Eating: Foster is eating most fruits and veggies. He enjoys eating everything so far, but applesauce, blueberries, broccoli, green beans, and sweet potatoes are his favorite. We are still nursing 5 times a day and haven't cut a nursing out yet. Honestly, I am not sure when we will drop a nursing. I am definitely in not rush.
Sleeping: Foster goes to bed around 7:30 every night and has been waking up inconsistently. Sometimes he will wake up at 1AM, and other times he will sleep until 5AM. 6AM is our goal. I try my hardest not to nurse or start our day before 6AM, but I often fail in doing so. When he wakes up in the middle of the night (or anytime before 6), he is very hard to get back asleep unless Ty takes him for a car ride. So sometimes I end up nursing him back to sleep. (We also went to the cabin this month, which always seems to mess with his sleeping through the night.) On most days he is able to make it until 6AM without nursing and then we start our day. On days when he sleeps until 6AM, I will nurse him and then have a solid hour (on most days) of alone time with him before the other kids wake up. It is really nice to be able to start my day before the others wake up.
Foster is napping two times a day, normally around 8:30 and 1:30. He is a great napper (unless his siblings wake him up), and will nap for about 2 hours each time. On an average day our day looks like the following: nurse at 6AM, nap at 8:30AM, nurse at 10:30AM, nurse at 1:00PM, nap at 1:30PM, nurse at 4PM, nurse at 7PM, bed by 7:30PM.
I have never liked having my babies put themselves to sleep this young, but am starting to think that Foster would really benefit from it. I love snuggling and rocking my babies to sleep because they grow up too fast. We will see if I can handle trying it in this next month, but knowing me, I doubt it.
New Skills: Clapping, Scooting around in his walker, ever closer to crawling, trying to pull up on things, he mastered eating off of a spoon (although he rarely do it), He definitely seems to be using "Mama," but I'm never sure if it is on purpose this young. Fos finally got two teeth this month!
He Loves: Baths are still his favorite, scooting around in his walker, eating, hugs
He Doesn't Like: bananas
Exciting Things We Did:
We (Daddy) got a new puppy! He was named Benny for 1 day, but then we changed it to Braven. Ty is in heaven and so are we. Finn loves having a friend, and although he may be crazy to get a puppy right now, it has been fun. We definitely have been getting outside and taking many more family walks, and honestly, that was our goal - a dog that made us get out in nature more. (We love Finn, but he hates going on walks and going anywhere.)
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| Braven loves to climb on your lap and fall asleep, even if there isn't any room! |
I made and finished Foster's Christmas stocking! I am the most proud of his stocking. I did all of the sewing by myself and could see how far I have come in my ability since doing the first stocking 7 years ago!
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| My mom and I got Foster a BlaBla doll for Christmas. I love them and Foster loved getting his lion! |
We went to the cabin! This trip was really special, because we got two whole days at the cabin with just our family. We missed everyone else (and honestly, it was very weird not to have them there), but it was a nice time to relax by ourselves. We got to spend all day Saturday with everyone, but had to come home on Sunday morning.
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| Spoiled pup driving up. |
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| Warming the cabin up, (also spoiled pup). |
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| Aunt Nadine got Charlie a drone for Christmas |
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| Family walk aka ice skating |
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| Family Game Night (thanks to Nanny for buying us Zingo!) |
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| SMores! |
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| When did he get so big! |
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| Cabin Bath #2 |
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| Driving home. They slept like this for 2 hours! |
More Photos:
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| Reading is a family favorite. |
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| Sister selfie! |
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| Early mornings with him are something that I am sure that I'll miss. |
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| The best <3 |
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| I love you, Foster Ellis! |
A Note From Daddy: Foster Ellis you are a joy! Despite your inability to sleep in well, I love spending *joyful*, early mornings with you. You're never short of smiles and giggles and I love that most about you. After your first 9 months of looking just like your brothers when they were infants, you're starting to take on your own look and I think you're super handsome :D 2020 is going to be an exciting year for you! I love you, Fellis!
