7 Months Old

As of tomorrow, our little guy will be 7 months old. He is just the best little creature. Andy and I are absolutely crazy about him. Here is an update on the little guy.

  • As of a couple weeks ago, he weighed 18 pounds (55th percentile for boys his age). He was just 4 ounces more than his cousin Ivan on the same day.
  • His head is in the 95th percentile and his height at the 75th percentile.
  • He is getting his 2nd tooth on the bottom.
  • He loves standing (with us or something to balance against). When I try to sit him down, he’ll stiffen his legs so that he can stand instead.
  • He suddenly prefers sucking a pacifier over a finger (that’s great now that he can bite us and make it hurt).
  • He still hasn’t slept through the night. The last couple nights he got up 3 times. I feed him every time to get him to go back to sleep faster. I still can’t stand the thought of making him cry himself to sleep.
  • He now hates the car seat.
  • He likes being read to.
  • He like being sung to.

6 Months Old

Jude will already be 6 months old tomorrow. Here is an update on our darling little guy:

  • He can sit up by himself.
  • He is getting his first tooth.
  • He has not once slept through the night. He likes to get up at least a couple times each night to eat or visit with me.
  • He has eaten a few solids in the last couple weeks (rice cereal, oatmeal cereal, barley cereal and hard-boiled egg yolk).
  • He still loves sucking the finger of anyone who will share.

Today is Jude’s first day of day care. Thankfully, the day care provider is his Grandma Olson. Andy was not looking forward to going back to work. I think he enjoyed staying home with Jude as much as I did.

Swim Swimming

Last Saturday was my cousin Nate’s wedding in Rochester. Nate was my favorite Proper cousin growing up. We were just 5 weeks apart in age. We had a really good time catching up with the Propers at the wedding. We stayed overnight at the hotel where the reception was held. Andy suggested that we sneak away from the reception for awhile to bring Jude swimming in the pool. Jude loves swimming in the bath tub with me, but the water is always nice and warm. I thought that Andy’s idea of bringing Jude swimming in the pool was a horrible idea and that Jude would hate it. But, I went along with it anyway. Jude ended up enjoying swimming in the kiddie pool, even though it was kind of cold. There was also a little waterslide that he seemed to enjoy going on. I guess Andy was right this time!

swimming

5 Months Old

Little Jude is already over 5 months old. It is so hard to believe. Here is what he is up to:

  • He rolls over several times a day.
  • He loves being read to.
  • He has never slept through the night. He gets up typically 2 times a night to eat. That is a lot for a 16 pounder! Sometimes I wish that Andy lactated.

Andy is taking good care of Jude during his paternity leave.

Back to Work Update

I’ve been back to work now for 3 weeks. It’s going so much better than I expected. The first day was the worst. I was in denial up until the point where I had to turn the doorknob. When I turned the doorknob, I started crying. Jude was sitting on Andy’s lap on the steps. The poor kiddo had no idea that I was about to leave him for 11 hours. Jude has had some bad days at home with Andy. He has a little bit of separation anxiety. I love rushing home from the bus stop to see my little darling.

Another Trip to Fargo

Since Andy and I have one overlapping week of parental leave, we decided to spend a long weekend in Fargo. We’re heading up tomorrow morning. I think that this trip to Fargo will go a lot smoother than the only other trip we’ve made there with Jude. I’ll do the usual and sit in the back seat with Jude. Instead of stopping to feed him, I’m going to pump while we drive and then feed Jude the pumped milk with a bottle. We tried that out on the way to Andy’s family reunion last weekend and it worked pretty good.

Return to Work

In 10 days, I will be returning to work full-time. I know that going back to work is going to be the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I hope they don’t work me so hard that I can’t at least spend evenings and weekends with Jude. I’ve had the best time of my life since Jude was born. I love taking care of him. Andy is taking the rest of his paternity leave (10 more weeks) starting on Monday. After Andy’s leave is up, we’ve arranged for Andy’s mom to take care of Jude while we are at work.

Family Tree

I’ve been tracking down Andy’s and my ancestry so that we can figure out Jude’s ancestry. My ancestry is:

  • 1/4 Luxembourg (my Grandma Forbes was 100%)
  • 1/4 Swedish (my Grandma Proper is 100%)
  • 1/8 Scottish
  • 1/8 Irish
  • 1/8 Norwegian
  • 1/32 German
  • 1/32 Dutch
  • 1/32 French Canadian
  • 1/32 Bulgarian

Andy’s ancestry is:

  • 1/2 Norwegian
  • 3/8 German
  • 1/16 English
  • 1/32 Scottish
  • 1/32 Irish

If I’m doing my math correctly (feel free to double check me), Jude is:

  • 20/64 Norwegian
  • 13/64 German
  • 8/64 Luxembourg
  • 8/64 Swedish
  • 5/64 Scottish
  • 5/64 Irish
  • 2/64 English
  • 1/64 Dutch
  • 1/64 French Canadian
  • 1/64 Bulgarian

Andy recently created a family tree website. Any family members interested in helping to complete the family tree on either side of our families can contact Andy about creating an account. The website is here.

Weekend in Litchfield

We went to my parents’ house this weekend. Phil, Katie and my nephew Ivan were there too. My parents saw both of their grandchildren together for the first time. I think they enjoyed it. We broke out the slip-n-slide. It wasn’t nearly as fun as it was when we were kids. I also went barefoot waterskiing with my brother. After the slip-n-sliding and the barefooting, I feel like I was run over by a truck. I’m sore and bruised all over.