I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
The last couple months around here have been quite busy. My dad and sister came up for Chase's 1st Christmas and to help with the boys while Zachary had surgery...yes, another Surgery for my Mongo, but I will get more into that in just a moment. They drove out here for a couple days before driving Bryce Anne back out to school.
- Zachary's Surgery -
We went into see Zachary's ENT in early December because his sinuses were just not getting better. He always had a runny nose, was always breathing with his mouth open, and the snoring was getting worse. The Dr gave us a steroid nose spray to try and get the symptoms to subside, and we would decide about surgery in 6-8 weeks to remove his adenoids. On top of all the presenting symptoms, his tubes that were placed in January had fallen out (which is normal), but there was already more fluid buildup behind his eardrums (not normal!).
Financially, waiting until 2014 for surgery was just not an option (Zachary was almost at his maximums for 2013 because of the surgery last January). Anyways, we spoke with the Dr further and decided that getting the surgery done before the end of 2013 would be okay.
We took him up to Children's Hospital on the 26th. Same routine as the last 2 times, we are old pros at this by now. Of course Zach was all smiles and giggles before hand. When the anesthesiologist came in he got sooooo excited because his scrub cap had the Notre Dame leprechaun on it. He was yelling "Irish, Irish" and fist pumping....it was way too cute! We knew Zachary was going to be in good hands ;-)
Surgery only took about 45 minutes to place new tubes in and remove his adenoids. When we were waiting in the recovery room with Zach, the Dr came in and told us that he believe the surgery to be very successful. There was a lot of fluid released from both ears when the tubes were placed. His adenoids were also blocking 50% of his throat! That's almost 3 sizes too big! No amount of medication was going to fix that, so he was very pleased with the outcome and said that surgery was going to be inevitable. We don't always make the right choices in hindsight, but this time we did! I am so glad we did the surgery before 2013 was over, and so hopefully that this will be Zachary's last one. 3rd times a charm! This has to do the trick ;-) We won't know for sure until this tubes fall out, but we think/hope taking the adenoids out will help with ear drainage and important day to day things like breathing!
He insisted holding his oxygen tube in recover, and he did a whole lot of sleeping once we got home
- Bug is 9 Months Old! -
...3 more months until his first birthday (insert water works here)
The last month has been quite eventful with all the holiday festiveness.
Height: 28in (40th percentile)
Head: 45cm (70th percentile)
Weight: 20pounds 2.8ounces (65th percentile)
Shoes: Size 4s (only to keep socks on)
Clothes: You're moving all over the place now (crawling and pulling yourself up) so you have slimmed down a bit and are not gaining weight as quickly. You are still wearing 95% 6-9 months clothes, with a few 9-12 month outfits mixed in.
Teething: You now have a total of 6 teeth! 2 on top and 4 on the bottom. The 4th bottom cut on the 28th, so it made the 9 month cut! You are just like your brothers when they were teething and boy is that a relief! You don't get fussy or cranky hardly every. About a day right before the tooth cuts all you want to do is sleep and drink baba. You want nothing to do with solid foods, you'd rather just chew on the spoon. Then the tooth cuts and you're totally back to normal. What a great baby you are :)
Sleeping/eating/daily schedules: This really has not changed much since you were about 2 months old. Pretty much same as last month. Sleeping through the night from about 8pm-7am, getting a baba at 7, and sleeping until about 9am. We wake up change your poopy butt (it's always poopy!), and let you crawl/play around. I get big brothers breakfast, and then I'll feed you while I eat. While I'm cleaning you will play around with your brothers. You want in so badly on all the action. Sometimes if they are being crazy I will just keep you in your high chair, and you just stare and watch them. You adore them just as much as they adore you. Around 10:30ish you'll go back down for another nap (if we are home). If we go out, you are very content! You'll take power naps in the car and don't give me any troubles while we are out. If it is a school day, we will all leave at 12:15 to take Zachary to preschool. Sometimes we run errands, sometimes we go home. You'll kinda do whatever you want. Sometimes you'll go back down for nap, some days you'll want to eat lunch, some days you just want to hang out....you are very adaptable, and very rarely give me any troubles. We pick Zachy up at 3:15, and then usually when we get home you will want to nap again. We wake you around 5/6 eat dinner and hang out, then bed at 7/8 and it starts all over again. Some days I have work in the morning and you don't get your first solid meal until 1pm, and you're okay with that. Some days I work at night, so daddy does not get you home and fed until 7...and you're okay with that! Moral of the story, you are a GREAT 3rd baby and totally just go with the flow. Something you and your brothers got from daddy, not me.
Adventures: We went to visit Santa this month! Tanja at
Contemporary Expressions has ruined Santa Photos for me, for the better! You didn't love it, but you didn't hate it. You were very curious and took a lot of cues from your brothers. They were okay with it and having fun, so you were okay with it. You have zero concept of stranger danger or 'where is my mommy' so we were able to get some great photos!
PS - Isn't my friend so amazingly talented!?!?! None of my pictures will ever look like this!
You really are the happiest, most content baby around! You're starting to babble and I am sure your first real word will make it's appearance here in the next month!! You grunt like an angry monster, and babble a lot of "ba" sounds. You make a noise when your brothers say hi to you, and you grunt at us when you are not getting your way.
- Holiday Recap -
On Sunday the 22nd we did a nice little early Christmas with Paul's grandma up at her new residence. We went up there for brunch and opened presents. We also did a little swimming and hot tubing in her pool. Her place is really nice, and we look forward to making more trips up to visit her.
My Dad and Bryce Anne arrived on the evening of the 23rd. My dad had some car troubles driving up here, so on the 24th we took it over the the shop so that they could take a look and fix it on the 26th. That evening Paul got off work early and we just hung out. One of our friends joined us for a yummy dinner of Carmine's pinwheels and pasta, yum! Paul and I stayed up after the boys went to bed and wrapped gifts and set up Santa presents. I also put together a crockpot breakfast that cooked over night.
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| Santa Came! |
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| Our Tree and "stockings" this year |
Braden was the 1st one up that morning. He ran out to see his toys then went in and woke Zachary. Santa didn't wrap his presents, so all 3 boys were able to play while I got breakfast ready. On top of our crock pot egg dish, I also made some Monkey Bread.
After breakfast we opened the rest of our gifts, called family and just relaxed. We got the boys 3 new board games, and 3 new movies...so we did a whole lot of nothing the rest of the day watching movies and playing board games.
That evening Paul and I snuck away for a couple hours to go to our friends house for a Christmas exchange. The boys totally could have come, however it was nice to get away while we had babysitters in town.
The next morning we woke up early for Zachary's surgery, and after we got home just tried to rest. Zachary on the other hand had other plans and wanted to wrestle and play. We managed to calm him down and get him to watch movies. Dad and Bryce left on the 27th, but not before we went to Pat's for lunch.
As for new years, we started off having a quite evening at home, and then at 7ish we went over to my friend's brothers house. There were lots of kiddos there (mostly older boys) so Braden and Zachary had a great time! We were home by 10:30 in time to watch a "New Years around the world" recap, and toasted with sparkling cider. Paul and the boys went to bed, but I stayed up and laid on the couch to watch the replay of the ball dropping at midnight. Party animals over here.
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| Clinks at 10:30 ;-) |
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| getting a photo off all 3 kids is getting more and more difficult |
On the 1st I ran a 5k downtown for work. I woke up to a near blizzard! I was not happy about having to wake up early and leave Paul and the kiddos on his day off. But the snow ended up passing and the race was nice. Very Chilly, but nice. And after I got back home we had a nice family day cleaning and watching MORE movies.
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Well folks, I hope that was enough/not too much for you. This will teach me to wait a whole month between posts.
From our family to yours, we hope y'all had a Joyous Christmas and the very happiest of new years!
~Team Schleifer-Bell
...now to start working on our 2013 photo book that was supposed to be done for Christmas, whoops!
