Ok, so I totally fell off the blogging wagon. But I'm using Liam's biggest milestone yet as my inspiration to get back to regular updates. That's right, Liam is offiically one year old!! (almost to the minute as of writing this) I don't mind saying that there were plenty of times, especially 9+ months ago, that Kristen and I didn't think we'd ever make it this far. But while some days (and nights) dragged on here and there, the year has completely flown by, and life has been getting better and better as Liam has gotten bigger, more mobile, and more personality.
So, since I haven't written any kind of update since April (!!), here's the month by month blow of what's been going down:
April (Liam at 5 months): Life was really starting to take a turn for the better. Liam was finally sleeping better (5-6 hours at once!!), Kristen and I were starting to feel like semi-normal people instead of half comatose zombies.
May (Liam at 6 months): The dreaded teething began. We probably should have known by this point that Liam doesn't do anything by halves. The crazy drool factory - no problem. Pretty much constant fussiness/screaming during the day - not fun, but nothing we hadn't handled already. Sleeping for only 2 hours at a time at night again - uncool. It's a particularly cruel trick to give new parents a taste of decent sleep and then yank it away again. Pictures start to fall off dramatically. We also discovered that Liam absolutely loves swimming (and water in general -
check out this album for more).
June (Liam at 7 months): We finally see the first two teeth! Right around the start of June the first two bottom incisors poked through, and we finally got a break. For about a week. Then we started on round two of the teething. We didn't think it would be possible, but this bout was even worse than the first. Up to this point, Kristen had still been pumping to give Liam breast milk - unfortunately, right around this time she had a horrible case of mastitis, and was completely knocked out of commission for the better part of a week. Really not a fun time overall. Still, some cute moments captured on film (well, digital film) - like this one. Who needs toys when you've got a box?
July (Liam at 8 months): More teeth come in! We finally realized why this second bout of teething had been so bad - he got all 4 upper incisors at once! No wonder the little guy was so fussy, and he was pretty young to get all these to boot. After these teeth pop in, we get another break. For about a week. Again. And then it's back to crazy fussiness and no sleeping. Again. On the bright side, we also discovered infant Ibuprofen around now, and let me tell you, that stuff is way more effective than plain old Tylenol when the really serious teething starts. Still a dearth of pictures as Kristen and I do our best impression of the walking dead. Really can't remember too much from this month, to be honest, except that it was hot as Hades. Aunt Hannah continued to make regular visits, keeping us sane. Liam started to walk around while holding our hands for support.
August (Liam at 9 months): More teeth!! Liam got his last 2 incisors in (bottom outside), and with these came a true break in the teething madness. Typically children get the molars next after all the incisors, and those don't usually come until much later, so we hoped against hope for a break - and got it. With the cessation of teething came a renewed interest in eating solids on Liam's part. Kristen and I mostly spent the month recuperating and sleeping. Still a bit of a blur. Somewhere in here he really started to crawl pretty aggressively too, if I remember correctly.
September (Liam at 10 months): Blessed sleep! For the first time in his life, Liam suddenly started sleeping fantastically. By the way, whoever came up with the phrase "sleeping like a baby" to mean sleeping long and soundly clearly never had a baby. I digress. Kristen and I were despairing of ever getting sleep, or of looking halfway decent - seriously, when co-workers remark to you that they don't remember you
not looking tired, that's just wrong. I digress. We were even contemplating the "cry it out" method, which we've never personally been fans of, especially given how strong willed Liam can be. The thought of trying to out-stubborn him still gives me the shakes. But magically, he just started sleeping 6, 7, sometimes even 8 hours at a stretch at night. We suddenly remembered what it was like to feel human again. It was like being transported to another planet. The planet Awesome. Where you can sleep. Picture taking started to resume. One morning Kristen captured one of the best set of shots we have of Liam to date - this is one of my favorite.
October (Liam at 11 months): It might have actually been in September, I can't remember exactly, but somewhere around here Liam had his awful bout with a stomach virus. In general we've been really fortunate with Liam regarding his health - he's really never had any serious sicknesses yet. That changed with the stomach bug. One evening we decided to take him out to dinner (as long as there's a patio we're generally ok). He usually always nibbles on whatever we're eating, but he wouldn't eat a thing at dinner, which we thought was weird. Then on the way home came the projectile vomiting. It was seriously like something out of a movie. I have no idea how he could even store that much liquid at one time. It was a very scary thing - it's absolutely terrifying when your small baby can't keep anything down, even water. Fortunately we have a good pediatrician and we got through it mostly unscathed. There were good and bad things out of that episode. On the one hand, Liam suddenly took his bottle wonderfully - prior to that, it was always a struggle to try and feed him. On the other hand, he would pretty much
only take his bottle - we couldn't get him to eat almost anything solid. But we kept at it, and he's mostly back to eating solids pretty regularly, although he has his days where he doesn't seem to want anything.
Liam's physical dexterity has been improving by leaps and bounds lately. For a good 4-6 weeks he's been cruising really well (pulling up on things and then walking along them, e.g. couches, chairs, etc.). Just in the last 2 weeks Kristen and I have been seeing lots of times when he'll pull up on something and then let go and stand unaided for a few seconds before he sits back down. I think he's so close to walking on his own, I can't wait to see it.
So that pretty much brings us up to date. We just had a Halloween/First Birthday party for Liam this last weekend and I posted a bunch of photos from that - be sure and
check out the album! Now that Liam is sleeping through the night pretty regularly, Kristen and I feel like we can actually stay up for an hour or two after he goes to bed, so I'm planning on being better about updating everyone on what's going on. Hope this post finds everyone doing well and enjoying life. Drop us a note sometime and fill us in!
