Our Riley Samuel! - Ashley Zin

I thought it was about time I dedicate a post to our Riley! I used to do monthly updates with Shane and now I’m regretting just a little bit not doing those with Riley because I still go back and read Shane’s. So today I thought I would share all about Riley!

Introducing Riley to our Family:

There was of course an adjustment period where we all had to get used to the new dynamics of our family, but he fit right in so well! There was a few weeks in the beginning where Shane and I had a little bit of a hard time but we soon fell into our new normal. It helped a lot that we all were just so in love with our new addition to the family.

My physical healing this time went really smoothly and we were able to get out early on and go for walks and just be outside (since it was July!) and that was so nice. It definitely helped with the sleeplessness and monotony of caring for a newborn. We had Shane in January so there really wasn’t any of this and it was tough.

Breastfeeding So Far:

So if you’ve followed my story from before we had Shane then you’ll know one of the hardest parts of caring for Shane was that breastfeeding didn’t go the way that I thought it was going to go. I really wanted to exclusively breastfeed Shane but that just wasn’t in the cards for us. (You can read more about that here if you’re interested.) I was able to breastfeed him until he was two, just never exclusively.

So when I was pregnant with Riley I prayed a lot and asked God to help me have open hands when it came to breastfeeding. I still had the desire to breastfeed and to get to experience exclusive breastfeeding but more than anything I didn’t want to hold so tightly to it that I would be completely devastated if it didn’t happen (like with Shane).

So I prayed a lot and was hopeful that things would work out but was going to be okay no matter what happened. And they did work out! I have been able to exclusively breastfeed Riley since he was born! I honestly never thought I would be able to exclusively breastfeed so I’ve been cherishing every minute of our breastfeeding journey.

So as of now he only breastfeeds 4-5 times a day and eats solids twice a day.

Eating Solids:

Speaking of eating solids, Riley loooves to eat! He’s still a peanut like Shane was (and still is) but he does love him some food. With Shane I was struggling so much that I didn’t have the ambition to make him his own food, which was honestly fine. But this time around I’m really enjoying being able to make purees for Riley.

So far he’s eaten bananas, zucchini, apples, broccoli, oatmeal, sweet potato, carrots, spinach, ground turkey, eggs, peanut butter, strawberries, and blueberries.

I’ve recently been trying to introduce small pieces of finger food but he just doesn’t really like it lol. He gags a lot, which I know is normal but also spits out most of the small pieces of food I give him. I’ll just keep introducing it and I know he’ll get it eventually.

Sleeping:

Riley is what we call our little angel baby because he also sleeps really well! I never had to sleep train him. I just started putting him down “drowsy but awake” like they tell you to do when they’re little and it totally worked. Most of the time I rock him for just a few minutes and put him down with his pacifier and he puts himself to sleep.

He of course like any other baby has had some hard nights but for the most part has been a really good sleeper since he was born. Right now I put him down for the night around 7 and then nurse him before I go to sleep around 9:30-10 pm. He’s still sleeping in our room in a pack ‘n play. The plan is for him to move into Shane’s room once he’s completely sleeping through the night. I could probably put him in there now but really like them having their own space to sleep for now anyway.

Milestones:

I swear Riley started repeating dada and mama around six months old. He still does repeat them which is really sweet. I don’t really think he knows what he’s saying though but I’m really not sure.

He’s also really close to crawling. He can move backwards but has yet to figure out how to go forward. He can certainly get around though. He’s army crawling as of now, which is how Shane started crawling too right around the same age Riley is so that’s pretty funny.

He also just popped his first tooth the day he turned 9 months old! It was actually a really weird day because he usually takes a two hour morning nap and woke up an hour early from his nap and then wouldn’t go to sleep at all for his second nap. He really wasn’t very fussy though so I wasn’t suspecting that he was teething and then that night he put my finger in his mouth and I felt that the tooth had popped through! That explained it haha!

The funny part was that on this same day he started rolling onto his belly and trying to sleep on his belly and then crying when he was uncomfortable so I also had to keep going in and flipping him back over and giving him his pacifier so I really wasn’t expecting the tooth because I partly thought this was why he wasn’t sleeping.

Our Schedule at 9 Months:

This is just a rough schedule but is mostly accurate. Sometimes the times are a bit off and his bedtime is the most unpredictable part because it usually takes him a long time to go to sleep. Most of the time he’s in bed and trying to sleep on his own though. Sometimes I have to go in one or two times and comfort him for a minute or two but it’s usually pretty simple. On the day that he turned nine months old he started rolling onto his belly and trying to sleep on his belly. I now find him on his belly sleeping when I wake up in the morning and it’s so cute!

7:30am: Wake up + nurse
9:30am: Naptime
11:30am: Wake up + nurse
1:30pm: 3 oz of solids
2:00pm: Naptime
4:00pm: Wake up + nurse
6:00pm: 3 oz of solids
7:00pm: Sometimes Nurse + Bedtime
9:30pm: Dreamfeed

So he really falls asleep probably around 7:30-8ish but is usually very tired by 7 and we at least put him in bed by 7ish. He also has been sometimes rejecting nursing before he goes to sleep. I’m not sure if that will stick or is just a phase. I try not to let him go longer than 4-5 hours in between nursings though.