was one for the books) but a huge thing that I couldn't stop thinking about was the relationship between the little boy and his mom....such incredible, beautiful love that still haunted the son 25 years later (PS. Find out more about the movie and how you can help street children in India here). 

I know I can only speak out of my own experience but man, there is something so treasured between a mama + son. This little guy has completely captured my heart in the best of ways and I'm so thankful that my friend and amazing photographer Rachael captured mine and Luca's relationship so beautifully! I will treasure these photos forever!!!!

Thank you Rachael so much for capturing these precious moments!!! If you're local to Victoria and looking for a photographer, I HIGHLY recommend Rachael...so professional, lovely and friendly! You will love her!

Outfit details:

Mama- Top (Joe Fresh last season but here's a similar one on sale!), Jeans (Citizens of Humanity a few years back but here's a similar pair)
Baby Boy- Top (Target), Jeans (Oshkosh B'Gosh consigned from Thistle & Wren), Shoes (Joe Fresh, sold out but you can still get the navy ones on sale!)

XO,
Laura

LUCA THE LION // 7 MONTH UPDATE

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LUCA AT SEVEN MONTHS

And just like that, our baby is seven months. Seven months and becoming such a little BOY! I held a 7lb baby the other day and just about died of cuteness overload...and to think Luca was once 7lbs...(!!!!!!!) (I wrote half of this earlier this month but then time got away from me...so some of my answers may be a bit dated!!)
Here's the Lion's 7 month update:

WEIGHT: 18.7 lbs
Our next doctor's appointment isn't until he's 9 months so I'm guessing on our home scale. I think he's around 18-19lbs...he's getting up there!!

HEIGHT: 27 inches
Another half inch....getting so BIG!

WEARS: He's mostly in size 6-12 or 9 month clothing. I found some simple white onesies from Carters...bought him 12 month size because he's growing so fast! 

SLEEPS: He's still sleeping so great! (ASIDE FROM TEETHING, which i will get into next month!!!) I thought things were changing because a few nights around Christmas time he woke up at 12am & 4am...I was like NOOOOOOOO...but thankfully it was only for a couple days and he's back to sleeping pretty much 6:30pm-6:30am straight. He's super sensitive to noise though, so James and I have to be sooo quiet when we're going to bed!! Any tips on having a baby that's super noise sensitive? We have loud white noise but he still wakes up if we have ppl over at night.

We're loosely following the 2-3-4 method for naps. It basically means he goes down for the first nap 2 hours after he wakes up, the third nap 3 hours after he wakes up and down for the night 4 hours after he wakes up. It usually works for us but sometimes he's showing me signs that he needs to go down earlier (rubbing eyes, yawning). We've officially cut the third nap and it's worked very well for us...(aside from the time we go to Adore at 6pm..then I try to get him to take a 3rd nap)!

EATS: He is still LOOOVING food. He breastfeeds 4x a day and then eats 3 meals and sometimes a snack too. I still have him mostly on purees but every morning I give him banana pancakes (2 eggs + one banana mixed and made into pancakes...that batch lasts us a couple days), I'll probably start giving him some more non-puree food but choking scares me!! But I have to remind myself, he is a great eater and is able to chew. Any tips on transitioning to real foods?

HIGHS: Baby's first Christmas was definitely extra special. We had a nice & slow December and it was so fun. He's at a great stage right now where he sits on his own and doesn't move much, I know it won't last long but it's nice to see him play for a long time without being worried he's going to crawl into the fireplace, ha. PS. send me your baby proofing tips!!

Another high is the relationship between Luca & our cat, Coco. (not to be confused with Auntie Coco aka Courtney). Let's just say, Coco is not the easiest cat to get along with. She loves James and I and that's pretty much it. She is super sassy to everyone that comes into our house and isn't afraid to claw you if you try to pet her (how dare you!) She scratched Luca when he was two months old so I have kept them pretty separated. In the past couple months Coco has just stopped caring about Luca which has been great but over the past month Luca started noticing Coco. He loves her and the craziest thing has happened....she has been so sweet with him!!! She hasn't once tried to scratch him and she has even given him a little kiss on the nose a couple times. That has been such a huge relief!

LOWS: He started to go through a bit of separation anxiety. My mom was looking after him and he wouldn't stop crying or go down for bed...which is crazy unusual because he loves my mom and usually goes down soo easy. My Wonder Weeks app told me that around 29-30 weeks (which is exactly where he was at that time) babies start to learn that mom can walk away from them. How sad!!! And I heard somewhere that they start freaking out because they don't know when mom is going to come back. It gave me a bit anxiety because as much as I love being a mom, I also love going out and having other people able to soothe and put down my baby. I know it's just a phase and it will pass but I'm stressing a bit because I'm going away (without Luca!!) at the end of the month!

PARENTING: I go away tomorrow for the night, so James has Luca and he is pumped. He's not worried at all, which makes me relaxed. We are big believers in co-parenting around here! Luca needs both mom and dad.....and for the record, we both change those dirty diapers :)

POSTPARTUM: I cut out sweets for the first 21 days and I saw a my weight go down to the lowest it's been since having Luca! Still not where I want to go but I'm celebrating the small steps :) 

WHAT I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO: Our first night away from Luca together at our church's couples retreat next month!! Also seeing the photos my friend Rachael took of us today!

Only 4.5 more months and this little bubba will be ONE YEAR OLD!! AHHHHHH

XO,
Laura

SAN DIEGO

Last fall we went on our first (international) vacation as a family of three! Because of this unfortunate/fortunate experience we had some United air credit to spend. We wanted to go somewhere that was 1. not too expensive to get to 2. warmish 3. fun. San Diego fit the bill on all three of those!

We stayed in a super cute air bnb in the Hillcrest area. We paid a little more but it was so worth it to have a kitchen and living room instead of a one room hotel room. We stayed in the bedroom and Luca slept very well in the hallway closet...lols. I'm planning on doing a couple posts soon about travelling with a baby (we picked up lots of tips!!) 

I was surprised at how much we fit into our trip!

Here's what we did:
Day 1- Travel
Day 2- Explore Hillcrest on foot. Breakfast at Hash House A Go Go...walked to Trader Joes!

Day 3- DISNEYLAND! Call us crazy but we rented a car and left at the crack of dawn to do Disney. It was soooo much fun and very exhausting. Got IN&OUT for the drive home!! Luca was such a champ and I'll share tips soon on doing Disney with a baby!

Day 4- Coronado Beach....a must see!! Tacos Perla (best tacos I've ever had!!!)
 

Day 5- La Jolla...an overcast day but James went in the ocean...only guy without a wetsuit, ha. Church that night at C3 San Diego.

Day 6- Coffee at Communal Coffee (seriously so good, wish we got to it more than once!) Shopping at Fashion Valley, IN&OUT!

Day 7- Coffee at Cafe Bassam (wouldn't go again), San Diego Zoo (must see!), walk through the park, dinner at Hash House (wouldn't go there for dinner again, only for breakfast!)
 

Day 8- Travel

Luca was a complete champ on the trip! He was almost 5 months old and it was the perfect time to travel. He still napped on the go, hadn't started solids yet but could sit on our laps and be entertained pretty easily!

Ahhh looking through these pictures definitely has me longing for SUMMER...oh warm sun, I miss you.

XO,
laura

LUCA THE LION // 6 MONTHS OLD

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LUCA AT SIX MONTHS

OH my goodness. We made it to half a year. We have a little boy who is SIX months old and sits up by himself!!! He's no longer a little bitty baby...he's turning into a little boy!! But he's still my little lion.

WEIGHT: 17.7 lbs
He's getting up there! Last month I used our home scale which overestimates a bit, so he probably gained just under a lb this month. I thought he would be waaaay heavier because he started solids but nope, still in the 17lb range! He's still on the 50th percentile for weight and height so he's trucking along well!

HEIGHT: 26.5 inches
He grew a half inch this month. When I nurse him, he feels SO long! Can't imagine what he'll be at 9 months!

WEARS: I've finally started to put him in 6-12 month clothing. I haven't packed up all the 3-6 month clothing yet, but I must because it's waaay too small! I'm on the hunt for plain white onesies but I can't find them anywhere. I bought him this bear suit and it's the cutest. Ahh, the Gap has some seriously cute things right now...like this sweater (which is on sale too!) and these Mickey pants!

SLEEPS: This month Luca's sleeping has been amazing! Most nights he goes down between 6:30-7 and sleeps straight until 7 the next morning. I know, it may change when he cuts a tooth or gets sick but I'm just going to declare that it will stay this way ;) And ps. I still wake up in the middle of the night to check on him/go pee!
We finally got a video baby monitor where we can see him at night and it is the best! We used to use my ipad and then connect it to one of our phone's. It worked great but you couldn't see the video at night and I had to keep my phone in our room (we're really trying to not use our phones at night and not have them in the bedroom!) A couple weeks ago Luca started rolling over in his sleep and I got soo freaked out and convinced James we needed a video monitor. It's been so great though! I would find myself checking on him in the middle of the night and sometimes opening his door would wake him up (oops!) Now all I need to do is turn the monitor screen on and I can stare at his sweet sleeping face. #best

Naps are going really well! I'm learning more and more that he's not an on the go type of napper. He's actually a bit of a diva when it comes to sleep...white noise, sleep sack, warm room, space to spread out...lols. 

EATS: And this month we started solids!!! Luca has been more than ready for awhile now so we started at 5.5 months and you guys, he is such a champ eater. He chews and hasn't gagged once! And HE FREAKING LOVES FOOD. For reals. He gets sooo mad when we can't feed him fast enough, it's hilarious. We started him on roasted yam puree and he loved it. He's tried pureed broccoli as well as a bunch of love child organic pouches. He did not like scrambled eggs so instead of giving eggs straight up, I mixed some with bananas, cooked it on a frying pan and voila, he loved it.

HIGHS: Awe, so many highs. Him meeting Santa and SMILING! His first food. Instantly stopping crying when mama holds him (oh my heart.)

LOWS: Breakfast the other day...mama didn't have her coffee and couldn't feed him fast enough resulting in screaming baby and one cranky mama.

PARENTING: Parenting has been good. James and I just finished season 1 of Parenthood and it feels like we're learning something every episode, HA. James had some time off earlier this month and it was so nice to just hang out at home as a family. He's so good with Luca and can put him down for a nap better than I can!! I was able to get out of the house a few times on my own during the day and it was glorious!

POSTPARTUM: Let's just say, Christmas baking is not the best diet...we'll talk postpartum exercise and diet next month ha! Oh, but I did start going to physio to work on my core, and since I started their exercises, my back has been so much better!

WHAT I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO: CHRISTMAS!!!!

Can't believe the next update will be in 2017!!!!

XO,
Laura