Keeping Up With the Allens

The Happenings

The weather sure is changing here! We’ve had SUCH a nice fall – so many gorgeous, crisp days! Now we are bracing for a big “storm” that is approaching now and is supposed to last through the weekend…

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We’ve been adjusting really well to our new schedule with both Alex and me being back to work. If I’m not mistaken this is my fourth week back and Alex’s sixth. Our nanny continues to impress us each day with her sweetness and enthusiasm. Ben is in such good hands!

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I am loving working part-time because it allows me the opportunity to spend Mondays and Fridays with Ben. And as it turns out almost all of my friends in Seattle with babies have one of those days off, or they don’t work at all, so I’ve been unexpectedly social on my days off. Most of my friends’ babies are around the same age as Ben so that makes it extra fun!

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Speaking of extra fun, this last week or so has been a major developmental change for Ben. I keep hearing from friends that it just gets more and more fun, and that is certainly holding true for us.

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Last week at Ben’s doctor’s appointment he grabbed a tongue depressor from the doctor’s hand and brought it to his mouth – that was the first time I had seen him do that with intention. In the weeks leading up to that he had been exploring his hands and was becoming obsessed with sucking his thumb, but he hadn’t quite figured out that he could put other things in his mouth.

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It’s been quite helpful now that we’ve gotten confirmation that he’s teething. He has been a little more temperamental, but at the same time, he’s had so many moments of enjoyment for longer and longer periods of time. We’re still figuring out how to help him manage any discomfort with teething, but so far it seems like he’s hanging in there – some times more so than others!

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Ben is SO close to rolling from his back to his tummy. He gets up onto his side and teeters a little bit and then hangs out on his side. One day soon, we keep saying, he’ll roll all the way over. He seems to have really good body control and awareness, but we’re not sure he knows it’s a possibility that he can roll over all the way. We’re confident he’ll figure it out when he’s ready.

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These last few weeks have brought more sleep for us all! Ben has been inconsistently sleeping through the night – I’d say on average every other day or two. My first night of getting 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep was amazing!

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Since I started back up at work I have also been carving out a little time to go to a Pilates studio in my neighborhood. I’ve done Pilates at six or seven studios around town and this one is by far my favorite. The instructor/owner is incredible and I am so excited to have found her! The best part is that it’s 3 blocks away. Alex and I have also been running whenever we can – I usually just run once a week on the weekends and Alex takes Jackson once or twice during the week too. It’s so important to us to make the time to exercise.

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Ben got a new stroller! We opted to get a second stroller for easier transport. Our normal, primary stroller {the Baby Jogger City Select} is amazing and I absolutely love it, but it’s really big and not super easy to take to restaurants or to run errands or throw in the back of the car. Our new umbrella stroller is also great, but it serves a different purpose. Ben won’t be able to sit up in the stroller seat of our regular big stroller, but he can in this new umbrella stroller, so I think he’ll enjoy being able to look out more.

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We’re having a good time over here 🙂

Ben’s 4 Month Checkup

Ben had his four month well child checkup this week and we got a terrific report from the doctor about Ben’s health and development. The best news came at the end – she said she’s no longer treating him as a preemie because he is doing so well!

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Right now Ben is in the 5th percentile for his weight (12 pounds 5 ounces) and height (23.5″) and the doctor said that he is right on par with his weight/height proportions. She calculated the amount of milk he needs per day and it is somehow exactly what Ben has been drinking {840 ml – yes, we measure in ml – never switched to ounces! But that’s about 28.5 ounces.}.

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One thing Alex and I haven’t been sure what to expect was where Ben would be developmentally. Knowing that he came 7 weeks early, his “adjusted age” is his actual age minus 7 weeks and all of the books and doctors said to “adjust” his age and treat him like that age. He never seemed to really be in line with his adjusted age for development. It turns out his doctor agrees – she said he met all of his 4 month milestones, which included:

Putting weight on his legs when held in a standing position
Grabbing things
Following an object 180 degrees {she also told us he has no signs of torticollis anymore, which is basically when he can’t turn his head one direction or favors turning in a particular direction.}
Holding his head upright when on his tummy
And a few more things that I can’t remember!

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The doctor also suggested that she thinks Ben is teething! We had been suspecting that for a couple weeks ever since Ryan and Mary mentioned perhaps he was teething about 3 weeks ago. He probably won’t cut a tooth for a while, but the doctor said he is showing signs that things are working underground to prepare for a tooth!

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Ben also got three shots {only two with needles, thankfully}. He was such a trooper! The nurse who administered them at this appointment was SO much better and faster than the slow poke who gave them at Ben’s two month appointment. He only screamed for about 10-20 seconds and then calmed down. As much as I don’t want Ben to have to be in pain from the shots, it’s nice to know that he’s on his way to being protected from some nasty, nasty stuff!

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We were SO pleased with the report from the doctor. It deserved a celebration. It’s hard knowing when you can be a “normal” parent versus when you have to be a paranoid preemie parent, but it sounds like we’ve been given permission to just be normal parents now!

Ben’s First Hike

I’ve been wanting to get out on a hike all summer and for some reason we never made it happen until this past weekend. It was SO nice to be out in the mountains and in nature. We hadn’t taken Ben on a hike yet but this weekend afforded us the perfect opportunity. We opted for a quick, short, easy hike and it worked out really well!

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We’ve got an Ergo Baby carrier for Ben, so that made it super easy to carry him on the trails. He was such a trooper and so curious about his surroundings. He seems like quite an inquisitive little guy.

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It is so fun now that Ben is getting older and being awake more and so much more alert. We are so looking forward to more weekends exploring the Pacific Northwest with him!

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It’s our hope to get out at least once a week/end to do a hike or go on an adventure together as a family. Washington state is so unbelievably gorgeous and diverse and we can’t wait to show Ben around, not to mention explore ourselves! We’ve got a lot to learn about the landscape here and it’s such a perfect opportunity to do so while teaching Ben.

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Our Nanny

Our nanny, Edina {pronounced like “ed – in – uh” – not like city Edina in Minnesota}, has been caring for Ben now for the last three weeks. So far, we are sold! She’s amazing. She is SO sweet with Ben and we absolutely adore it. When he sees her upon her arrival in the morning he cracks a huge smile. It is so sweet!

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During the day when I’m downstairs working I’ll continuously hear her singing or chatting with him and then he’ll coo back at her. They have these adorable conversations while he’s on the changing table. She is so animated and narrates their whole day for him. It’s so precious! 🙂

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Being home and seeing how great she is with him puts my mind at ease about when I do have to leave him with her. I have no doubts that he’s in good hands!

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I’ve now been back to work for two weeks and it’s been a really nice change of pace. The time is FLYING, absolutely FLYING, by. I don’t think time has ever gone so fast! I’m basically doing the same job as I was before, but one with a bigger title but with two fewer days. I’m working full days on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and then I get to be a mama on Mondays and Fridays.

It is still a period of adjustment figuring out how to manage my job in such a short amount of time, and it’ll continue to be an adjustment, but so far I’m really happy to be back! Alex and I are so fortunate to both have jobs that we absolutely love.

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One other benefit of our nanny and new schedule is that we built in a date night to her time with us each week! Every Thursday we’ve got her on the clock until 8 p.m. so that we can have a night out just the two of us. We just enjoyed our third date night this week!

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We are so happy with our new schedule and are feeling very fortunate to have found such a great nanny for Ben.

Ben is Four Months Old!

As a four month old now, Ben is obsessed with putting his hands in his mouth, smiling, cooing and playing with his colorful butterfly toy. We are having more and more fun with him each day! It has been really exciting to watch him grow and develop, especially in this last month.

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20160930_171314853_ios Ben is SO interactive these days! He absolutely loves laying on his playmat batting the toys above him. We recently got some new, more colorful, toys to hang and he seems to enjoy them. When he plays on his mat he waves his arms and legs and wiggles his whole body while making the sweetest little cooing sounds.

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Ben sure loves his daddy!

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Over the last month Ben’s head and neck control has gotten pretty impressive. We just purchased a high chair for him and hope to introduce him to it soon. We’re looking forward to him being able to join us at the dinner table — no solid food quite yet {waiting until 6 months or so}, but we want him to get used to the high chair and meal time that doesn’t include the bottle.

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Another new toy that Ben has is this bouncy chair! He is still getting used to it but we think it’ll grow on him.

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One of the weirdest things about Ben getting older is our adjustments to transitioning him out of some infant-size things, like the infant insert in the baby carrier and car seat, which we have recently done.

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Lately Ben has been getting more interested in books. We’ve got quite a collection of board books for him, but this one {Pout Pout Fish} is a favorite of his parents!

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Jackson and Ben are buddies! Sometimes Ben will stick his arm out and sort of pet Jackson. It’s adorable!

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Ben is so close to rolling from his back to his tummy! He all but mastered rolling from his tummy to his back quite a while ago and continues to practice the opposite. He gets just past his side but then his arm on the underside gets in the way.

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At four months minus four days Ben weighed 12 pounds 2 ounces which puts him in the 8th percentile for weight {!!!!!!}! He has his four month checkup coming up this week so we’ll get an updated length on him at that point. At his 2 month checkup he was in the 10th percentile for height {21.5 inches} and we are curious to see how much he has grown!

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Developmentally, as best we can tell, Ben seems to be right on track with an average four month old. We weren’t sure how he’d stack up with hitting milestones given his prematurity, but he seems to be pretty much right on par.

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In the last week Ben’s overnight sleeping patterns have been terrific and trending towards him sleeping through the night. He’s not quite there consistently, but intermittently we’ll take sleeping through the night when we can get it! During the day Ben is awake a lot more, which is new in the last month. He still takes a really long, solid nap most afternoons {around 2 hours} and at least one shorter nap in the morning and evening, but otherwise, he’s awake and hanging out!

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Since Ben has been so much more interactive lately we are going to make more of an effort to get out and do fun things with him. I’m planning on taking him swimming this week and we’ll go for a hike this weekend. I’d love to make it to mama baby yoga next week, too! We want to start getting out to do things for Ben, not just carting him along to things that we want to do. I have a feeling these next few months are going to get even more and more fun!

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Right now Ben is still fitting into 0-3 month clothing but is just starting to outgrow some particular brands. The Carter’s brand clothing seems to fit him the best since it runs really small, but now that he’s getting towards the end of their 3 month size he’s more able to fit into other clothing brands that I like a little more. 🙂

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All in all, Ben is doing so, so, so well and we are having a blast with him! We can’t wait to see what life is like with a four month old!

Ben’s Trip to the ER

On Monday after we got home from our Leavenworth trip we could tell that Ben was coming down with a nasty cold. This cold came on fast and furious and resulted in a trip to the emergency room.

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One of the bummers about Ben being a preemie is that when he gets sick he’s at a higher risk of developing pneumonia and it’s a much bigger deal for him to get a cold than a full-term baby, or even a baby born after 34 weeks gestation. Upon discharge from the NICU in June his doctor said the longer it is before Ben gets his first cold, the better. His lungs didn’t have the chance to develop like a full-term baby’s would have, and even though I got the betamethasone steroid shot at the end of my pregnancy to help develop his lungs, it’s my understanding that was to avoid serious respiratory distress upon delivery.

Anyway, on Monday afternoon when we got home we noticed Ben was really lethargic and not feeling well. He got lots of cuddle time with both of us. As the day went on we started noticing Ben was having trouble breathing and ultimately stopped breathing at one point. There was so much mucus in his nose and mouth that he couldn’t control it or breathe through it and kept choking on it. We’ve had many, many, many experiences with Ben where he’s stopped breathing {while eating} and knew what to do. Because of that, though, we decided a trip to the emergency department at Seattle Children’s was in order.

Ultimately, we got sent home after a few hours of monitoring. Ben screamed his head off during his examination and somehow that seemed to help clear out some of the congestion and ended up being the trick!

Being back in the hospital for Alex and me was something we’d really like to avoid again. The sound of the machines beeping brought back so many unpleasant memories from when Ben was in the NICU. I’ve heard people talk about PTSD after a NICU experience and hearing the beeps from the machines sure triggered whatever PTSD we have.

Since Monday Ben has been doing much better. He’s been in a surprisingly good mood given that he’s getting over a cold. He even slept through the night fully twice and made it 30 minutes from our cutoff of what we’d consider sleeping through the night {5 a.m. or 8 hours – he made it to 4:30 and slept 7.5 hours} another night! {Let me tell you – it was incredible getting a full 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep for the first time in around 5 months!}

In the end, Ben is fine, but it’s making us realize that we really do need to go back to being paranoid parents of a preemie. It’s a hard line to tow to figure out how “normal” of parents we can be versus how cautious we need to be. But, cold and flu season is upon us, and we’re not taking any chances with our kiddo.

Fifth Annual Leavenworth Trip

One of Alex and my favorite weekends all year is our annual trip to Leavenworth with some of our friends. Each year our trip looks a little different – typically we perfect something we learned the year before. This year’s trip wins for the most changes from last year — babies and a new house to stay in. Before I start, holy cow, it took me 5 hours to pack up the car by myself. It is a whole new life trying to leave town with an infant. Especially one who was adamant that he be carried around all day {and yes, I did put him in the carrier, but that only made it slightly easier to load the car…}.

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This year’s house was the best one yet! The property was fabulous – it had two acres of fenced in yard — perfect for the dogs to run around in. There was a hot tub, several sitting areas and a great fire pit, which we enjoyed making s’mores in.

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Our group of adults was a little smaller this year, but we nearly doubled our group with the addition of four babies – Mary and Ryan and their 10-month old twin boys, August and Oliver, along with Carrie and Patrick and their 5-month old girl, Roslyn, joined us for our trip. Sadly we didn’t get any group photos with all of us!

This year we also added another day onto the trip – we opted to head back to Seattle on Monday. It has always felt a little rushed to get up there Friday afternoon or evening and then pack up and leave early Sunday morning. It was so much more relaxing to have an extra day.

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The babies all did really well. Oliver and August are on the move now and Roslyn and Ben hung out on the mat together a little bit. It was so fun to see the boys eating real food and be able to entertain themselves. It’s not too long before Ben starts doing that!

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{Could I pass for a twin mom!? Definitely not one with as much grace as these boys' mama!} — {Could I pass for a twin mom!? Definitely not one with as much grace as these boys’ mama!}

{Ben and Roslyn hanging out on the mat together.}

Our weekend was really low-key. We hung out at the house on Friday night and then attempted to head to town on Saturday. Once we entered downtown Leavenworth we realized there was a parade and it turned out to be even busier than the Octoberfest weekends. We planned our trip for September to try and avoid the Octoberfest crowds throughout the month of October. Oops!

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No worries, though – Patrick came up with a backup plan to go to the Sleeping Lady, which is a little resort that Alex and I have stayed at a couple times. We had a wonderful lunch there and took a little tour of the grounds.

{A bottle for mama and a bottle for Ben!}

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Mary made Sauerbraten, our staple Octoberfest meal, for dinner on Saturday night. We were able to enjoy our evenings relatively kid-free, which was great. All of the babies cooperated pretty well and allowed us to have some adult time.

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Because of Carrie’s new job {she’s a nurse now!!}, the Buff’s couldn’t stay on Sunday night and had to head back home that morning. Her new schedule is actually really great and allows for her to have weekends free, she just needs to be back on Sunday night. Later that day, the Millers headed into Leavenworth with us, as we figured the crowds would have gone home after the big parade the day before. We had some sausages, pretzels and did a little shopping and wine tasting before retreating back to our little mountain home.

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Our plan for Sunday night was a pizza, PJs and movie party night but only the pizza and PJs ended up happening. We opted for a fire and s’mores plus a dip in the hot tub instead!

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The last day of our weekends is always a sad and chaotic one. It was SO nice to have had the extra day added onto our trip. It made that 5 hour packing session on Friday that much more worthwhile. We are already counting down until our next Leavenworth trip!

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Life Amidst the Changes

Our daily routine is looking quite different these days and it’s about to change again! We’ve adjusted quite well to Alex going back to work last week.

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I had a great time with Ben while Alex was busy working – it’s strange but my first full day at home by myself with Ben ever was last week! We got on a really great routine, took a ton of walks and got out a little bit, too. I had one day this week by myself with Ben, but then today our nanny started. The days feel different and our time with Ben is all that much more precious.

{Our first day home alone together was a great success!}

{Ben and I met my friend Mary and her twins, August and Oliver, last week for Stroller Strides, an exercise class where you can bring your kiddo in a stroller.}

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Since Ben finished up his 3 month growth spurt about a week ago he has been interacting with us a lot, communicating more effectively and smiling a lot. He’s so close to giggling! His disposition has mainly been quite pleasant this last week, which has made it even more fun.

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{He loves batting at the animals hanging from his playmat. He has been getting really into it lately!}

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A few weeks ago we started our parents group called PEPS {Program for Early Parent Support}. It’s a program led by a non-profit and groups of new parents get together once a week for 12 weeks with a facilitator to discuss important topics, growth and any challenges they’re having. The main reason I wanted to join a PEPS group was to meet other parents/families in our area with similar age kids. Most of the moms in the group got together last week and did a long walk one day. It’s really nice getting to know other parents in our neighborhood – three other families live within 4 blocks of us!

{Jackson is never too far away...} — {Jackson is never too far away…}

{Ben has great head support and can roll over in both directions from his tummy to his back. He has rolled from his back to his side but hasn't gotten all the way over to his tummy on his own yet.} — {Ben has great head support and can roll over in both directions from his tummy to his back. He has rolled from his back to his side but hasn’t gotten all the way over to his tummy on his own yet.}

{I couldn't get over this outfit... love this little guy in jeans! They're actually more like "jeggings" - I don't love the stiffness of actual jeans for a baby.} — {I couldn’t get over this outfit… love this little guy in jeans! They’re actually more like “jeggings” – I don’t love the stiffness of actual jeans for this little baby.}

{Ben has been eating SO well lately! So well, in fact, that he's depleting my stock pile of milk faster than I can keep up with! He's a hungry little hippo...} — {Ben has been eating SO well lately! So well, in fact, that he’s depleting my stock pile of milk faster than I can keep up with! He’s a hungry little hippo…}

Not too much else has been going on with us – pretty wrapped up in baby stuff these days! And that is pretty all-encompassing 🙂

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The Pacifier

My friend Sarah inspired this post recently when I sent a picture of Ben sucking on his pacifier – she asked if it was a new one, to which I replied that it was the same one he had in the hospital. I pulled up some photos of him sucking on the same pacifier in his first days of life and it’s astounding how much he has grown since then.

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{This was Ben about a week and a half ago, so he was just shy of 12 weeks old.}

It’s amazing to us how much he has grown – he’s more than triple what he weighed at birth and he is finally on the “normal” baby charts for his size. He sure is thriving!

Summer Recap

We have had such a fun, memorable summer! I can’t even begin to believe that it’s Labor Day weekend already. Right now we are preparing to have yet another new normal, and this one we are expecting to stick. Our new normal will be our new reality now that Alex is headed back to work on Tuesday and then I’ll follow him two weeks later. While it will be sad to not have so much time at home together, both of us love our jobs and we’re looking forward to a somewhat consistent schedule.

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Our summer started with the birth of Benjamin the day after Memorial Day {the unofficial start to summer 😉 } and then Alex went back to work while I spent my days in the NICU. We enjoyed a few summer moments during that time, but mostly were in survival mode.

{33 weeks pregnant here... 2 days before I met Ben!} — {33 weeks pregnant here… 2 days before I met Ben!}

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{It's really hard going back through the pictures from when Ben was in the NICU. It is amazing how quickly we forgot about it all...} — {It’s really hard going back through the pictures from when Ben was in the NICU. It is amazing how quickly we forgot about it all…}

Alex’s parents and my mom got to meet Ben soon after he was born.

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{This is a perfect photo summing up my days in the NICU, except not all of them were spent with a smile on my face - I sure did try!} — {This is a perfect photo summing up my days in the NICU, except not all of them were spent with a smile on my face – I sure did try!}

Once Ben came home the tables turned {as did the weather!} and we really got to enjoy ourselves again as we adjusted to life with a newborn.

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His first few weeks home we were in absolute bliss – we went for walks every day, we took Ben out to restaurants and wineries and hardly missed a beat!

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{Yesterday I tried out one of my baby carriers for our evening walk. It was so cool carrying Ben in this little wrap!}

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My dad came out to meet Ben in mid-July. We kept things pretty low-key and close to home, but we still managed to get out to Bottlehouse, go for a walk around Seward Park and cruise through the farmer’s market.

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Throughout the summer Ben’s development has really started to change and grow. It has been so fun watching him figure things out!

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The month of August was spent with Alex’s parents, as well as his sister, who joined us all in mid-August.

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We also took a trip to Lake Chelan to close out their visit.

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Just last weekend my brother and his girlfriend, Becky, came out to meet Ben and hang out in Seattle. I hadn’t met Becky yet, so it was great to finally get that chance.

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Since early July we have been interviewing design/build firms to select one to lead us down a very long road of a major renovation in our house. It has taken a surprising amount of time to research companies, figure out what we want and then meet with them. We’re awaiting our final proposal from one of the companies and then I guess the next step is to choose one {oh, and figure out how we will pay for it!}.

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Another summer project that kept us busy was hiring a nanny. After refining our scope we finally found a nanny who we think is a great fit for our family. She’ll be starting the week after Alex goes back to work. I’ll still be off that week but I’ll be able to spend time with her and show her the ropes before I go back the week after. I will be working part-time – about 24 hours per week, mainly spread out over three days, and primarily from home.

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We have had such a fabulous summer together as a family and are so grateful for the time and memories we had. Life is going to look a little bit different now with us going back to work, so there will be some major adjustments, certainly, but we are looking forward to getting back to reality!

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