To my sweet sweet Bennett Journey, B-nut, Goose, Stink stink,

You turned 8 months old this week. You  bring me so much joy everyday. When people see you, they often tell me, “That’s a baby who just loves life.” It’s so true. You have an infectious joy about you. You bring a smile to everyone you meet.

You have a shy quality to your joyous personality. You often retreat to my arms and bury your face into my chest when you’re unsure of your surroundings. Loud noises and busy surroundings are sometimes hard for you to handle and make you uneasy.

You love to spend quality time with people, the one on one, all distractions put aside. You love to be verbally praised and react to a stern tone more than anything else.

You take after your daddy and I because you’re a very determined baby. When you decide you want something or want to do something, you find a way to do it.

You have started to realize that you can make us laugh and will continue to do whatever made us laugh in the first place. That’s a daddy trait. I hope you keep that trait. 🙂

You love to move. Jumping is your favorite and you rather stand and balance than sit. You are mobile and have just started to rock on your hands and knee’s. You’ll roll and scoot all around the room though. You’ll take steps if someone is holding your hands and you’ll take steps if you’re holding onto a standing object.

You’re extremely verbal, just not in public. You’re saying dada and mama almost everyday and you love to babble. You’re extremely quiet though in public. You are an observer when out and about. You love to sit outside and watch your surroundings, birds, leaves, clouds, or cars. People interest you and you love to observe them. You’re a people watcher, just like me.

You enjoy music and dancing. Anything that makes a sound that you can control, excites you. Daddy playing guitar mesmerizes you. We listen to pandora and are constantly singing throughout the day.

You’ve brought so much love and joy into my life these past 8 months. I am so thankful for you and the little boy you’re turning into. I love you Goose!

I did this when B was first born, so I thought that it would be fun to do the list again! What are my must haves now that B is 8 months old?

My number 1 must have:

NUK Pacifier – These have been absolutely essential in this household for Mr. B as he has been teething these past couple of months. We JUST cut through with our first bottom tooth so putting Mr. B to bed wouldn’t be NEARLY as easy without a paci. For over 6 months, he didn’t go to bed with a paci but the past 2, we have put him down with one so I don’t have to comfort nurse him constantly. I then go in before I go to bed and take it out of his mouth.  

My #2 & #3:

Ok, my 2 and 3 are tied. My Bob revolution stroller and my Tula are used almost everyday. Without these two items, we wouldn’t be able to leave the house as easily. The bob stroller was my must have before I was pregnant and the Tula became a must have after B outgrew our Moby wrap. The Bob is SO easy to push and is GREAT for runs and walks and whenever B no longer want to ride in the stroller, wearing him in the Tula is just as easy. The Tula allows me to easily take B to places where strollers are not easy to bring or if I need to use both my hands, like the post office, I just wear him and voila! Easy peasy. We spend everyday outside so without these, I would be lost.

My #4:

White noise. We introduced a white noise fan into B’s nap times and at night and it has been fantastic. It allows us to watch tv, clean the house and resume a normal life after B goes to bed. We mainly started using it to help drown out our neighbors dog who barks all night long.

My #5:

Hyland teething tablets. These are wonderful. They have really helped us through the vicious teething cycle.

My #6:

Aden and Anais blankets. We had these when B was first born but never used them. They weren’t warm enough to use as a blanket and B didn’t like being swaddled. Now? We use them constantly. B get’s so distracted when going down for a nap or to sleep so I cover his face with an aden and anais blanket and it helps him relax and calm down. I also put one in his arm when he goes to down to sleep because it’s so light weight that he doesn’t sweat as much whenever he pulls it over his head.

My #7:

This guy. I couldn’t do it without him. He is such an amazing dad to Bennett and I am so blessed to call him mine. He helps me out even after long days of school and work and reminding me that I am loved.

My #8

We clicked from day one. Friendships like this don’t come around often and I’m so thankful that we get to do motherhood together. I’m adding her into my current favorites because there are definitely days that I don’t think I could do the everyday without her.

Those are all I can really think of right now. I might come back and edit this later on BUT I think that’s a pretty good list of my must haves now that B is 8 months old. 🙂

This isn’t an inspiring post. Just another day as a mom post. We had a long night in the Relbot household last night. It was actually terrifying at times. I’m actually surprised the computer that  I’m typing on is still in working order after Patrick threw it on the ground trying to run upstairs while I screamed for his help.

Please stop reading if vomit makes you vomit. 

Rewind. Yesterday was a great day. B slept in (WHAT?), then he took very very long naps and was rather laid back all day. We just contributed it all to a growth spurt. What parent doesn’t rejoice when their child sleeps in and then takes long naps and doesn’t cry all day?! All was great through dinner and bedtime. He went down a little early and I rejoiced again at a laid back bedtime routine and the chance to get some work done in my office.

I put B down and he immediately fell asleep and I went into my office to work on some sessions. I always have Dropcam (our baby monitor) pulled up in another tab and will periodically check on him to make sure he’s still sleeping. After about 30 minutes, I could hear B rolling around. I went in, straightened out his covers, pulled him back to the bottom of the crib and he fell back asleep. Back to my office I went. I then heard him cough so I pulled up the dropcam tab and I couldn’t get to him fast enough. Dropcam is delayed by a few seconds so I was actually able to see him cough and then he started projectile vomiting.

B hasn’t been sick at all in the past 8 months. Not a cold, not an ear ache, nothing. I don’t take any supermom credit for this, it actually has completely surprised us. So when I see my son projectile vomiting, you can be assured I was in full panic mode. B doesn’t sleep with the lights on so when I first went in his room, my first thought was oh my gosh, he’s spit up blood. It was a dark orange and it was everywhere. I screamed for Patrick and he dropped everything, including the computer to run upstairs. Patrick knows my screams. He knows my PLEASE COME KILL THIS SPIDER scream and my something is horribly wrong scream.

There was vomit everywhere. In the crib, on his blankets, all over him, all over me. EVERYWHERE. In the moment though, you don’t care. I grabbed him, held him to my chest and let him continue to vomit all over me. It just didn’t matter.

So, into the bathroom we went where we both stripped off our vomit covered clothing and Patrick gave B a bath. We repeated our bedtime routine, thinking that it was the end of it but no. After about 5 minutes of nursing, again there was projectile vomiting everywhere. It’s like someone hooked up a fire hose to B’s mouth and was spraying stomach contents all over me, the rocking chair, his clothes again… my clothes again… It was horrible. My poor baby would go slouchy limp after every time he would vomit. At that point I told Patrick we should go to the ER. I wasn’t afraid over the fact that he was vomiting, I was more afraid that I couldn’t nurse him without him vomiting. I was afraid dehydration would set in. We called the after hours nurse who gave us instructions on how to nurse him, when we should consider an ER trip etc. We settled in for a long night and this mama got very little sleep.

I told you this wasn’t going to be an inspirational post. Just a blog post about Bennett’s first time getting sick. We are praying for a better day today because we have SO much going on this weekend including birthday parties, weddings and cookouts.

That’s the thing. When your child is sick, everything else doesn’t matter. Say a prayer for Mr. B if you get the chance. No vomit this morning, we are just waiting for him to re hydrate and give us some good pee diapers. 🙂