New Moves!

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http://www.youtube.com/

Check out the video link above; as you can see, Max (9.5 months old) has some new moves. He is now crawling on all fours, and can transition from laying on his back to being on all fours, to sitting, to kneeling, to standing (while supporting himself with his arms), and back again. And he can also do what we call, "knee walking" with his snazzy toy that we got from some friends at church. He loves to crawl around the floor as fast as he can, just to do it, and also loves to do this "knee walking." And he is so proud of himself when he does it. It is so cute!

Maxon has been eating all sorts of different food, still pureed. The pediatrician told us to start trying some soft finger foods. Well, he is not doing so well with those. He has a fairly strong gag reflex, and so any food that gets to the back of his tongue, causes him to gag. And he doesn't even attempt to chew or "gum" the pieces of food. We have had one major choking incident and so now I've vowed to keep him on a pureed diet until he is 5 years old. :) Just kidding. We will keep trying .... slowly!

Max has been getting his two top teeth in this past week and it has been a little rough! He is chewing like crazy, is pooring out drool, and is VERY irritable! And on top of that, he has been congested with the sniffles. Aww, our poor little guy!

Travelin' Man

You'll have to check out the video on our facebook page. For some reason, we weren't able to upload it onto the blog. Anyway, as you can see in the video, Maxon is now on the move. :) He is now 8 months old and can get anywhere he wants to go by army-crawling. He has been doing very well with everything. Besides moving around more, he is able to sit unsupported, has his two bottom teeth, and is now eating several different fruits and veggies. He loves anything sweet like fruits, sweet potatoes, squash, and carrots, and is not very fond of green beans. :)

We had a wonderful time this summer, just hanging out. We did go to Michigan for almost 2 weeks in August, which was so much fun. Maxon had some good, quality time with his grandma, grandpa, and uncle Ken. He loved being outdoors up there, and loved splashing around in the lake.

Now I am back to work for the school year. :( I am sad to not be home with Max anymore, but am VERY happy with our childcare for him. His Meemee is watching him 3 days per week, with daddy home with him the other 2 days. I am so happy we don't have to put him in daycare yet, and Meemee is right out our back door. So, not only is it very convenient, but he has someone to watch him who loves him! :) Meemee also watches a little girl baby who is Maxon's age and so he has a playmate there also. We couldn't ask for anything better!

Alright, that's all for now. Our computer is fixed now and so maybe I'll be able to update this blog a little more frequently! Thanks for your patience!

Gettin Dunked

The Max man had his second swimming lesson today and his daddy decided to dunk him for the first time.

Here he is swimmin away! He really just wants the toy but we'll pretend he's a natural!!!

Friends!!!

These are some VERY cute pictures of Maxon and his triplet friends! Jack, Owen, and Everett. Aren't they cuties?!

(as you can imagine, it was difficult to get all of them looking at the same time) :)

Not too sure about this!

Hmmm ... not sure he likes this rice cereal stuff! :)

Approximately 5 1/2 months

Well, gosh, I obviously have not been great at this blog thing so far. Once I returned to work, I really didn't have time for much of anything, or energy I guess. Maxon is doing wonderful. After he turned about 4 months to 4 1/2 months old, he has been the happiest, "smiley-est" baby I have ever seen! He only really cries when he is tired. And during other wake times he is busy playing, "talking", and smiling. He has been rolling from tummy to back since he was 4 1/2 to 5 months old. He is being a little slow on rolling back to tummy, but it seems that will happen any day now. Maxon likes to work his abs and pull himself to sitting or standing with help from mom or dad. He loves to play with his toys on the floor. He likes any toys that rattle when he shakes them, and will shake them so hard and fast that I think he will hurt his little hands/arms!

Nick and I have been taking Maxon to the pool lately and he has been enjoying that. I think we may take him to baby swimming lessons this summer; we are very excited about that! Max is getting more affectionate and social lately, and has given mommy hugs and kisses (baby kisses) on a number of occasions. LOVE IT!!! :)

Maxon has been doing well with sleeping and eating: He has been sleeping about 9 hours per night on average and takes 1-2 naps per day. We have just started rice cereal this week. If I can get the picture of his first bite of cereal on the computer, I will post it; it is hilarious! He is doing better now after a few days and seems to enjoy it.

And the best piece of news yet ... Mommy is done working for the summer!!! I have eight weeks home with my little guy - SO HAPPY!!! :)

OOOPS!!

Spoke too soon on this sleeping thing.

Status Quo

Things are going well in the Palomba family. As you know I am back to work now and so I've been back "in the swing of things" for two weeks. It was very difficult to leave the house on the first day, and is still a little sad each morning when I leave. But there were only tears on Day 1. :) I have found that I am so busy at work that the day flies by and before I know it I am back with my little boy. And I just LOVE my evenings now. Bathtime is my favorite - Max loves taking baths and he usually just sits there, splashes around, and smiles at me the whole time. :)

Maxon has been sleeping 8-9 hours at night, usually straight through, but there are some nights when he'll wake up at 3 or 4 am and not want to go back to sleep. Those nights are tough - well, the next day is tough I should say. (Although I am so blessed - Nick helps out a lot when those nights come around).

So anyway, things are good and just status quo right now. My goal for this next week is to figure out how to work in a workout into my evening schedule. I've got to get back to being active here, and it has been very difficulty to fit something in between feedings, preparing for the next day, bathtime, putting Max to bed, dishes, laundry, etc. And I only have one child now, what will I ever do when we have more???!!! I'll give that some time I think... :)

Talking Up a Storm!

Here are some videos of Max "talking" to his mommy & daddy!



Click on these links to see the videos on you tube!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFGbREWprsc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEFITgp51wg

3 months

Maxon is 3 months old today and is doing great. At his last doctors appointment he had gained 1 lb 4 oz in only 3 weeks. He has started to smile a lot, he turns to look for a familiar voice (especially mommy's), he is starting to grab at objects or a blanket laid over him, and he coos and squeals all the time while playing. As you can see by the pictures, we have had a busy month: Max was baptized on March 21st and his grandma, grandpa, and Uncle Ken came from Michigan to visit that same week. He had a great time with them. While they were here we took our first trip to the beach with him, went out to eat a bunch, and he got lots of quality time with gram and gramp. And I discovered that Uncle Ken is a natural with babies - who knew? I was surprised how Ken was so comfortable holding Maxon and moving him around to different positions. You would've thought Ken had experience with babies when Max is actually the smallest baby he has ever held. Anyway, back to what has been going on this past month. Max and I went on a trip to the zoo with some families from our church, Max has been having a lot of fun playing with his cousins (they are all so great with him), and Max also went swimming in the pool with his daddy.

With the sleeping at night, we have been making very slow progress. He consistently gives us about 5-5.5 hours of sleep in one stretch, will wake up to be fed, and then goes back to sleep for another 2-3 hours. It isn't terrible, and I am at least thankful for the 5.5 hour stretch. Our biggest problem has been that he will not fall asleep in his crib. He will only fall asleep when held and then we have to lay him in his crib after he is asleep - which can be exhausting for us especially when it takes anywhere from minutes to 2 hours for him to fall asleep. And most of the time during the day, he will wake up 20 minutes after being laid in his crib and only takes catnaps. However, funny story: I talked to some friends last night who have a son 1 month older than Max. They were telling me how well their son sleeps through the night and that they let him cry a little. We have not really let Maxon cry more than 5 minutes before we go in to pick him up, per the pediatrician's recommendation. Well, I have been pretty exhausted lately, and after hearing what my friends had to say, we decided to try to let him cry a little for the first time today. I told Nick that I was giving him a 15 minute cut-off: that I would let him cry 15 minutes and if he didn't stop I would go in and get him. Well, Max cried for 14 minutes and is now sound asleep. He has been sleeping now for 40 minutes, one of the longest daytime naps he has taken in his crib. And, even more hilarious, Nick was cooking and set off the smoke alarm twice during this nap and Maxon did not wake up! Wow! Maybe we'll try this again. :)

So, all in all, things are going well. I have one more week off with him and then I return to work full time on April 12. I have been preparing myself mentally for this and think it will all be okay. I will love seeing him in the evening hours and on weekends, and will try not to feel too guilty about leaving him during the day. But I know that we all need to do what we need to do and that is that. Also, it is very helpful to know that I will be leaving him with someone who loves him - his Aunt Jen has offered to help us out and watch him for several weeks until she has her baby (her sixth). (She is definitely qualified). :) We also have some friends who are going to help us out from when Aunt Jen has her baby until I am out for the summer. Then I have the summer off with Max. We are very blessed to have all this help.

Alright that is all for now, I will post more pictures soon!

2 months

Our little boy is already 2 months old; hard to believe. And this is just the beginning! :)

We have all been doing very well and Nick and I are enjoying Maxon so very much! Maxon has grown so much in the past two months. He weighs in at 10 lbs 6 oz this week and is 22.25 inches long! He has just started smiling and cooing and interacting with us, which is a great reward for all the hard work and sleepless nights. :) And finally, finally, he lets me put him down now! For several weeks he would cry every time I tried to put him in the swing or bouncer - that was exhausting! Now he loves sitting in the bouncer or laying on his play mat, batting his arms at the hanging toys. And with a mom who is an occupational therapist, you know that he is getting plenty of "tummy-time." However, he doesn't care for that so much and tolerates about 5 minutes at a time. :)

We have gotten Maxon on a daytime schedule with eating times, and he is slowly getting into his own schedule of naps and nighttime sleep. He usually only sleeps 3-4 hours at the longest during the night, but has given us a 5 hour stretch on a couple of occasions. We are just trying to be patient with it and wait for him to sleep a little longer. Hopefully sometime soon!

I am scheduled to go back to work April 12 and am not looking forward to it. I like my job, but will be so sad to leave Maxon. I was very blessed to be able to take so much time off and am very thankful for it. But, I just can't imagine not being with Max all day long. Oh, I don't want to even think about it!

So... change of subject: Our dogs have adjusted to the new baby nicely. I should post a picture of them with him sometime soon. They don't give much attention to Maxon and act like they don't care at all. Although there have been times when Maxon starts crying and I'm not in the room. The dogs will run back and forth from him to me until I go get him as to say, "The baby needs you!" They're good like that. :)

Alright, enough for now. I will post more later on...

Surprise!

Two weeks ago on Saturday, January 2nd, my plan for the day was to sleep in for one of the last times, go out to breakfast with Nick, and then spend the day doing some "catch up" kind of things like put away Christmas decorations, update our blog with new belly pictures, and send out thank you cards. Most of you can figure out that those plans for that day did not happen ... hence the reason we just took down our Christmas decorations yesterday. :)

Two weeks ago on Saturday, January 2nd, I woke up at 4:30 a.m. to find that my water had broke. I was in shock and wasn't sure if that was exactly what happened. I woke Nick up and we were on our way to the hospital to "just get checked out." (both of us naively thinking that we would be sent home). We were sort of in shock and did not expect this to happen so early. We were scheduled to be induced January 15th (due to the blood clotting risk from my elevated antibody level), and had just made it to the 37-week mark on January 1st. Then when they told us my water had in fact broke and we needed to stay at the hospital, we were again naive thinkers and thought we would have the baby that day. :) So not on January 2nd, but on January 3rd at 8:08 a.m. Maxon Nicholas Palomba finally, yet surprisingly early, joined us!

Maxon came into the world at 6 lbs 8 oz and 18 inches long. Baby and mom both did fine in the hospital, are now home getting used to a new life. It has been quite the adjustment for all of us and we have all been learning a lot! It has been both challenging and exciting to go through this. I can say that now, since it feels now that every day gets a little easier and my body is getting used to sleep deprivation. :) For the first week, I would not have called it exciting at all, just challenging. :) Thank goodness my mom was able to be down here for the first week ... she was such a help around the house and of course was more than willing to hold the baby while I slept. And since then, we have had such wonderful support from friends and family who have brought meals to us and also offered to run to the store or whatever we need. We feel very blessed for that. And although I say that this whole thing has been a challenge and somewhat shocking, it is also so amazing! From conception, to the pregnancy, to giving birth, to bonding with the baby, to breastfeeding ... it is all so amazing and really makes us realize how amazing God is to have planned everything to work this way.

So now that I am slowly coming out of the twilight zone I have been in since the baby was born, hopefully I can update the blog more often. I suppose the blog will now focus on how the three of us are doing as a family, and of course pictures of Maxon. We know that the days ahead will continue to be challenging, but we look forward to it and will keep you posted on all the fun times (we may be updating the blog at 3:00 in the morning when we are not getting sleep). :)