State of Our Household [Month 5]

Month 5?!  Wow!  I know I always say this, but where does the time go.  At this rate, Kaiden will be starting college any day now. 🙂

But seriously, five months feels like a big milestone.  This is probably due to the fact that K really grew a lot over the past month.  We can really see the little boy he’s soon about to be.  Super duper cute, charming, funny, sweet, and kind!  I just love my little guy so much.

With that, let’s get into some ‘state of our household’ updates…

STATE OF KAIDEN

In one word, Kaiden is gem of a little human.  I’m sure every mom thinks and says this, but he’s seriously the best and we thank our lucky stars for bringing him into our lives.

He’s so super playful and fun.  And his smile…don’t even get me started!  It melts my heart.  My favorite way to interact with him is to lay him on our bed and kiss him all over.  The faces and sounds he makes are precious!

The babbling is also so fun to listen to…my favorite sounds right now.  It’s like he has SO MUCH to say!

Another fun development over the course this month was being able to use Kaiden’s jumperoo.  This guy LOVES to jump.  Whenever he’s cranky, all we have to do is hold him upright and he’ll turn that frown upside down and replace it with giggles.  It’s also an insane arm workout!  Funny story related to the jumperoo.  I put him in one day, and before I knew it, he was jumping so fast and high it brought him to tears!  I took him out immediately and held him for like 30 minutes.  So scary (for him) yet so freaking cute (for me).

Don’t let this update fool you into thinking everything’s perfect.  We have faced our fair share of challenges this month.  As I mentioned in Monday’s post, K is definitely teething and experiencing some pain + tears (his and mine if I’m being honest) with that.  And other than massaging his gums, giving him teething toys, and cuddling him as much as possible, there’s not much we can do.

Also, while his nighttime sleeping is still going ok so far (again, knocking on all the wood I can find!), naps are still hit or miss.  Earlier this week, I threw out the idea of bringing back the Rock n’ Play for nap time.  And guess what…it’s working!  Kaiden refused to sit in this thing from months 1-4 and now it’s the only way he’ll sleep and stay asleep.  With better quality/longer naps over the past couple of days, we’ve seen an improvement in his overall demeanor too.  Phew!

We’re also still working on tummy time and rolling over.  He still hates it, but every day we make a little progress.  This Baby Einstein Glow and Discover toy my in-laws bought is helping a bit.

Other than that, we’re living life and having a blast.  Some days are tiring and challenging (for everyone…ha!), but we recognize K’s only going to be so small for so long, so we try to savor each moment as it comes (not the bad so much but definitely the good!).

STATE OF MAMA

Mama is doing well.  I started back at work exactly a month ago, and so far, things are going great.  Of course, I attribute all of this to my dad staying with us.  I’m so thankful to be able to take one transition at a time before adding something else into the mix (next up…daycare…dun dun dun).

Because it’s the end of the year, work is slower than usual.  This would normally drive me crazy, but with everything else I have going on, I don’t mind.  It’s nice to ease back into it all…really helps with the whole work/life integration thing.

I obviously miss K like crazy while I’m away.  But Vishnu was right.  Coming home is the best part of my day, and because I’ve been gone, I’m able to stay present and enjoy the few hours I do get with my baby.

What else?  I still wake up pretty early (4 am hour) to pump and workout (a few times a week).  Coffee is my lifeline, however, I do limit my intake to two cups a day.  I still struggle with the balance between getting things done and learning to enjoy the moment.  I have a feeling this is something I may never resolve, but believe it or not, motherhood has calmed my type-A traits/quirks down quite a bit.  There’s only so much you can do/expect when a tiny human rules your house!

As I’ve mentioned before, ‘one day at a time’ is now my motto.  Sometimes I take it a step further and tell myself, ‘one moment at at time.’  Especially when the going gets tough.  Over the past five months, motherhood has taught me that the only way to enjoy my new role/life is to ground myself fully in the present.  Nothing lasts forever….good or bad.  And in the grand scheme of things, this is such a short period of time in K’s life, and we need to soak it all in.

With all of that being said, I’m pretty much wiped at the end of the day.  As soon as my head hits the pillow, I’m out!

STATE OF DADDY

Vishnu’s doing ok too!  Work is still busy, as he recently started the hardest/most time consuming rotation.  BUT, on the flip side, we learned that his call schedule for next year isn’t as bad as we originally thought it would be.  Yay!

Personally, I saw Vishnu and K’s relationship grow tenfold this past month.  It’s so fun watching their bond grow, especially because I know how concerned Vishnu was at first.  Kaiden truly loves his daddy and it shows…now more than ever.  Vishnu makes it a point to be super active with K doing all the things he loves, namely letting him bounce in his lap and taking assisted laps around the apartment.

STATE OF PAR AND VISHNU

Par and Vishnu are still going strong despite feeling like there’s never enough ‘us’ time!  With Vishnu’s schedule easing up over the next few weekends (until the end of December that is), we hope to go on a couple of dates and generally spend more time together.

With that, on to month six…starting solids and experiencing more fun adventures!

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