Levi is Five Months Old + his Woodland Nursery

Age of Baby: 5 months

Size of Baby:

• Weight: 17 lbs 3 oz (up to the 63rd percentile), + 1 lb 8 oz from last month
• Length: 26 inches (down to the 53rd percentile), + 0.5 inches from last month
• Head circumference: not measured

Levi is wearing a size 2 diaper, though it's starting to get a bit snug. He is wearing 3-6 month clothes, though some of the 6-9 month clothes fit a bit better! ;)

Immunizations:

• None this month

Doctor's Visit Summary:

No visit this month.

Picture of Baby:

Here is Levi's 5-month picture in the 12-month onesie. His eyes are still blue (though it's hard to see in this pic) and he has some spiky little hair growing in on top of his head - about 1 cm long right now! :) His hair is pretty light, but darker than all of his brothers' hair, I think. He is an adorable little fuzzy-headed chunkster.

And here is a comparison of all four of the boys at five months, just for fun. Levi continues to take the prize for heaviest of the four, and continues as 3rd for height. Ethan was 27 inches long and weighed 16 lbs. Noah was 26.5 inches long and weighed 16 lbs 6 oz. And tiny little Amos was just 25.5 inches long and weighed 14 lbs 3 oz. Maybe it's a good thing Levi is four years younger, or he could end up passing Amos in size in a few years! Ha! Levi definitely has his own look, but I still think he favors Noah more than Ethan or Amos (who both crack me up here with their faces).

Accomplishments this Month:

• Sitting up in stroller for walks
• Went to his first live performance

Levi seems to be extroverted like his Daddy. He loves to see everything going on around him and people watch when we're out. So we decided it was time to let him sit up in a stroller for our family walks, instead of lying back in his carseat, snapped into the jogging stroller. He loved it! I think it makes him look way too big, but such is life. :'( He really enjoys being outside for long walks with Daddy, Lego and his brothers. Mommy tries to go most of the time, but sometimes enjoys a silent house while she gets lots of things accomplished at home!! ;)

At the end of February, Ethan's 3rd grade class gave a musical performance at the monthly PTA meeting. Levi really enjoyed listening to them sing and watching them dance (much more than Ethan enjoyed it - sigh). He was the perfect audience. :) Singing to him is usually the best way to get him calmed down when he is upset. It doesn't matter if you even say words. Humming works, too. Same thing goes for playing music on our phones. He loves to listen and watch the videos.

Once again, I wish I could report that Levi was sleeping through the night, but he's still not consistently. He'll sleep anywhere from 1 (on a super rough night) to 11 hours straight though! He was doing pretty well near the beginning of the month, but has since regressed again in the last couple of weeks. Also in the past couple of weeks, I've been trying to get him on more of a schedule during the day, including naps in his crib! I often run errands in the mornings, so he'll normally get a bit of a nap in his carseat while I'm out, but he's started taking afternoon naps of about 1-2 hours in his crib now. It's a start. I've continued to nurse him every 2-3 hours during the daytime for 15-25 minutes. He eats about 8 times in a 24-hr period. My plan is to start solid foods at some point soon. I'm hoping that may help fill his tummy a bit more so he'll sleep a little better! Given the fact that he's doubled his birth weight and he's also done it plenty of times, he should be able to sleep through the night. Sometimes he seems hungry (I guess it's hard to keep those chunky thighs if you don't eat all night) when he wakes up and other times he just needs comforted. It would be great if he would learn to put his paci in himself at night so I didn't have to get up to do it! ;)

In other exciting news...I finally finished decorating the nursery! Given the fact that we still haven't repainted Amos's room, I guess Levi is lucking out that his was completed first! ;)

I purchased the adorable Peanut Shell Woodland Dreams crib set at Babies 'R Us. Sadly, they are closing all of their stores, but this set may is hopefully available elsewhere as well. I also bought the changing pad cover, pillow and blanket there as well. All of the wall art was purchased at Hobby Lobby (the letter "L", the "be strong & brave sign", the metal geometric fox head, and the wooden arrow), except for the gray light box, which was from Target. I also purchased the starry globe nightlight and the navy room darkening curtains at Target.

The crib and dresser have now made it to all 4 boys (despite Amos's best efforts to destroy them)! They were also from Babies 'R Us, over nine years ago! The glider and ottoman (where I end up spending half my night too regularly) were purchased from Babies 'R Us before Noah was born. Adorable baby not included. ;)

It's hard to believe that the next time I post, half of his first year will already be behind us! The days may be long, but these years are flying by!

Levi's Birth Story

It's time for a final birth story. Our little family is now complete. It's been four weeks today since the birth, so I want to try to get all the details down in print before they are fading memories! For a look back at the others, you can find Ethan's story here, Noah's here, and Amos's here. This will be pretty detailed, so read on at your own risk!! ;)

As I posted in my last bump update, at 36 weeks, things were getting crazy, as we discovered that I had extra amniotic fluid and would require weekly ultrasounds and non-stress tests to monitor the baby. I was spending a lot of my time at the doctor's office! Then, just before 38 weeks, the ultrasound revealed that baby had turned and was now positioned frank breech, instead of head down. Ugh, not good. To avoid scheduling a C-section, we set up an appointment to go to the hospital the morning I was 38 weeks to try an external cephalic version, or ECV. They like to do those by 38 weeks at the latest, so that was going to be my one chance to get baby turned back around. Since baby was frank breech instead of completely breech, and given the extra fluid I had, it should have had a better likelihood of being successful. In we went at 6 am to wait for the doctor to arrive. We discussed everything, then he started the ultrasound to check baby's position that day. Wouldn't you know that stubborn little booger had turned again and was head down again?!? So yeah, that was quick - we got to go home without needing to do anything after all. Sigh of relief. At that point, I needed to try to do what I could to keep baby head down, which meant a lot of sitting on my big exercise ball, and trying to bind my belly with a maternity support binder. That was not fun.

At my next appointment the following Tuesday, at 38.5 weeks, we discussed induction. As much as I wanted baby to come on its own, I was absolutely miserable, in pain, and with the extra fluid, ok'd for an early delivery. So, we set up the induction for 39 weeks, on Friday the 13th. Yes, Friday the 13th. I wasn't thrilled about the date, but my midwife was on call that day. I had reached the point where I just wanted baby out, and I didn't care what day it was going to be anymore!! So there we were, one week later at the hospital, checking in again to head to labor & delivery.

I gowned up and we started the party. Pitocin was started at 7:30 am, at which time I was dilated only 3 cm. I was having fairly regular contractions, but they weren't really getting closer or more intense. My midwife broke my water at 11:45 am, at which time I was dilated just 4 cm. That was fun thanks to the extra fluid!! No, no it was not. I just kept leaking and leaking and leaking, which made things interesting for trying to get up and walk around when I was tired of sitting.

Things were still moving super slowly, so I got an epidural at 1:45 pm. I was hoping to relax my body and speed things along a bit! Like the epidural I had with Amos, it took pretty well, with no feeling on the left side, but enough feeling on the right side to experience some of the pain of the contractions. It also caused my blood pressure to drop super low, but we were able to get it evened back out within the hour. By 2:30 pm, I was dilated 6 cm and by 5 pm, I was still dilated just 7 cm. Sigh. I was starting to think this baby may not be born on the 13th after all!! And then things started moving really fast. My epidural was wearing off and I had called to get more medicine, but they were really busy on the floor by that point, and I never did get any, so by the time they came in to check me again, it was go time and I was feeling everything! Yikes! Fortunately, it only took about 5 minutes of pushing and baby had arrived...

Born at 6:12 pm was our FOURTH BOY!!! I kind of thought maybe Josh was joking when he told me it was another boy, haha! I was seriously convinced this one was a girl after how different everything was with this pregnancy, but alas, I was wrong. At 8 pounds, 4.1 ounces, 20 inches long, with a 14-inch head circumference, he was our second biggest baby. Born earlier than the rest though, he would've been the biggest had he cooked another 2.5 weeks like Ethan did! ;)

He was perfect!!

Sadly, Josh and I had actually agreed on a girl's name that day as we hung out all day at the hospital, but we were still struggling with a boy's name. It's hard when you're on number four! We had narrowed it down to two choices and decided to put it to a family vote once the boys arrived to meet their little brother. :) After a 3-2 decision, Levi Frank received his name. Frank is my maiden name, and had been the plan for the middle name all along, so that part was easy! We require many things when picking a name for our children though (must be a two syllable first name and a one syllable middle name, can't start with the same letter as a sibling, and must be biblical; I also love that they all have different ending sounds, so when I'm yelling their names, they can better hear which one I'm yelling - haha!), so it was rough finding one that fit the bill! Also, the name had to fit into our scrabble board (preferably in order of arrival), which was harder than I thought it'd be! Ha!

I got to snuggle the little guy for awhile and feed him before they took him away to get him all cleaned up. It was nice that at this hospital, I was able to stay in the same room from beginning to end, instead of needing to move rooms after delivering. That was a first!

Check out that dark hair! We'll see if it stays that way, or falls out and comes back blond like the other three. Another strong Seeley boy to join the bunch though! Like big brothers, he was holding his head up on his own a mere hour after being born! Our boys seriously have freakishly strong neck muscles. Levi is all-around strong though. He sucks so "ferociously" (words of the lactation consultant that first week) that he can hold up a bottle without his hands, just by sucking. It's quite impressive. Hopefully it will help him hold his own in a couple years when he has to defend himself from his big brothers! ;)

Once we were all settled back in, my mom brought the boys to the hospital to meet their new sibling! Unfortunately, their reaction to the gender reveal (I had them open packets with blue confetti) wasn't as exciting as I had anticipated. Ha! They were happy, though, to meet their new little brother. I was unsure how Amos would react to having a little brother. He's been the baby for 4 years! I couldn't have been more happy about how excited he was to have a new little brother though. He absolutely adored him from day one!

That evening, and then again the next day, on Saturday morning, Levi was checked out by the on-call pediatrician from our peds office. He looked great and was given the go ahead to head home after his bloodwork was checked at 24 hours. We had to wait around until nearly 7 pm for that, but then we were finally able to pack up and head home around 8 pm that evening. It's always nice to be back at home and the boys were super excited to have us all back there.

The Monday after coming home, we were scheduled to visit our pediatrician's office to be sure that he still looked good, with no signs of jaundice. He looked great, but they wanted to see him again in a couple days to be sure he was gaining enough weight. He was discharged from the hospital at 7 lbs, 12 oz, and had dropped again to 7 lbs, 7 oz at the Monday appointment. My milk hadn't come in yet, so he had lost almost a pound since delivery. So, we supplemented with some formula that day while I pumped, and my milk came in by the end of the day. That Wednesday, he was up to 7 lbs, 15 oz, so we were headed in the right direction. By his 2-week appointment, he was up to a whopping 9 lbs 4 oz! They like to see them gain an ounce a day, so putting on 21 ounces in just 12 days was amazing! The boy likes to eat!

We're now adjusting to life as a family of six. It is definitely an adjustment! I think the hardest part is having two of them in school now. When Amos was born, Ethan and Noah were still just in preschool. When you roll into the parking lot late there, it's no big deal. Getting the big two on the bus daily, on time, and keeping up with homework and activities makes things a lot harder now! We'll manage, and I'm sure it will get easier, but it's definitely a team effort. Super thankful for the school cafeteria and their "grab 'n go" options, which my boys will eat daily if they need to! Ha! Fortunately, the boys have been great with helping out and mostly understanding when I need to tend to Levi first.

Welcome to the family, Levi! You complete us.

Me and my very own "five guys!" ;)

Like the "four seasons," I have my four "See(ley) sons." ;)

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Noah's {Mad Science Themed} 6th Birthday Party

I'm pretty sure this is the quickest I have managed to post about a birthday party!! I'm so excited to share this one though - it was so fun!! When I asked Noah what he wanted for his birthday party theme for his 6th birthday, he told me he wanted a mad science party. The inner geek in me squealed with delight!!  Away I went planning an adorable mad science party for my little guy. I tend to go "all out" for Noah's parties. I think this is because 1) they are in the summer, so I have more time to plan and execute, and 2) having a summer birthday myself, I know what a bummer it is to not be able to celebrate at school like most kids do. So, all out I went! ;)

First on the agenda, the invitations. We needed to pass these out before school let out in May! I actually found inspiration from some party balloons and test tubes that I found on Etsy, from NerdyWordsGifts. Noah picked three colors he wanted for the balloons (aqua, blue and red), and I based the rest of the party design on the design printed on those! I also couldn't resist a few of the "Helium" balloons that she offered as well. Too cute! I ran with the element theme for the letters and used these for multiple aspects of the party. Since we were handing out the invites at school, I made labels of each child's name like I did Noah's on the invite. So fun!!  I had the invites printed at my local Office Depot store. They have a nice thicker cardstock that looks great printed on their laser printer. I also printed "Come have a BLAST!" labels to seal the envelopes on Avery's 2" glossy round labels. Those print beautifully right at home!

After the invitations were delivered, I started brainstorming (aka, browsing Pinterest and Google) ideas for the party. I made a custom banner that read "Happy 6th Birthday Noah" using the same element letters.

Here's an example of the banner letters, close-up. Each letter was an element, except for a couple letters that I combined because it worked out ("Ir" and "Th"). I used tiny clothespins to hang the letters on jute rope.

My friend, Sarah, made Noah's birthday T-shirt. It was perfect! Check out her shop on Etsy - All in Good Font!

For the dinner menu, we chose:

• A HOT DOG bar, where guests could create their own style of dog:
• All American Dog (ketchup + mustard)
• BBQ Dog (BBQ sauce + peppers)
• Chili Dog (chili + cheese)
• Fiesta Dog (salsa + cheese)
• New York Dog (spicy brown mustard + sauerkraut)
• Surf Dog (pineapple salsa + teriyaki sauce)
• DNA pasta (homemade white cheddar mac 'n cheese using rotini pasta noodles)
• Fruit molecules (grapes + berries)
• Petri dishes (strawberry Jell-O with "bacteria" sprinkles)
• A BEVERAGE lab, where guests could mix their own creations:
• Cranberry juice
• Blue Hawaiian punch
• Lemonade
• Pineapple juice
• Sprite
• Bottles of H2O
• An ICE CREAM SUNDAE bar, where guests could choose their own toppings:
• Salted caramel
• Hot fudge
• Maraschino cherries
• Peanuts
• Sprinkles
• Strawberry syrup

I used mason jars for the beverage lab and added kraft paper straws with some cute, personalized straw flags to complete the look. This is a great way to "label" drinks when you have 15 kids at a party and don't want to mix everyone's drinks up!! ;) I love Avery's water bottle labels. They print beautifully and don't smudge as the bottles sweat! What better way to label water than by using it's chemical name? ;) The kids had a blast using funnels to fill their jars with their own drink concoctions!

After everyone filled up, we moved on to the experiments. I browsed through a couple kids' science books (365 Awesome Science Experiments and Pop Bottle Science) and picked 6 experiments that I thought would be fairly easy and fun for 5/6-year-olds to do:

• Drop It: will a full bottle fall twice as fast as a half-full bottle?
• Metal Boat: can you make a metal boat float?
• Acid or Base?: make colors change as if by magic!
• Gas Balloon: an acid and a base make gas
• Corny Goo: make a goo with strange habits
• Squishy Ice Cream: make your own ice cream!

I created my own science lab notebook that included detailed instructions for the experiments we were conducting. Each child received one of these. For Noah's party with friends, I had the kids pair up and work together, making 7 groups. Each group had a pan full of the supplies they would need to conduct the experiments.

I think it went pretty well, aside from most of the parents having to complete the ice cream experiment for the kids by the end of it. ;) In their defense, they were distracted by the large amount of ducks in our backyard, and they were all more interested in feeding them at that point. Haha!

Noah requested a Reese cake this year for his party, so to tie in to the theme, we made it "explode" with Reese's pieces when you cut into the cake! I made a cake topper to put in the top.

I also ordered these adorable cookies from my friend, Amanda, of Sweet Hadley B Cookies. She is the best!!!

For the party favors, I bought plain white paper bags at Michaels and assigned an element that represented each child attending (i.e. Ra = Radium = Rachel, Am = Americum = Amos, Lu = Lutetium = Lucas, etc). I made a personalized ID badge for each child to wear, using these badge holders and lanyards. Each child also received a pair of safety glasses for the experiments, the notebook with instructions for the 6 experiments we conducted at the party, a pen, another Science notebook (from the Target dollar spot!), an atomic bouncy ball, and a test tube full of sixlets candy.

Here are some pics of the birthday boy enjoying his parties!! :) 

The final item to take care of was the thank you notes. I made a simple flat 4" x 6" card to go with the theme. Because who doesn't love getting something sweet in the mail instead of bills? ;) 

It was an adorable, FUN party! Happy 6th Birthday to our little middle!

If you're interested in purchasing any of the Mad Science printables, please visit my website at www.seeleylanedesign.com, or contact me via my Etsy shop. Don't forget to check out Sweet Hadley B Cookies (she ships cookies all over the U.S.) and custom vinyl t-shirts by All in Good Font!

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Win some Shakeology!

Don't miss out! As I stated in my live Facebook video (you can watch below!), I'm giving away 2 Shakeology sample packs! Each pack includes a Shakeology bottle, and a vanilla, chocolate, and cafe latte shake packet! Visit the linked site to learn about all the awesome benefits of Shakeology. Contest is open to anyone in the U.S. who is not already a Beachbody customer. Contest runs now through midnight on September 3rd. Two winners will be selected to each win one Shakeology pack. Good luck!! :)

Just follow the prompts on the Rafflecopter widget to enter. You can enter daily by sharing my new Facebook page, Coaching by Kristy!

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Beachbody Update!

I haven't been very good about blogging lately. I still need to post about Ethan's 7th birthday...that was over a month ago now!! It's been pretty busy around here lately. I'm hoping to get caught up soon though.

So I recently took the plunge and signed up to be a Beachbody coach!! I figured that I love the products so much that I should go ahead and do it, getting myself the coach's discounts, and creating the opportunity to help others find health & fitness again like I have. I truly believe that if I can do this, anyone can do this. Before starting last October, I hadn't done a "workout" since college. And yeah, I'm not 23 anymore! ;) It wasn't easy at first (I had to drag myself up and down stairs for a week or so), but now that I've found a routine, it's kind of like second nature to get up and do my workout before starting my day. I've found that it helps wake me up, gets me moving, instead of feeling like I am dragging all day, and puts me in a better mood. Add on top of that the fact that I'm burning calories, and I'd say it's a win. I love that most of the workouts are just 30 minutes or so. While getting up at 5:30 am is fun and all, I don't want to have to drag my booty out of bed any earlier than that! Some people love going to the gym, the social aspect of it all. Me, not so much. I'm an introvert at heart, and frankly, I prefer to sweat in the privacy of my own home. These workouts are perfect for me. I prefer to have Autumn push me through the TV screen than have a trainer breathing down my neck.

Now that I'm 6 months in to my journey, I've completed 3 rounds of the 21 day fix, 3 rounds of the 21 day fix extreme, an 8-week round of PiYo, and another couple weeks of the 21 day fix extreme. I also did a Beachbody 3-Day Refresh at the beginning of the year, and I continue to drink Shakeology every day. I'm in better shape than I've been since I was rowing my freshman/ sophomore years of college, and I now weigh less than I did both before kids and before I got married!! Things are distributed a little differently than they used to be, but I'm working on that. ;) As you can see, a huge change from where I was 6 months ago. I'm down 23 pounds and 11 inches (measuring shoulder, chest, waist, hips, one thigh, and one calf). I still have some problem areas to work on, but the proof is in the pics. This "diet" and exercise routine works. That's what I love most about it - it's not a diet. It's eating a portioned amount of healthy, real foods. I don't feel hungry at the end of the day, or like I'm starving throughout the day. By spreading my meals/snacks out throughout the day, I keep blood sugar stable and energy levels up. I'm still working on the little cheats I keep finding on the weekends (my sweet tooth is a force to be reckoned with!!), but overall, I do a great job throughout the week at least.

As you can see, it's possible to lose weight without eating salads every day. I actually don't really even like salad that much. It's ok, and I'll eat it if I have to, but I've found that if I cook/roast my veggies, I actually love them, and I don't have to force them down.

With the 21-day fix, you're provided color-coded containers and you figure out how many calories you should eat based on your current weight. I'm currently in the 1500-1799 range (for a little bit longer at least!). Based on your calorie range, you are given a certain number of each container to eat. I get 4 green containers (veggies), 3 purple containers (fruits), 4 red containers (protein), 3 yellow containers (carbs), 1 blue container (healthy fats), 1 orange container (seeds/dressings), and 4 teaspoons (oils and such). I'm not very good about getting my orange containers in, but I normally get all of the others. This sample meal plan from my day one contains all of my containers for the day except the orange. As you can see, it is a TON of food!! No starving myself here! Here's my detailed meal plan for the day:

• Breakfast (344 calories)
• GREEN: sautéed bell peppers, onion, spinach
• RED: 2 eggs, over easy
• YELLOW: 1 slice whole grain toast
• PURPLE: 2 clementines
• TEASPOON: 1 tsp EVOO
• Morning snack (176 calories)
• GREEN: spinach
• RED: 1 scoop vanilla Shakeology
• FREE: 2 espresso ice cubes
• Lunch (413 calories)
• GREEN: roasted Brussels sprouts
• YELLOW (2): quinoa
• PURPLE: mixed fruit (grapes, raspberries, clementine)
• TEASPOON: 1 tsp EVOO
• Afternoon snack (436 calories)
• PURPLE: Granny Smith apple
• RED: vanilla Greek yogurt
• BLUE: chopped walnuts
• Dinner (225 calories)
• GREEN: roasted broccoli
• RED: Cajun sautéed shrimp
• TEASPOON: 2 tsp EVOO
• TOTAL: 4 green, 4 red, 3 yellow, 3 purple, 1 blue, 4 tsp; 1594 calories

To make things, easy, I actually eat these same items every Mon/Wed/Fri, only changing up the dinners for the rest of my family's sake. :) I do normally cook a carb for them to eat with dinner, but I try to eat all of my fruits and carbs before 6 pm, which means before dinner for me. Sometimes I will have a carb with dinner, but not as often.

Beachbody is currently doing a #summerstrong challenge through the end of May. I am completing the 21-day fix extreme for this, but there are other exercise program options as well. Once I finish this, I'm planning to start either the T-25 program with Shaun T (the P90X guy), or the Master's Hammer & Chisel with Autumn and Sagi. There are so many great options depending on the type of workout you're wanting. I'm so happy I made the decision last fall to let Coach Fraley start me off on my journey and I can't wait to start helping others in my situation, too!! Contact me, visit my Beachbody website, or comment below, if you'd like more info! I'm getting my body beach-ready, are you?? ;)

October 2015                        March 2016