Will is 4 months old!

16 lbs 6 oz    25" tall  

We had a great 4 month check- up with Dr. Espe (we really like our new pediatrician!)  Anyway, he was really happy with Will's growth--he is in the 75% for weight....all I could think was, how big are babies that are in the 90%!!  Haha--Dr. Espe told us we could start Will on cereal---and that should hopefully help him sleep better at night.  So far this has been true!  After two nights of cereal, he has only woken up once to eat!! YAY!  He also told us that until 6 months, it's ok to still feed him in the night (he said especially since he is a big boy, he likes to eat, he probably is hungry!)  But, that he was pretty sure the cereal would hold him over a little longer.  It's helped already only waking up once, vs the two feedings I was doing before. 

I ended up taking the day off work the day of his appointment and we had such a fun day!  We did some shopping at the Rhea Lana consignment sale and got some good deals on clothes and a jogging stroller!  Will was such a trooper and great shopper, we tried out the Bjorn carrier for the first time and he seemed to like it.  He has been so much fun wherever we have taken him out lately---giving lots of smiles and being so good! 

He really does just keep getting more fun! Changes in Will as of lately:

• He loves to put his hands in his mouth-- or anything that he can try to get in his mouth these days
• He loves blowing bubbles with his spit and making lots of fun noises with his mouth
• He loves to stand up--he has really strong legs and loves to stand up and he'll raise his eyebrows up so cute and raise his chin up and just look all over the place
• He LOVES his daddy!! Will smiles SO big whenever he sees Patrick---doesn't matter what kind of mood he is in ( I have to admit, there was a short phase when Will wasn't smiling at me very much--it was really hard---I tried not to take it personal, but easier said than done....after about a week of that, he finally did start to smile at me again---but dad can still just make him light up!)
• He loves peek a boo---he will coo and giggle whenever we play this!! It's the greatest sound ever!!
• He loves going on walks

Last week, Will starred in a video we were putting together for work--he played the patient in the clinic and was our 'eye candy'.  Anyway, was so fun to have him at work--and everyone loved him so much and loved passing him around.  He was a hit!  I felt like it was 'bring your baby to work day' and he was so good, it made me wish I could do that everyday!

A co-worker enjoying some time with Will

March Madness--the Jayhawks have made it to the Final Four---here is one of my favorite positions--Will and Dad watching some basketball :)

Will eats Cereal!

Will's first time eating cereal-- not too much actually got in his mouth :)

March Madness

I absolutely love this picture of Will from this past weekend---I think someday when I'm looking back at pictures, this just seems to look just like him.  I love that sweet look on his face, he usually has his tongue kind of out, and I love the wrist wrinkle :) 

Work has been making it hard to update as much as I want---that's life!  Will is doing wonderfully---the time change kind of messed him up I think, so early this week was tough.  He has been waking up several times through the night still, but we are making it.  Some nights are better than others, but still it's been much better since we put him in his crib and we are getting a solid 4-5 hours of sleep at a time. 

We have been loving the days being longer/lighter later, and taking advantage of this gorgeous weather---and we have been going on walk/runs every night!  Again, we love our location so much, that we have our normal route that ends by the shops, and lots of times we can pick up a few groceries at Hen House on our way home.  So handy!! 

This past weekend we had another low-key one.... Brett/Angie/Brady and Emma all came down Saturday morning as Brett was helping us cut down some trees in our backyard.  Also, we did get a new driveway last week too!! As my friend Lindsay says---it's fun watching your tax money turn to cement!  Ha!  But, it looks great and we are so excited to have a wider drive!!  After cutting down some trees, P and I ran some errands, and then went on a walk before Amy, Cody and Daniel came over for the night.  P made an awesome chipoltle flavored pork, asparagus and grilled potatoes, and I made some strawberry shortcake for dessert.  We had so much fun having some adult beverages and playing Pitch after the boys went to bed---was the latest we had stayed up in awhile...and for sure the latest my sister had stayed up in a LONG time! ha!!  Sunday was later church (due to our loss of an hour of sleep) and picked out some new bedding for our guest room and had a nice, quiet evening.

We are looking forward to having some friends over tomorrow night to watch the KU game and more March Madness games---this is definitely my favorite sporting event of the year!! Love this time of year and watching the fun games---just a fun spirit in the air!!  ROCK CHAWK!! (who would have ever thought I would be saying that??!)

Cute and Cuddly

King of the Crib

Ok, so this past weekend was the time that Patrick and I had decided we were going to really try to get Will into his crib and sleeping better on his own (after one particular night during the week that he was waking up about every hour, we were even more convinced this was the best thing to do!)  So, all week, we got psyched up to do this. Here's what we did:

• Patrick and I did the normal bedtime routine for Will---at around 8:00pm Patrick gave Will a bath, got his pajamas on, I fed him, we put him in his velcro swaddler and put him down in his crib (for the first time vs putting him in the pack-and-play upstairs)
• We both decided we would sleep in the guest room across the hall from his room (to elimnate what I was assuming could be a full night of sleepily walking up and down the stairs)....which also made me much more motivated to whip our guest room into shape and get some new bedding, paint, decorated etc.
• We put Will down in the crib and once he started crying, we waited for 3 minutes before going in and just patting him, stroking his hair, putting pacifier back in and calming him down---every time we went in, he would stop crying, which was good.  So, then we would go back out of the room, and once he started crying again, we would go back in 5 minutes, and the next time 8.  The first night, it didn't take much more than that and he fell asleep---we went to bed around 9:00---and he didn't wake up until 3:00am!!  Seriously, 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep felt AMAZING!!!  I felt so good at 3am, and figured once I put him down, I may have to go through the whole crying episode again, but I didn't---he went down and slept from 3:30-8:00am!!  Whoo-hoo!! Was so proud of him---and we all were so rested Saturday morning, and Will was so especially smiley and happy :)
• Saturday morning Amy and I went to get pedicures and have Chipolte salads...and then P, Will and I went out to Amy and Cody's and got to hang out with Daniel and all of us had a fun night!  It was a perfectly, wonderful day.
• Saturday night, it took Will a little longer to finally fall asleep---this time we did 5, 8, 10 minutes...and it took about an hour overall---and then another ENTIRE full night of sleep!! The only bad part was I wasn't used to going that long between feedings, so I woke up with a soaked tank top!!
• Sunday- we went to early church, I had to go into work for a little bit :(....and couldn't wait to get back to my boys!  We had a CostCo trip, dinner at Spin, and watched a lot of Friday Night Lights again. 
• Sunday night was more of the same, probably the hardest night yet though---he cried until he needed to eat again, but did really good after he fell asleep at 11:30.
• Monday night--once he fell asleep, he slept so good that we had to wake him up in the morning!  He only woke up once in the night at 2:00am to eat and went right back to sleep.

So, all in all, while it IS really hard to hear your baby crying...we all are so much more rested and happier the next day, we know it's for the best. 

This week is really crazy at work for me (the past two weeks have been) b/c Cerner is actually involved in a big sales deal with St. Luke's hospitals herein KC...and yes, that is where Patrick works!  We have had some interesting conversations   :)   Everyone at Cerner is wanting me to get Patrick to do some spying and give us some good insight information---haha!  But it'll be fun for him to sit in on Cerner presentations and get his perspective! 

Hope all is having a good week---loving this nice spring weather and even more excited for Daylight Savings for more light at night!!

3 months old!!

More pictures

 I had a fun little photo shoot the other day when Will was sitting up so well!  He's getting stronger with his legs and likes to stand up when we hold on to him and is sitting very well too!  He is changing more and more everyday---and actually just two days ago, both Patrick and I thought when we saw Will at the end of the day, that he looked older to us!  He must have had a growth spurt that day!!