Seeing how Brad is a cheese-head, he's in a very good mood after today's game. Go Pack Go!!

Our little eater

I forgot to give an update after the six month check-up Landon had last Monday. The doctor said that he seems to be healthy and thriving. He said that Landon has eczema so he told me to use some hydrocortisone cream to get it under control and told me some creams etc. that would help. The worst patch of irritated skin that I've noticed is on his face. I always have to keep his nails short or else he'll scratch it up. It must itch.

He also checked out his eyes and ears since he had been sick. His eyes are still goopy, but he said they are not infected. His ears looked great.

Here are his stats:
Height: 26.5 inches (50th percentile)
Weight: 15 lbs. 13 oz. (25th percentile)

I was a little surprised that he didn't weigh more than this. It stressed me out a little. The doctor said that continuing to add in more solids to his diet should help and that Landon will let me know if he wants to eat more often. The doctor didn't seem too worried, but he basically said that we don't want to see him fall any further in the growth chart percentiles (he was in the 75th % at 2 months, then 50th % at 4 months). For my own peace of mind I've decided to make some changes to Landon's routine (I follow a pretty flexible routine, but it helps me know generally what to plan on). This week I've tightened his schedule back up to eating every 3- 3.5 hours during the day instead of every 3.5- 4 hours. That way I can fit his usual five feedings into my waking hours (instead of one in the middle of the night). Since I've done that he's slept through the night a few times which has been nice. The reason I had let his feedings spread out in the first place was because it seemed like it fit better with his naps and sleeping patterns, and he didn't seem to mind. And it seemed like once I started letting him take longer naps he learned how to sleep for longer periods of time, including nighttime. But now it seems like the new routine is working just fine with his current sleeping patterns. I guess babies are always changing, right?! So I'm trying to not beat myself up too much for his slow weight gain, but I'm going to keep feeding him at least 5 times per day (more if he seems hungry) until his 9 month check-up to see if that helps. Anyway, sorry to bore ya'll with trivial details. I'm good at that!

We added sweet potatoes and baby oatmeal to Landon's diet this week. He loved both of them! I think sweet potatoes seem to be his favorite so far. I'm a little confused...do you feed the solids before you nurse or do you wait until after? Any pointers and advice would be great!

Oh, I was wondering if anyone elses babies do this...the last month or so Landon reaches up and plays with my mouth, nose, face, neck, jewelry, hair, most of the time that he's nursing. It's cute and funny, but it sure makes it harder to read or study while I'm nursing:)

Here are some pictures of our kiddo's eating and playing adventures last week. He's not quite so messy now that he's had a little more practice:)

I love sweet potatoes!!
So much to look at!


His 6 month birthday dinner. I added the prunes because, well, the rice cereal alone seems to take a long time to process if you know what I mean:) I love it when he tries to help me!

6 months old!

I can't believe that our little Landon is 6 months old today! He is still the sweetest and cutest baby I know (okay, maybe I'm biased:)). But he really has a pleasant disposition most of the time. Not much gets him too worked up. He has brought us more joy than I could have ever imagined. Here's how he is doing:

Eating: Landon has stopped taking a bottle for the past month or so. Dang! That makes things a bit more complicated with my job training but we are working it out. He has started eating some solids the past couple of weeks. So far he has eaten rice cereal, bananas, pears, and prunes. Yeah, I know you're supposed to do vegetables before fruit, but I was desperate for him to eat something while I was gone to Sun Valley and we had the fruit on hand so that is what came first to help the rice cereal go down. He seems to be liking it a little better each day.

Activity time: Landon can sit all by himself for short spurts. I think his record was about a minute before losing his balance and tipping. We are practicing with him everyday to teach him how to roll over. Tummy time is growing on him so that should help him have more practice. He can spin himself 180 degrees on his back and tummy. He loves batting at toys and he is becoming much more skilled at grabbing objects. Everything goes in the mouth! He loves his Baby Einstein activity center.

Sleep: He still takes 3 naps a day (lasting about 1-2 hours each) and usually only wakes me up to eat once in the early morning and goes right back to sleep. The past few nights he has gone progressively longer until his early morning feeding...5 am Friday, 5:30 am Saturday, 6 am this morning. I'm hoping that the pattern continues:) He seems pretty content eating 4 times during the day with an additional early morning feeding. So basically I'm hoping that the early morning feeding drops soon. But I'm not going to force it if he truly seems hungry. Overall, he is a pretty good sleeper.

Landon and I came down with a nasty cold on Christmas Eve and we are both finally getting over it. Landon seemed to have an ear infection with it, so he was started on some antibiotics. Now he just has a few eye goobers in the morning instead of having his eyes completely sealed shut. I'm so glad he's feeling better!

He has his 6 month check-up tomorrow. I'm excited to see how much he has grown. It seems to me that he is growing fast. I'll let you know his stats tomorrow. Here's some pictures of our cutie pie. More to come tomorrow.

What's been keeping me so busy?

Watch out Jillian Michaels...

You're going to have some competition!

So as Brad mentioned in a previous post, I'm studying to become a Certified Personal Trainer. Don't worry, I'll probably be a little nicer than Jillian:). What is motivating me to do this all of the sudden? Well I got a job at a new gym that will be opening in Twin Falls the beginning of February. It's not a regular gym. It's only open for circuit training classes. My bosses (two ladies) already have one up and running in Sun Valley and now they are opening one in Twin Falls and Los Angeles. I found out about this opportunity from my friend in my ward who will be managing the gym and teaching some of the classes. So, in October, I went to Sun Valley for a couple of workouts and interviews and I got hired! The first step in the process is to become a certified personal trainer, which they are paying for (thankfully!). I also need to make it to at least one workout in Sun Valley per week until the gym opens in Twin in February (starting next week). Then in February, I'll train with Angela (my fitness guru boss) for a couple of hours every day, learning how she wants things to be done. I'll also need to get in at least two of "the workouts" each week from then on. I'm hoping that by the beginning of March I can start running my own classes. They said I will probably be teaching about 4-5 classes per week. It kind of depends on the demand. The classes are basically intense circuit training using different bands, machines, balls, weights, steps, etc. Everyone rotates through the different exercises. Their goal is to have about a dozen people to each class. Angela has come up with about 30 different total body workouts. My job, as I understand it, will be to set up the equipment and stations for the workouts, make sure everyone's doing the exercises correctly during the workouts, telling them when to rotate and what comes next, and taking down the equipment. Each class will take me about 2--2.5 hours total.

I've been keeping busy trying to fit in at least few hours of studying each day. I've found that I have to be really disciplined with my time in order to keep up with this, my workouts, the housework, the cooking, church stuff and most importantly taking care of Landon. I will be putting in a lot of hours between now and March, but I really feel like it will pay off. I will get a lot of free training and once I do start to teach the classes, the pay is more than I could have hoped for. Brad has been very supportive of me in this endeavor. If it wasn't for his encouragement I probably would have quit already (I don't like stress). Brad's schedule is pretty flexible so we probably won't have to get a sitter for Landon too often. We feel like this will be a good thing for our family. We could use the money and I've always had an interest in this type of thing so it seems like too good of an opportunity to pass up. Wish me luck because I'm going to need it to pass this test!

The other thing that has been keeping me busy is having surgery and recovering. As Brad mentioned, I had surgery to help correct my severe acid reflux (GERD) in the beginning of November. It was important for me to have this surgery sooner rather than later for a few reasons: 1) the ulcers on my esophagus have gotten worse over the last few years, resulting in some pain, 2) acid reflux can cause a condition called Barrett's Esophagus and I wanted to prevent that from happening down the road, and 3) the constant acid was causing damage to my vocal cords and inflammation in the surrounding tissues, despite medication. The surgery is called Nissen Fundoplication. Basically, the surgeon took the top part of my stomach and made a new lower esophageal sphincter to keep food and acid from splashing up and burning my esophagus and throat. My own lower esophageal sphincter had been almost nonfunctioning for years. I've recovered really well and I'm back to a regular diet. I had the surgery done in Idaho Falls (by the same surgeon that did this for my dad) so my mom was able to help me with Landon during the recovery. I couldn't have done this without her help! We're actually in Idaho Falls right now because I had my last follow-up appointment today. The surgeon said I'm healing up well and I can start working out more rigorously. It's been so nice to not have to take acid reflux medicine. I only wish I would have done this sooner! I'm trying not to dwell on regret. One plus to having it done now is it was free since I met my deductible with having a c-section and I have 100% coverage after the deductible. Anyway, I've been struggling with acid reflux since I was a young girl and I've tried about everything under the sun to try to fix it. I've tried different drinks, heavy medication, all kinds of dietary changes, seen all kinds of doctors, energy kinesiology, ignoring it, supplements, elevating the head of my bed...you name it I've tried it. So now after all these years of dealing with this issue, you can only imagine how relieved I am to be done with it for good (I hope!). So far so good.

My biggest frustration with this issue is the effect that it has had on my vocal cords. The acid has caused some real damage and my voice has slowly deteriorated over the years. Many tears have been shed over this. I used to love to sing, but by the time I finished high school, it was so frustrating because my voice was so undependable (it was also from allergies, but I've got that under control now with allergy shots). I've kind of given up on singing too much, because I've been unhappy with my damaged voice and it has hurt to sing. So now I'm hoping that my vocal cords might heal up enough that singing will become easy once again. I had pretty much given up on what had been my passion and pushed it out of my life, and now I'm hoping to be able to open up that door again. I need to be patient and give my voice time to heal. But I'm feeling hope and that's something I've been wanting for a long time.

So basically, I spent September going to doctors and having several tests done to make sure I was a good candidate for this surgery. Then I spent October storing up 5 days worth of breastmilk for Landon. Then I spent November healing from surgery. It was worth every minute. I can already tell my throat is feeling better. I have a lot of faith that this surgery will last my lifetime. If you have made it this far, sorry for bombarding you with so much personal stuff. But it feels good to get it out. So thanks for reading.

To add to the list, Brad and I are speaking in church on Sunday. If any of you have any great ideas on family traditions that remind us of Christ at Christmastime, I'd love to hear them. That's what my talk is on. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Thanksgiving Fun!

For Thanksgiving we traveled to Smithfield, Utah to spend time with Brad's family. Most of Tammy's family was there so they all got to meet Landon. It was a short visit, but we had a nice time. Of course lots of great food, thanks to Tammy. My favorite was the homemade cranberry sauce. So good! Here are a few pics from the day:

Our little family

Landon with his Great Grandpa Wagstaff

Landon with his Great Aunt Terilyn

Landon snuggling up with Aunt Allison

What a jolly little fellow!

Landon is 4 months old!!!

Our sweet little Landon turned 4 months old yesterday. I'm not sure how it's possible, but he just gets sweeter every day! He really is such a good baby. Most of the time he only cries if he is overtired or if he is hungry. I'm finding that it is very empowering as a mother when you start to figure out what the different cries mean and what he needs. The first couple of months I kept finding myself puzzled. The last couple of months have gotten easier with reading his cues. He nurses really well (sometimes he's a sleepyhead) and he's a great napper. I sometimes have to wake him up from a nap to feed him during the day. As for the night time sleep, it's hit or miss, which is okay at this point. Sometimes he wakes up a few times at night, sometimes not at all. On average I feed him 1-2 times per night and he goes right back to bed. Yes, I am tired. But most new moms are, right!? I've read several books (Babywise; Baby Whisperer; Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child; What to Expect...; Baby Center...; don't worry I only bought a couple, I make good use of the library) and I've applied what I like from them. I'm trying to figure out a good routine for him and I find this all very interesting (and a little confusing at times) so I have another couple of books on the way. I'll let you know if they are good resources.

Anyway, I just love being a mom to this little guy. He really does make my life seem more complete. His smile warms my heart and being with him helps me focus on the present because I want to cherish every minute with him! Brad and I can't imagine our lives without him.

Landon had his 4 month check-up on Monday. Here are the stats:

* Height: 24 3/4 inch (50th %)
* Weight: 14 lbs 5 oz (50th %)
* Head Circumference: ? (25th %)

What he can do:

• sit in his Bumbo for up to 10 minutes
• lift his head during tummy time
• let me know very clearly when he is ready to be done with tummy time:)
• bat at his toys on his activity mat
• entertain himself for a bit so mom can get some studying or cleaning done
• giggle with delight when we play patty-cake or peek-a-boo
• wriggle his way into the corner of his crib
• kick his legs the entire time I am changing his diaper or dressing him
• suck on his thumb or entire hand
• soothe himself to sleep (such a blessing!)
• stick his toys in his mouth
• make gurgling and growling sounds
• make mom fall head over heels for him with his sweet smile and big blue eyes

Here are a few pics I took today:

Our smiley boy
Big blue eyes
Everything in the mouth
His favorite toy...the activity mat from Grandma Roper

Treadmill, Finally

Shanna has wanted a treadmill for a long time. We finally decided to take the dive and buy one. We both did a ton of research on treadmills in our price range. We shopped and shopped until we dropped the money and bought one. We have loved it so far. It has been great for Shanna's surgery recovery and getting into shape for PTC(personal training certification). With it so cold out it is hard to run/walk outside and now with Landon it makes even more difficult. I have to admit that I have only walked on it a few times for maybe a few minutes. But in my defence I have already dropped 20+ pounds just from working since August. Not to say that that is the only reason to use a treadmill. Anyway here is a picture of our trusty treadmill.