One Whole Year

Our sweet baby boy is a whole entire year old. I think that I have started this post 13908098 times and I just haven't been able to finish it for many reasons. One being that the day of his birthday was an emotional roller coaster to say the least. I cried all of my make up off on the way to work and cried for most of the morning. It didn't help that we had an exceptionally difficult morning, what with Ames throwing holy terror fits and I was mad/sad/frustrated that I had to go to work on his birthday- especially after the arm wrestling battle we had all morning.

I sat and thought the entire day about how much our sweet little boy has accomplished in one short year. Of course every parent thinks the sun rises and sets with their child, I'm not exception, but damn I am proud of this kiddo. He's walking not even a month after his first birthday! He is almost 19 pounds and has got a BIG ol' noggin.

Let's check out the stats:

Ames Wilde Armstrong 11/9/2014

3lbs 4oz

16in long

11.5' head circumference

 Born at 30 weeks gestation

Spent 40 days in the NICU

2 days on the CPAP

Took his first full feed at 1 month old

Came home 10 days after that on December 19th 2014

Ames Wilde Armstrong

11/9/2015

Has smiled since day ONE!

Stopped Nursing at 5 months- exclusively pumped until 7 months

Rolled over at 6 months

Inch worm crawling in the downward dog position at 7 months

EXTREMELY mobile and crawling /climbing at 8 months

Took his first steps at 9/10 months

Started Daycare at 10 months- They have had to rearrange/bolt things to the wall because of him

Able to do pull ups on any object (freezer drawer, changing table, etc.) at 10 months

Bottom teeth broke through at 10 months

First word was dada at 10 months

Walking at 12 months and some change and says mama, dada, dog, nana, baba, papa, etc.

Two top teeth broke through at 12 months!

Weighs just shy of 19 pounds, 27 1/2in long, and 27in noggin.

He has gained 16lbs since birth, grown 11inches, and his head circumference 

has increased by 16 inches!

Parenting is no joke. We have slept 8 hours about 5 times in the last year. Ames has a very unusual sleep pattern. I have learned my breaking point. I have learned Lance's breaking point. And I have learned how strong Lance and I are when the going gets tough. I commend him for his ability to calm me down when I am up in arms over milestones. I love him for the humor he brings to parenting, because if you don't laugh about the craziness that is parenting, then you will just plain go crazy. 

I am forever grateful for our "village" that has stood by us through thick and thin, reassured us that we are good parents and not losing our mind, and given us much needed date nights....even if we did spend those date nights talking about our kiddo. 

Ames' smile is contagious. He smiles at everyone and is such a fun, easy going, warm hearted sweet kid. He is all boy- he loves to play outside, go on walks, and laughs at the word toot. His mind never stops going, if there is a new toy, he spends so much time figuring out how it works. Every car toy, or toy with some sort of ability to move, he inspects it, moves with it, spins the wheels, and is intent on figuring the thing out. I love watching him learn. Recently he has started cuddling and he never used to cuddle, but in the last month, something has completely changed. He WALKS up to us now and hugs us, gives BIG open mouth kisses, and will lay his head on your shoulder for a maximum of 30 seconds! Lance holds the cuddling record of 4 minutes and 25 seconds. 

I am amazed by his intelligence every single day. I am thankful for his sweet heart and how he can teach me something new every single day. I thank my lucky stars every single day that Lance and I were chosen to be his parents. 

My sweet, sweet sisters and sister-in-laws- God bless them. I can't even keep track of how many time I have called them individually or texted them as a group, at my whits end, with my greasy grown out hair laying over my face, a crying baby in his crib upstairs, while I lay face down on the carpet, just asking them for reassurance that this phase ends and it all gets better. They came to my rescue with words of wisdom and encouragement to stand back up, wash my damn hair, and laugh at the fact that we have been up before the sun, every day for a year. They are a true blessing to us. 

Full Heart

I'll keep it short and sweet this eve. 

Our Wilde man said his first word today. I've never experienced such joy. it's amazing to watch him grow. 

He crawled around my feet all night while I made dinner and bopped while I sang the completely incorrect version of 78% of the songs that came on the children's pandora station. 

He looks at you so intently. Almost like he is trying to hard to figure you out and to also tell you how much he loves you. In those moments, I am alive. I give myself a hard time and joke about how stressful being a mom can be- I mean, it's not really a joke. It is stressful, but- these moments where you see your beautiful baby boy curled up in daddy's arms, chomping on the 3rd huge bottle in less than 4 hours, you realize how freaking amazing life and love and his appetite really is. 

I'm thankful for every scary, crazy, wild unknown that led us to the most constant and unconditional love I've ever had.  

This last year was....something else and I'm so thankful for it. 

Okay, mushy gushy-ness over. Here are some cute pictures 

. 

Hello, My Name is Cray-la

Ames turned 9 months old on the 9th. Just before that we were sent a survey in the mail that asked what developmental milestones our young padawon has accomplished. I had recently had one of my "oh eff it" moments just before this 3 page documents made its way into my hands. I had just said- he's healthy and happy and we're doing great! 

Then I started reading:

    Does your child somtimes, always, or not yet do the following...

      A. Pinch a cheerio with one finger and thumb. 

       Answer: no- he's too busy crawling around and smacking his head on nearby furniture to care about how the cheerio gets into his mouth. 

       B. Look for a toy after you have hidden it. 

       Answer: no- he looks at me as if to say "well that was kind of rude...but I'll move on" and literally moves on to swan dive into the dog water. 

      C. Attempt to grab a cheerio that you have placed inside a water bottle while standing on one leg and playing the violine with the other hand. 

Okay, that may have been a little exaggerated. But by this point in survey I'm stressing out. It's Saturday and I'm trying to figure out how much I can binge teach my kid before his 9 month appointment on Tuesday. Accompanying my boot camp lesson plan is an entire list of "am I doing something wrong?" Or "I really need to be home more, why do I have to be a working mom?!" 

Lance is napping on the couch and wakes up to his crazy wife crawling on the floor with our kiddo, flailing my arms around, shoving water bottles with Cheerios in his face, trying to get him to share toys with me without being asked and pick up small objects as if he had the fine moto skills of a grown adult. I must of said his name 80 times. I felt like Stewart from Mad TV. 

By this time my charades have woke lance up and he's like " hey, babe. Whatcha doing?" And I broke down in tears. I felt so inadequate in that moment. Which is nonsense- but there's no talking any reason into Cray-la (she's my other personality that comes out when I'm stressed about mom stuff). 

I would like to take a moment of silence for all the mommies and daddies out there who have lost nights of sleep stressing over milestones and development hoo-hah- we all know we aren't getting those nights back so...that sucks. You're kiddos are wonderful no matter where they are at. 

Our little bundle is a hoot. He is SUCH a ham. He loves to entertain and is starting to only want to be held by mommy or daddy when he's tired or cranky

He's very eager to walk. He loves to hold your hands and walk around as long as you'll tolerate. He's a clapping machine. He even will clap when he's mad about something. It's kind of funny. He's babbling a lot, no Dadas or mamas yet but he has the sweetest little voice. For the most part he is a pretty independent player. He looks at a toy and bangs it on things and looks at it again and moves it I his hands. I love watching him think. 

He is still up once at night to eat but otherwise he is sleeping well! Now for some cute pictures :)

I Just Have to Pee..

As a parent, your needs are always second to those of your child's. I have come to find that this includes any and all instances where you are seconds from peeing your pants and your child has smacked his head on the wall/fallen from holding onto an unsteady toy/blown out his diaper on the carpet for the 3rd time this week. 

The most recent instance is this very moment. I have spent the last hour and a half trying to get Ames down for his morning nap. Let me draw you a picture. 

8:10am we started with our usual nap time routine, bottle, song, rocking chair, lay down while eyes are rolling to the back of his head. He's dozing off- boom. Time to get some cleaning done so I can hopefully drink my coffee and space out for a half hour before he wakes up. 

8:15am a loud banging starts upstairs 

He's demanding some service! 

"Ma! The meatloaf!"

8:35am painfully loud crying. Lay him back down, give him his binkie and he falls back asleep.  

8:40am he's back up whaling again. 

This process repeats for the next hour 

9:25am he needs to Nap and the only place he has stayed asleep for more than 5 minutes is my arms. And I've had to pee since we started this mother loving fiasco. I have caved. Because if he doesn't sleep now..we are screwed for nap number two and then the whole day is shot. 

I have a mountain of clean, unfolded laundry at my feet, a sleeping baby in my arms that is still breathing heavy from all the crying he did since we began this brawl, and I am going to pee my pants. 

Truthfully, as wonderful as it would be to get the mountain of house work done that is well past due...he NEVER snuggles anymore so for now- I'll embrace the cuddles and binge watch some Netflix. 

I'm behind on blogging. Ames turned 8 months on the 9th and we are experiencing a whole new baby. He's crawling all over the place, pulling himself up on anything and everything, and is breaking a tooth in! What in the heck?! Where did my teeny tiny baby go?!

It's hard to believe that our once 3lb baby is now 16 pounds! 

He is SO social- he visits with everyone at Crossfit in the mornings and just soaks up all the attention he gets. He melts everyone with that toothless smile 

So far he has loved every food we've thrown his way to except peas and bananas by themselves. He prefers to feed himself...that doesn't always go great...

But he loves it so that works. The sleep struggle is real, but that smile helps you forget all about it...most of the time. 

 

The Best Moms Group Ever

Throughout high school I played volleyball, ran track, and danced. My passion was ways dancing but I pretended that I was athletic enough to play volleyball and run track but the truth was; I was too short for volleyball and spent way too much time diving for stray balls that my puiny arms couldn't reach; I am freaking slow so I sucked at track. Period. But I did it because you didn't have to try out haha. 

Dancing was always where I felt at ease and after continuing for a year into college, life got busy and once you are dancing for recreation it's not the same as when you're performing. 

Thus, I entered a new chapter in my life where I tried to find something to fill that passion. Zumba was okay, still not what I wanted. Going to the gym and spending 30 minutes burning 15 calories on the elliptical sucked. And I still wasn't athletic enough for intramural sports. 

Lance started this crazy and intimidating thing called Crossfit and I gave it a big ol stiff arm because, woah. That sounded hard and scary lol. 

Well...then we had Ames and I stood looking at myself in the mirror, just irritated and full of post partum emotions. So I agreed to try this crazy intimidating sport. AND I LOVED IT. 

There's a Fight Club reference that the first rule in Crossfit is always talk about Crossfit and that the second rule is also, to always talk about Crossfit. It's humerous because anyone who is passionate about anything is going to talk about it, a lot. So I shall embrace that and continue talking about it, because it's changed my entire outlook on fitness goals. 

Not only have I regained my confidence, feel comfortable in my own skin again, and FEEL better, but I feel strong. I've never known that feeling before and it

Feels great. It feels great knowing that we are setting a good example for Ames to eventually follow. 

Also, this is better than any other Moms group I could have joined. The people and the community are incredible. It's so  much fun to be around and be apart of such a supportive group of women (and men). But when the lifting is over and we are all somehow breathing normal again, we have the chance to talk about the kiddos and give (or in my case, get) advice. They cheer me on in the workout and they are pretty awesome and supportive moms. 

I'm so thankful that lance and I are a part of this community. I can't wait to raise Ames around such strong, kind, and generous people. 

I'm going to want to remember what I felt like when I first started and I can't wait to see how i feel in a year. 

Dump the Pump- Ames 7 months

Ames hasn't wanted to nurse for around 2 months now. It was a constant battle with so many tears...both ways, so I went to exclusively pumping. As mentioned in previous posts...pumping is my nemisis. NEMISIS! I loathed the process, the cleaning of those tiny parts that are so easily lost, trying to pump when your husband is at work and your baby is screaming at the top of his lungs because he's hungry- yeah. It sucked. And to top it off, Our dietitian had us fortifying because she didn't think the calorie count of my milk was high enough and I wasn't keeping up with Ames for supply so we were supplementing with formula.

After I spent a drive to Lebanon pumping, while on my way to an assessment for work...I had enough. I dumped the pump. I had extreme guilt about this whole process. I felt lazy. Like I wasn't willing to make that sacrifice for Ames. But the fact is, I was miserable, I wasn't sleeping, I was angry. As soon as I was able to realize that it not only wasn't good for me to have that high of stress, but it also wasn't good for Ames to be around it...I dumped it And ohhhh it felt good.

So now we're onto formula and he's already gaining weight better. Hes also trying solids! He loves carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, green beans, and peaches. He does not like peas or rice cereal...but he's a trooper and gives them a try. He loves eating. It's so much fun. I've had to come to realize that eating is not and never will be a clean process so I might as well embrace it lol. 

Ames still fights sleep but I would say that the fights are getting shorter! So that's good. He's slowly working himself into a schedule. Shout out to my babysitters for working with me and writing everything down. Love you guys 😘 

What else? Ah- he's SUPER squirmy. He's rolling from his back to his stomach and inch worms all over the place. He loves the exersaucer and SQUEALING at the top of his lungs. He has the cutest voice and loves to use it. He's a happy giggly baby, loves being around people and is such a ham. 

Life is busy here at the Armstrong house but I can't help but thank my lucky stars when I come home to these sweethearts. 

 

The Sleep Fighting Royal Rumble

Every day during nap time, Ames fights the smallest thought of sleep. He could be two fists deep in his eye balls and still fight falling and staying asleep until he's blue in the face. So far, naps are the worst...he is a cat napper, much liked self when I was a child apparently (so very sorry, mom). After 20 minutes, he's up again and won't go back to sleep for at least another hour and it's usually not a happy hour. 

One would think that since he has such small naps during the day that he would be exhausted at night....HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. 

Every night, without fail, he fights going down. We go through our usual bed time routine, lay him down while drowsy like everyone recommends, blah blah blah, and then for the next two hours we are up and down the stairs. He cries for 5 minutes, we put the binkie back in. He cries a little longer, we rock him and soothe him. He cries again, we beg and plead while rocking him and dancing and singing- this child has turned us into a freaking traveling circus! 

Then, by some miracle, we have gotten him to sleep. Naturally while exiting we do a tiny victory dance and PRAY that this time it sticks. That's what we are doing right now...I'm sitting next to Lance on the couch and neither of us are actually paying attention to the movie we are watching because we are afraid that our little bundle is going to start yelling at us again. 

Bedtime is the best/worst time of the day. When he actually stays asleep, it's the few hours that lance and I have to ourselves. If he doesn't...then we spend the last few hours before we go to bed running up and down the stairs like WWE wrestlers tagging each other in and out. 

All joking aside though, Ames is doing really well. He's SO MUCH FUN! Laughing, interactive, rolling, trying solids, trying to copy us. He is amazing. 

He's 6 months old and at our last therapy appointment they said he has fine motor skills and cognition of a 4 1/2 month old ( he's 4 months adjusted) and gross motor skills of a 6 month old! They still want h to gain more weight and grow longer. He's 14lbs and 24 inches long. So we are fortifying his bottles again with formula. The formula isn't a big deal since we have been supplementing ever since his appetite was more than I could keep up with the just exclusively breastfeeding. 

I think he's grown out of his "bathtub" haha

Working Parents

Holy crap, guys- our child does not stop moving. He's hilarious. He takes 20 minute cat naps and then he's back up and wants to be on the ground riding his imaginary bicycle and punching whatever is nearby. Sage has gotten close to lick him a couple times and gets popped in the chops. She sure loves him though. 

I started to think that maybe I was consuming too much caffeine or sugar and he STILL does it even after I cut back! We are screwed when he's mobile. Holy cow. 

Life is pretty crazy these days. It's the good kind of stress though. The kind of busy that puts you in a deep sleep at night. I feel like when we're home we run a million miles a minute- we're catching up on the mountain of laundry from the prior week(s), scrubbing the unknown sticky crap off of the walls, and trying to find time to exercise ourselves as well as our poor hyper dog. 

It's been pretty awesome to watch Ames develope and grow. He's sleeping in his

Crib and is only up once a night. HALLELUJAH! He's talking like crazy! He squeals and giggles, he's so much fun to talk to because he smiles from ear to ear all the time. He's almost 12lbs and has rolls for days 

I've been doing Crossfit at Power Valley since February and I feel the best I've felt- ever. I feel strong, confident, determined, competitive with myself, and motivated. Before, if you would of asked me to get up at 4:30 in the morning to workout I would have laughed at you and  told you to go away. Since February, lance and I have been going 4-5 times a week 3 of those times are 5am classes. We do the baby "rumba" during the week, he hands baby off to me so he can go to the 6am. It's working out well and I'm so glad he introduced it to me. I love being a part of such a strong community. I'm addicted- even when I do this mid- squat 

Last to Bed

Our bedtime routine, while effective, can be a bit daunting. There are so many moving parts that we encounter. Between prepping for the next day and getting Ames and ourselves ready for bed- it's madness. We prepare for the next day in hopes of having 5 extra minutes to change our second spit up covered shirt before running out the door to work. Sometimes that luxury doesn't exist and your very polite coworker points out that "you have some white gunk on your back" I hear that is a right of passage into the cool parent club. Hola! 

But honestly, it seems like our bedtime routine starts right after dinner. 

Left overs are the building blocks of lunch. 

Throw little man into the Moby and a leash on Sage- out we go on a walk. 

Once home again it's bath time. One of us starts the bath while the other cleans the explosion that is our downstairs and preps bottles for the day. 

Then we get Ames dressed and we read a couple books while Ames lays on the floor punching or kicking one of us vigorously. 

Then I nurse Ames while lance gets his

clothes and what not ready for the next day and gets ready for bed. 

By the time he's done nursing we burp and rock and then I put him down to sleep. 

Well,..now I have to care for myself. Brush teeth, wash face, pee, ya know- normal stuff. And by that point I'm about to crawl into bed. My husband is adorable, you can tell that he tried very hard to stay awake for a kiss goodnight, but some nights you're just exhausted. So I lay down, thinking about the next day and everything we needed to do and hopefully remembered to do and the once noise filled house is now silent. 

Its a pretty peaceful time, actually. Those 15 minutes I have to myself to think before falling asleep are pretty relaxing. I was blessed with one heck of a husband and son- that's a lot to think about before bed ;)

Ames is just shy of 5 months old. This kiddo is ADORABLE. He is smiling, cooing, rolling from tummy to back, sleeping 5 hours at a time at night, and recognizing faces. He loves playing on the ground and cuddling before bed. He enjoys sitting up in the Bumbo for a little bit at a time and LOVES bath time. He's so interested in the world. I love to watch him sit and think. He's over 11lbs and 21in and has so many rolls. We are smitten to say the least 😍

Ames- 4 months.

Oh man, what a wild ride this has been. It brings tears to my eyes thinking about how far he has come. After his 4 months of life, he has more than tripled his birth weight. The picture above compares 2 months to now. 

He is so much fun right now:

He loves to talk. 

Lay on the floor (back or tummy)

BEING OUTSIDE!! Going on walks, going to the store, in the Moby, in the stroller, sitting in our back porch, if we are outside he's happy for a long time. 

He loves smiling. Especially when daddy plays with him. 

He is recognizing familiar faces and smiles to let us know it. 

He does NOT like his feet tickled. We learned that the hard way

He loves sitting up- we recently found he likes the Bumbo 

He loves to snuggle when he's tired and he is only waking us up 2-3 times a night. 

Parenthood is no joke. It's incredibly tiring as you and your partner are trying so desperately to please this child so you can experience just a few minutes of shut eye. But even in the sleepiest of hours, Ames will stop crying, make a very deadpan face, go a little crosseyed and then start smiling and cooing. Most of the time a giant blow out or toot follows, but we'll take what we can get 😊

Sometimes I feel like my house is a circus. Other times I wonder how I am going to function on the 5 hours of broken sleep I just got and magically I do. So apparently I'm a little stronger than I think. 

When Ames was born I knew I wanted to make some fitness and eating lifestyle changes. The doctor who delivered him talked about how important my health was in order for Ames to maintain his health. We were already eating pretty well but I didn't have a workout routine. Lance has been doing crossfit for a little over a year now and I finally drank the Kool-Aid. I've been doing it a little over a month and I have lots 5lbs and gained so much strength. I'm so glad he talked me into trying it and I'm so thrilled that we are making our lifestyle change now. Our little guy had a rough entry into the world but he's tough. He's a fighter. I want to show him that his mama and daddy are too 😊

Short and Sweet

Our sweet Ames is a couple days shy of 4 months old (chronological) he's 7 weeks adjusted age. He is incredibly fun right now. In between his fits of undescribed anger, he is SO happy.

When we click our tongue, sing to him, and especially when we laugh, he grins ear to ear. He coos and squeals. Oh it's the best. It's been hard leaving him every day. The first few days weren't terrible but as we go it's getting a little harder. 

We are getting into a bed time routine and it includes rocking him. This has become my favorite part of the night. Even though I miss him when he sleeps, nothing beats holding him as he snuggles  up. The little noises of him breathing, sucking on his binky. He's getting longer and almost doesn't fit lengthwise in our rocking chair. While we have our hard days, they're minimized by our ever wonderful and happy days 😊

Oh my heart

Yesterday was my first day back to work. I was offered a job I really couldn't refuse at Oregon Cascade West Council of Governments. I'm their new intake case manager. It was a $5 raise from what I had been making, phenomenal benefits, and it's here in Albany. It also helps that it is doing exactly what I've wanted/aspired to do for the past year. 

Flip side to all of this wonderful-ness in the work place...I left Ames for more than just a couple hours for the first time since the NICU. I did better than I thought I would, I think mostly because he's with family. I only cried on my way to work and then got it together. 

We are so fortunate to have family so close by. He's being watched by a combination of his aunt Melina, aunt Kim, aunt Jenny, his Oma, and other willing family as needed. It's a huge relief knowing that he is in loving and caring hands. 

Right now, he's fast asleep on my chest and it is a surreal moment. He's done this hundreds of times before. This time, however, I have to savor for another 3 minutes before I'm forced to get ready for another day. 

My dear friend and hairstylist (Roxie at Happy hollow in corvallis, seriously guys- check her out!!) gave me some of the best advice I have been given. She said "even though you can't be with him all the time, be intentional and spend your time interacting with him." This makes every minute with him so incredibly special. I'm soaking up every tiny breath that lands on my chest and every little twitch that reminds me of his father. 

So while this is so tough to adjust....man do I have a wonderful baby who makes coming home the most exciting part of my day.