Mason 18 months

Mason Alan 18 months

Mason Alan, you are 18 months old! What have you been up to these past couple of months?

Weight: 26 pounds (72nd percentile)

Height: 31.75 inches (21st percentile)

Head circumference: 19.7 inches (97th percentile)

Size 18-24 months or 2 T clothes. You are a solid dude!

You take after Daddy and have a big head.

Your sleep habits haven't changed. Thank goodness you are a good sleeper. Never change that, okay?

It seems like overnight you have turned the corner into a full blown toddler! You are exploring everything. All of a sudden, you want to be doing anything and everything Matthew and Mollie are doing. You try to keep up with the big kids!

Mason, for 18 months, you were my absolute easy going, do whatever, content kid. Now don't get me wrong, you still are pretty easy going, but lately you have shown us a little temper when you get mad. I'm not used to you being naughty or disobeying that it's almost cute when you choose to hit or throw something. You are learning how to sit in time out. It's secretly absolutely adorable to watch you sit on the stairs in time out.

You absolutely love your cousin Caleb. He is so attentive and sweet to you, and your feelings towards him are mutual. You talk about him during the week and are absolutely giddy when you get to see him. Family is such a gift!

Goodness you are the love bug of our family right now. You LOVE to snuggle and give hugs.

Your vocabulary is exploding! Every day you are learning new words. You are putting together 2 word phrases.

You try to run, but you just aren't there yet. I think because you started walking pretty late that it will just take some more time. You try so hard to keep up with your big brother and sister though!

You are a great eater, obviously. You LOVE eggs, yogurt, oatmeal, cheese, any kind of berries, frozen blueberries and toast. 

You love to color and play playdoh.

You were sick with a cold and a fever on Halloween. You dressed up as a puppy dog, but cried through the pictures. You stayed home and a had a quiet night with Gabby.

You love your little brother. What an amazing transition you have made into the role of big brother. We are so proud of you!

Mason Alan, we love you to the moon and back!

Miles 2 months

Miles Patrick you are 2 months old!

What have you been up to this past month?

Weight: 9 pounds 7 ounces (.94 percentile) 

Height: 22 inches (5th percentile)

Head circumference: 15.75 inches (68th percentile)

Dr. Kolsky was concerned about your weight since at your 1 month appointment you were in the 40th percentile for weight, and this month you were below the 1st percentile for weight! You spit up ALL.THE.TIME. After I nurse you, it literally seems like you throw up everything that I just fed you. You need frequent burping, and end up going through multiple burp cloths, bibs and outfits daily. It seems like I don't get to see your cute clothes very often, because they are either covered up by a bib or soaking wet with spit up! Thankfully, spitting up does not bother you at all. You don't even seem to notice that it happens and for that I am so grateful!

The transition to 4 little kids has been great. Life doesn't stop, you just fit right in and come along for the ride! You have such a laid back, easy personality that it has made the change easier. You fall asleep in the car seat and do great being toted around from place to place, activity to activity. 

You are beginning to have more awake periods. You have a couple hours where you are awake in both the morning and evening. You are the sleepiest in the middle of the day. 

You still wear newborn size diapers and mostly newborn clothes. You can fit into a few of your 0-3 month outfits.

Nursing is going well. You nurse every 3 hours during the day.

At night you are sleeping 4-5 hour stretches. I feel horrible because you will wake up at night because you have spit up everywhere. To help with the spit up, we have the head of your bassinet slightly elevated. You still sleep in the bassinet in our room.

You got your first set of shots this month and tolerated them well!

You have the biggest, most charming brown eyes.

Besides the constant spitting up, you are an absolute dream baby. So easy and content!

You cry when you are tired or hungry. You will also stop crying almost immediately when someone picks you up. I think being 4th child, you are learning to cherish those times you get held!

You are a cuddler, and loves to sleep upright on our chests.

At home, you sit in the bouncy seat or on the boppy, watching the chaos of your brothers and sister playing around you! 

Although they are not your favorite, you are tolerating baths better. I tend to just shower with you instead.

You still have lots of hair. It gets oily fast from all the little fingers touching it and kisses you receive!

Your brothers and sisters love you. Matthew and Mason like to say hi, and hold you for a few minutes at a time. Your sister on the other hand, is like a second mommy to you. She LOVES to hold you, and is a big helper!

You got circumcised at 5 weeks of age. You did great!

You love to be swaddled. You sleep swaddled at night and for some of your naps during the day. If you are ever fussy, we can just swaddle you up and it seems to settle you right now. 

During tummy time, you just lay your head down and fall asleep. Your brother Mason used to do the same thing!

You take the bottle really well.

 Grandpa and Gabby love to babysit you! 

You stay with Banna every Monday and Wednesday when I take Matthew to preschool. What a special time you get with her, all to yourself!

We love our Fridays with Gabby!

No smiles yet, they're coming though!

You love to hold your head up and look all around.

You are tracking fingers held up in front of your face really well.

Miles Patrick, we love you so much sweet baby! What a little blessing you are to our family!

Mason 16 months

 Mason Alan you are 16 months old!

What have you been up to these past couple of months? 

 

At your 15 month well child check:

Weight: 25 pounds (80th percentile)

Height: 31.25 inches ( 51st percentile)

Head circumference: 19.5 inches ( 98th percentile)

 You are a big boy. You aren't a very chunky, rolly polly boy, just solid as can be! You wear 18-24 month clothes. You wear size 4 diapers.

You absolutely love your crib and love sleeping! You sleep from about 7pm-7am and you take about a 3 hour nap each afternoon. You sleep with your old and your new stuffed giraffe, your paci, a blanket and your sound machine on.

One night when going to bed, Daddy and I were sitting on the couch. We told you that it was time to go to bed. You started walking towards the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs, you turned around and said "Nigh, nigh", waved and started crawling up the stairs. It was so sweet.

At 15 months you can walk across a room. You still crawl about 50% of the time. 

Finally, at 15 1/2 months you started officially walking everywhere. You seem so proud, and will just walk around and around our house. 

You can go up and down the stairs. You like to try and be a big boy and walk down the stairs, which you can't do safely, so you need need lots of reminders to go down backwards.

You love to play with your shoes but don't like to put them on.

You love food. You honestly will eat just about anything we put in front of you. We call you the garbage disposal because you will eat all of Matthew and Mollie's leftover food. You LOVE apples, eggs, Veggie Straws, string cheese and milk.

You have had a rough time teething. You are fussy and extra tired.

Your vocabulary is growing every day! You say a lot of words, but usually only say the first sound of the word.

You nod and say "yes" or "no" to questions appropriately.

You LOVE bath time and splashing with your brother and sister.

You absolutely love brushing your teeth.

You love when Daddy lays on the ground and you crawl all over him, and "wrestle"

You love keys. When Gabby is over, you immediately want her purse, so you can dig in it and find her keys.

If you are outside, you love being in the dirt, making a mess and working with Daddy.

Mason Alan, you seem soo big after having a tiny little baby brother! You absolutely love Miles. You call him "Muh". You love to kiss Miles and give him hugs with your enormous head. We do have to put Miles and his bouncy seat up on the table because you also love to crawl on top of him and bounce his seat way too hard! Oh the joys of 2 babies 14.5 months apart. Seriously though, you have adjusted wonderfully to having a new baby brother. You are so interested in him and have assumed the role of big brother perfectly! I couldn't be happier about this. You two are going to be best of buds in no time!

Mason Alan, you are just in the sweetest stage. Don't ever change buddy! We love you so much!

Miles 1 month

How in the world are you one month old already? Although you are still tiny, you seem like you are growing everyday! I think because you are our last baby, I am trying to savor and remember each moment with you.  The teeny tiny newborn stage is absolutely precious and one of my favorites. You are just the sweetest thing ever and we are so in love with you!!

What have you been up to during your first month of life?

Well, you sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep and sleep even more, we wake you up to feed, you pee, you poop every few days, and you go back to sleep. You are a pretty easy little guy! Thank goodness!

You have breastmilk jaundice, so we had to do home phototherapy. Your bili levels have been very slow to come down, so you spent your first week of life on a bilibed at home. I'm so thankful you were able to stay at home, but it was really hard having you just sleeping on the bilibed and not cuddled in our arms! We had to wake you every 2 hours to feed. This was challenging because you were so sleepy! We also had to syringe feed you after each feeding because you were so hard to keep awake while you nursed! It was a long and exhausting week, but we are so thankful that you are healthy! You are still jaundiced but it will take awhile for it to go away completely.

You sleep about 20-22 hours a day. You have very small periods of awake times, most of those being while you are nursing. We don't get to see those sweet, dark brown eyes very often! You have been sleeping great at night. I nurse you about 10pm, 2am and 6am when we get up for the day. After nursing at night, you go right back to sleep. You nurse every 3 hours during the day. Most of your daytime feedings I have to wake you for. Since you were almost 4 weeks early, we expected you to be a sleepy little guy!

Our one and only, you still have a full head of dark hair. Everyone loves to rub and touch your sweet head, so your hair tends to get oily quickly. I love after you have just had a bath and your hair is so clean, soft and sticks straight up! Bath time tends to be very quick because you don't particularly enjoy it.

You love your paci. It is very soothing for you. Lots of times you take your paci with such vigor and just chomp away on it.

You wear newborn diapers and newborn sized clothes. You have such skinny little arms and legs.

You sleep swaddled at night. You like to be swaddled but you don't need it all the time when you sleep during the day.

You love to snuggle on a warm chest, but you also really like to sit in your bouncy seat or on your boppy.

The Ergo puts you to sleep immediately. This makes trips to Costco with four kids and one Momma much easier!

After about 3 weeks, I got the hang of how to best nurse you and you finally figured nursing out. You were SO sleepy for the first couple weeks, but nursing is much improved and you now nurse for about 10 minutes on each side.

You absolutely have to be burped after you nurse. I've never had a baby who has spit up much at all, but you have started to spit up quite a bit after each feeding. Both you and I go through multiple outfit changes, bibs and burp cloths throughout the day!

Thankfully, you rarely ever cry. If you are hungry, tired or cold you will fuss and as soon as we take care of the problem or pick you up, you will calm down immediately. You are such a content little guy!

We love you Miles, and are so thankful for your sweet, easy, laid back personality. Thank goodness because I don't know how we'd survive a fussy, needy fourth baby. God always know what He's doing and what our family needed when He gave us you!

Miles Patrick, birth story

Some nights I lay down in bed completely in awe that at 29 years old Matt and I have been blessed with 4 beautiful children ages 4 and under. Most nights we just collapse from sheer exhaustion! I am continually amazed and humbled at the responsibility and privilege that God has placed on us, as parents to our now 4 children to raise them in the nurture and admonition of The Lord! I'm in awe at how perfectly created our Heavenly Father has made each of our children uniquely different and special.

I still vividly remember the day that I found out I was pregnant with Baby #4. Mason was almost 6 months old and at that time having another baby wasn't even on my mind. I already had a baby, as well as a 2 and 3 year old! I missed my period, although I didn't think too much of it since I was still nursing Mason, I wasn't feeling great, was slightly bloated and just had that sense that I should take a pregnancy test. I remember walking out of my bedroom to the top of the stairs, saw Matt and just said "I'm pregnant." Now don't get me wrong, I was very excited that God had blessed us with another pregnancy but it was very unexpected. I had to tell people fairly early on because I started to show by 8 weeks. I loved the responses I got from people because it was either that they were very excited for us, or they rolled their eyes completely not surprised that Matt and Cammie were pregnant again! At 20 weeks we found out that we were having another little boy. God knew one girl was enough for our family. Mollie will have 3 brothers all protecting and looking out for our little princess!

This pregnancy was by far my most uncomfortable and miserable pregnancy. 4 pregnancies in 4 years took a toll on my body. I had so many aches and pains, especially in my back and hips. Plus, I was completely exhausted from chasing around 3 little ones! This is the point where I get to brag on my husband because he was super Daddy, especially during the last couple months of my pregnancy when he was on summer break and I was miserable. My kiddos and I got spoiled daily by Daddy and he was a huge help with our kids and the house. I think Matt was so glad when I finally gave birth though!

At 36 weeks I could just tell that I was close to having this baby. On Saturday August 8th, we had a busy day. My mom gave me a baby shower that morning, where I was blessed with diapers and clothes from my dear friends and family, and we spent the afternoon at a family reunion. I had been having some random contractions but nothing regular, just exhausted, sore, huge, worn out,....done being pregnant! At 4:00pm, I had a few strong contractions and while in the bathroom at home, my water broke. It was time!

However, after my water broke my contractions stopped. My midwife had me stay home to see if labor would start on its own. Later that evening I ended up having to go into the hospital because my Group-B strep results weren't back yet. They ran a rapid Group-B strep test and did a non-stress test to make sure baby boy was doing fine. My Group-B came back negative and baby looked great, so about 10:00pm my midwife sent me home for the night to get some sleep and to come back in the morning for an induction.

I ended up having contractions throughout the night, but when I got up in the morning to shower, they stopped completely! We got the kids up and ready and my dad took Matthew and Mollie to church where they would spend the next couple of days with Aunt Amy, Uncle Kevin and their cousins. Matthew was thrilled, Mollie cried. I'm so thankful for family who loves our family and kids as their own. Bami came over to our house to take care of Mason there. With everyone set, my mom, Matt and I headed to the hospital to have a baby!

I started Pitocin about 8:30am. I was 3 cm dilated. By about 9:30 am I was having strong regular contractions, 3 minutes apart. Since I have had three previous natural, non-medicated births, I knew that this one would be no different. However, in the midst of painful, intense contractions, I dreamed of an epidural! Throughout the morning I walked the hallways and bounced on the labor ball. Around 12:30 my contractions seemed to really change and I began to feel the urge to push. My midwife checked me and baby was low but I was only 5 cm dilated. Needless to say I was a little frustrated and disappointed with my progress. My labor continued to be hard and intense.

During all of this, we still hadn't been able to decide on baby boy's name! We had decided that it was going to start with an "M" and had a list of about 4 names, but no winner yet. Finally, during labor we buckled down and Matt decided his name was going to be Miles Patrick. I loved it! Miles after my Pa's middle name and Patrick after Matt's dad. Miles Patrick Stevens.

At about 1:55 my midwife stepped out for a couple of minutes to order some food. I had 2 really intense contractions, during which I felt like I had to push again. Since it was only about an hour and a half earlier that I was checked and only 5cm, I was determined that I wasn't going to have my midwife check me again until it was really time to push. I didn't want to be disappointed by my lack of progress again. I decided that maybe I just needed to go to the bathroom (insert, WRONG choice!). Immediately after sitting down, I knew that I did not have to go to the bathroom, but that it really was time for baby, and NOW! I literally had to run to bed, my mom trailing after me with my IV pole. I had to leap into bed, because I had it elevated so I could stand and lean against it during labor. Immediately after getting into bed, Miles was born, self delivered, right on the bed. It all happened so fast he was just laying there on the bed, curled up in a little ball, not even aware he had just been born! My midwife walked (ran!) into the room just as I was delivering. She ran over, grabbed Miles and put him up on my chest. During all this (which was literally about 15 seconds), Matt stood I think in shock at how fast everything just happened. Miles just lay, so calm, perfect, pink, and wide eyed on my chest, not even letting out a cry. The one thing all of us couldn't believe was that Miles had a head full of hair! I always wished I had a baby with hair, but after having three bald babies, I never imagined that #4 would have hair, let alone dark, black hair. We all couldn't stop laughing and smiling at what just happened. I remember feeling so relieved that it was all over and our fourth baby was really here!

Miles Patrick Stevens

Born 8/9/2015 at 2:00 pm

7 pounds, 19.5 inches

He layed in my chest and nursed for about an hour. After that, I got up and dressed and Miles was wrapped up and passed around to an eager Daddy, Gabby and Grandma. Because Miles was 3.5 weeks early, they had to check his blood sugar. He nursed great, but it ended up that he had a very low blood sugar. I had to nurse a bit more frequently throughout the day, Miles had to have his blood sugar checked often, but we were able to steer clear of a visit to the NICU.

Aunt Amy, Papa and the kids came to visit. Matthew said "hi!" to Miles but was way more interested in the present that Miles had brought to him. Mollie was so fascinated with her new baby brother. She didn't want to pass him around and just wanted to hold him and kiss him. Grandpa brought Mason and Banna to come meet Miles too. Mason gave Miles a few sweet kisses on his head and was most interested in the snacks we had for him. The evening we ordered pizza and enjoyed a quiet night at the hospital.

The next morning Matt and I were so eager to get out of the hospital and bring our little guy home. Turns out that Miles had an elevated bilirubin and was starting to develop jaundice. The doctor had us wait about 8 hours to recheck his bili level. His level went up even more. It felt like a long day, anxious to get home. Our doctor felt comfortable with us heading home that evening with plans to return in the morning for another bili check. His bili level continued to creep up but wasn't at a level that required phototherapy just yet. We had an appointment with my pediatrician the next day and had another bili level drawn. This time his bili level went up to the point where we had to start home phototherapy. Miles ended up having to be on the bili lights for 6 days. I'm so thankful that we were able to do phototherapy at our house, but it's hard having a newborn baby you want to love and cuddle on, yet all you can do it nurse him and then put him right back on the bili lights. It also made for a tiring and challenging 6 days, having to try to wake and feed a very sleepy baby every 2 hours. Needless to say, we were all so happy when Miles was healthy enough to come off the bili lights!

Matthew, Mollie and Mason have loved having a little baby brother. Matthew loves to kiss and talk to Miles. He will hold him for a few minutes and then is off to play and explore. Mollie is my little helper. She loves to help change diapers, retrieve a new burp cloth, or grab the wipes. She will sit and hold Miles like she's been holding babies for years. Mason calls baby Miles "Muh". He loves to point at his baby brother and gives him the sweetest kisses and constantly hugs Miles by placing his head on Miles. So far our transition to 4 kids has been wonderful!

Miles Patrick, you complete our family and are so excited to love you, nurture you and watch you grow (but not too fast, okay?). Welcome to this world sweet baby boy!

 

 

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Mason Alan 14 months

Mason Alan you are 14 months old!

What have you been up to this past month???

You are SO much fun right now. You have such an infectious smile, a sweet personality and are learning new things every day! You are at a busy age, moving from toy to toy upstairs to downstairs, happy to sad and back again!

You crawl everywhere! It's about time you start walking, but for now all you do is pull up and walk along furniture.

You let go of things when standing. Instead of taking any steps, you will dive with your head towards us and give cuddles. It's one of your favorite games.

Finally, at 14 months and 3 weeks you finally starting taking up to 4 steps at a time. You've done everything slow and steady and you'll be cruising before we know it!

You can crawl up stairs and have almost learned how to crawl down them too.

You love to play with empty water bottles, balloons and your favorite toy, balls.

You say "Oooooh" and "whoa" to new or exciting things,

Your new words are bubble, mama and dada.

Speaking of Daddy, you are such a daddy's boy. You love your mommy, but you absolutely light up for Daddy. Since Mommy has been so big and pregnant, and since Daddy has been off for the summer, you have spent so much time being Daddy's little side kick.

Mason, you love to swing, be outside, ride in your car, and dig in the dirt or sand. All boy!

We have had a hot summer, so it's a good thing that you absolutely love water! You play with the water table but your favorite is the kiddie pool. You crawl right into the pool, turn yourself around and sit down, and splash your arms and smile with such satisfaction! It's pretty adorable, but then again I think just about anything you do these days is pretty cute!

You went on Grandpa's boat for the first time. You loved swimming in the lake, but you weren't too sure about wearing a life jacket. You watched your bro bro and sissy inner tube for awhile and then fell asleep.

You have such a sweet, easy going personality, but you are starting to show your stubborn side. You have a little temper at times, especially when changing your diaper, getting into your car seat or riding in the car. You will throw a toy or hit whoever is within arms reach when you get upset. You are learning how to sit in time out!

You so badly want to be with the big kids. You are starting to play a lot more with your brother and sissy, but just can't keep up most of the time. You love to poke Matthew's belly button and giggle, and play in your crib with Sissy.

At 14.5 months you became a big brother!!!! Seriously, overnight you seem so big compared to your tiny little brother. You love to point at Miles and you call him "Muh". You like to kiss his head and give him hugs with your head. Miles sat in your lap one day and you were so proud and happy. You were gentle and ever so sweetly kissed his head. Melted our hearts! I'm so excited to see your relationship with Miles. You two will be best buddies!

Mason Alan, what a joy you are to our family!

 

 

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Mason Alan 1 year old

Mason Alan you are one year old!!

Mason Alan, you are such a light in our family. Sometimes Daddy and I will be talking on our crazy busy days when it seems like your brother and sissy are fighting and pushing our buttons all day long and we always say "Thank goodness for Mase!" God knew exactly what our family needed when He gave us you! You are happy, laid back, sweet, lovable and predictable. I can't believe you are ONE but I can't wait to see the little boy you are starting to grow in to. We have cherished our time with you this past year and are so blessed to call you our son!

You wear size 18-24 month clothes and size 4 diapers. You are a solid little chunk!

You're the best sleeper! You usually take 1 nap a day for 3-4 hours. Sometimes you will take a little cat napin the car. You sleep at night from about 7:00pm-7:30am. You sleep unswaddled with 1 blanket, a stuffed animal, your boo-boo, and white noise machine on. After a good night sleep you wake up one happy boy!

You love to eat and will eat just about anything and everything. You love fruit, especially bananas and strawberries. Other favorites are cheese, yogurt, PB toast, and eggs. We have started transitioning you over from formula to whole milk and you have done great. You eat with a plate. You have started to throw food at times. You will just smile when we tell you "no" but generally you obey that, for now anyways!

You love your Daddy. You make the same grunt noise every time you wants to gets daddy's attention. Your entire face lights up in a special way for him. You love to grab his beard, climb on him and show him all your toys. Daddy gives you your bedtime bottle and cuddles. It's a special time you two have been sharing together.

You spend most Fridays with Gabby while Mommy works. You are a happy little boy who loves his Gabby, although you are a total stinker and haven't been napping well for Gabby. It's getting better but you are a tired boy come Friday evening!

You LOVE balls. It's absolutely your favorite toy and your favorite word to say. Anytime you see a ball on the floor, outside, downstairs, a picture of a ball or anything round that might resemble a ball you will say "ball" over and over again. You are obsessed.

Other words you are saying are: mama, dada, dog, bro bro, ba ba (bottle) and nana (banana).

You wave hi and bye. You recently started waving by opening and closing your hand. It's pretty cute.

You sign more, thank you and all done,

When you are excited you get all tense, pump your legs and squeeze your fingers in and out.

You have started making a scrunchy smile face. It's my favorite.

At 11 months and 1 week old you learned how to go from lying down to sitting up on your own.

At 11 months and 3 weeks you finally started to crawl!! You are just starting to get the hang of it, but I know you will be flying in no time.

You have been trying to pull up on furniture but have only pulled up on the couch twice so far. You love to stand holding on to furniture and people though. Your balance is much better, although we can't leave you by yourself yet. Again, I know you will be cruising before I know it.

You love to stand on the couch and look outside.

You're still experiencing separation anxiety. It's really hard to even go to the ymca right now, and about 50% of the time we are called out from church because you won't calm down in the church nursery!

You love to take your socks off in the car.

You have 2 bottom teeth and 2 top teeth. A few more are starting to come in. You drool more, are a little fussy and have your fingers in your mouth a lot.

You know where your head and mouth are. You like to poke your bro bros belly button.

You lay your head down on us if we ask you too. It's adorable and turns into a fun game!

In about 3 months you are going to be a big brother!

Happy birthday Mason Alan!!

 

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