My first football game

Since I (Courtney) work at a high school in the area, we decided to go see the Bunn High School football team play on Friday night. I am teaching sophomores and seniors this year, so many of my students are involved in football-related activities.

Though it is still pretty warm outside, even at night, we wanted to go and take Silas. My students are always asking about him and wanting to see him, so this was the perfect chance. On top of that, the next home game for Bunn isn't until October 15 (wow!).

The turnout for the game was awesome--albeit, nothing like Daphne High School football games, but still great. The team, however, couldn't hold its own against Southern Nash High School. Bunn was beat 44-15. We ended up leaving at halftime because not only was it pretty hot, but it was past Silas' bedtime and he got a little cranky. 

We did get a picture of him at his first football game, though! We have some friends from back home who have a business, called Lily Lane Kids, and they make children's clothes and accessories. They've done other outfits for Silas, but this is one of my all-time favorites. Since Bunn's mascot is the Wildcat and the school colors are green and yellow, I thought it was only fitting that Silas have his own "wild kitten" t-shirt. Isn't he (and it) adorable?

Holding the bottle

Silas has achieved a new milestone--he can hold his own bottle!

He has figured out how to hold the bottle when we feed him, BUT, he won't do it much. I suppose I can understand: why bother, if we will do it for him? :) Nonetheless, we are still excited about this, and hope that he will begin doing this more and more as the weeks progress.

We've captured a few of these moments on camera for you to see!

Silas' 3-month photos

The pictures are in! They turned out really well and they look great. There aren't quite as many of just Silas, because we wanted a few family photos. You can view all of them on our picture website at alanandcourtney.shutterfly.com . But I've posted a few below to give you a preview!

Picture Website

We now have a picture website! Since we can't post all of our pictures on this blog, and we have so many pictures, we've set up a picture website for everyone to view. This is the link: alanandcourtney.shutterfly.com . I've posted this link at the top of this webpage and I've posted the blog's website on the other webpage--this way, you can visit one and still get to the other. I hope this will make looking for things a little easier. 

I am still loading pictures to the Shutterfly website, so patience, please! Shutterfly is great, though. You can go to the site, click on an album to view the pictures and then click on the individual pictures to see them bigger. If you find a picture you like, you can then order it online! You can either have the pictures mailed to you or pick-up them up at a local store of your choice. This is really a fantastic way to view pictures at your own pace. 

4-month check-up

Silas had his 4-month check-up today. The appointment included more immunizations and the poor thing has been worn out from them this afternoon!

Silas is now 26 inches long, weighs 16lbs 15oz, and his head measures 43.2 cm. This means that he is in the 85-percentile for height and weight and 75-percentile for head measurement. He is such a BIG boy! The doctor noted that he's not fat or chubby--he is just a bigger child, in length and weight. Just the other day, we had to undo the first row of snaps on his Bumgenius diapers AND we had to loosen the straps on his car seat. The straps have now been loosened as much as possible--the next step is a new car seat!

As already mentioned, he had more immunizations today. The nurse was quick with them; by the time he started squalling, she was already giving him the second shot. In total, he had one oral immunization and 3 shots. He calmed down fairly quickly (his cries are so pitifully cute) and we've been home ever since.

He's had a rough afternoon. Courtney has been giving him Tylenol, but his reflux has been exceptionally worse today. He's just had a lot of gas and pain on top of the shots this morning, so he is crying quite a bit today (which is not typical for him). Nothing seems to be helping other than rocking him constantly. It's OK; if that's what he needs for now, that's what he will get!

Here he is, exhausted from a not-so-fun day. Sleeping on Daddy's pillow. 

Cromer Craziness!

Michelle, this one is for you!

We had a wonderful visit this week with Alan's sister, Michelle, her kids, and her mother, Sharon. Our niece and nephews are 11-year-old triplets--Brady, Austin, and Emily Grace. It was a busy, but wonderful couple of days!

Alan took the youth group to a water park in Greensboro, NC on Wednesday and Michelle decided to bring her family and meet him there. Afterwards, they drove back to Wake Forest and spent Wednesday night, Thursday, and part of Friday in town with us.

We started Thursday by meeting for lunch at Steak 'n Shake. Courtney was able to see her old boss (and show off Silas) and we all indulged in great food, yummy milkshakes, and passed Silas around the table! After lunch, we moved on to Marbles Kids Museum in downtown Raleigh. It is an awesome place for children of all ages. There are dress-up areas, a pirate ship, giant play areas, a sports center, tool center, and so much more. It is such an inexpensive place to play for a day at only $5 per person. We took a trip through the souvenir shop afterwards, and headed back to Wake Forest.

After freshening up a bit, we all met for dinner at a local Mexican restaurant, followed by dessert at Goodberry's. We were initially going to go swimming at their hotel, but a nasty storm forced us to choose the dessert route, instead (what a shame). We took dessert back to their hotel, though, and all 8 of us enjoyed time together until we had to take Little Bit home.

Friday morning, Silas slept in until almost 10 o'clock! He was apparently worn out! But, we got going again and were able to have lunch with everyone before they had to leave.

We had such fun with everyone and are so blessed to have time with them. They all love Silas so much, and we can't wait for him to grow up and get to know everyone! Take a look at a few pictures from the trip...

 

Yes, I am a pirate...with a paci. 

Our little 3-month old

Silas is actually closer to 4-months-old, but since I haven't updated about him in awhile, I thought I would go ahead and do that now!

It is amazing to see how much Silas has changed in just 3 months. He is holding his head up completely (although he was doing that fairly well at birth). He is almost sitting up--but not quite. He gets really frustrated because he can't sit up yet, but we know he is so close! He loves to quietly observe his surroundings, especially if there are lots of colors. Lights, ceiling fans, and mobiles catch his attention constantly. He can grasp at objects and hold them for a few minutes, but isn't quite sure what to do with them after that. He loves to pull his pacifier out of his mouth, but then wants it back in!

He also wants to hold his bottle. He's learned that he can prop the bottle with his hands, but is still learning to unravel his hand to hold it.

We've started feeding him (somewhat) solid food, too! At each meal, we try to give him a little of something solid before we give him the bottle. Doing this has helped his reflux, drastically. There is such a noticeable difference and it gives us hope that the more solids he eats, the better it will be overall!

We took him to see a pediatric gastroenterologist while we were in Alabama and were basically told that he just has severe reflux. An ultrasound revealed that, thankfully, he has no pyloric stenosis. While this is a wonderful thing, we were still a little discouraged to have to just "wait this out" as we were told. However, with the solid food going so well, we are very encouraged!

He's a hearty eater, just like his mom and dad! He hasn't really disliked anything we've given him, yet. So far, carrots, butternut squash, sweet peas, green beans, pears, peaches, bananas, and even a teeny drop of syrup someone gave him have all been received well. He wasn't crazy about plain rice cereal, but we think once we mix it with something sweet, he'll love it.

Silas is such a happy, playful baby. He is especially active when he first wakes up in the morning, and during the evening hours, right before he goes to bed (7-9pm). He laughs, coos, shrieks, and plays. Sometimes, we will wake up in the morning to find him in the crib just cooing and laughing away! Uncle Cliff discovered that Silas is a fan of the nursery rhyme "Patty-cake" so we sing that to him. Afternoons can make him a little fussy, but he has started enjoying playing in his Jumpy. He can't jump in it yet, but is entertained by the lights and sounds.

Finally, he is still sleeping like a rock (which he definitely gets from his mom). When we put him down at night, he will sleep a solid 8-9 hours. We have found that he usually wakes up around 7am. He's our little alarm clock. Even if he gets to bed later, he still wakes up around 7am, and just takes an earlier morning nap.

He now takes two or three good naps a day. He always has a morning nap, an afternoon nap and then a late afternoon nap. The times aren't always consistent, but we'll take what we can get. Oh, and he is still making those adorable little puppy noises when he sleeps! We don't know why he does it, but we love it!

Overall, life with Silas is fabulous. I will update with his 4-month appointment information in a couple of weeks!

Trip to the OBX

More traveling for the Reynolds family! We've just recently returned from a family trip to the Outer Banks of NC, also known as the OBX. We had a wonderful time!

We stayed in Corolla, a town that is actually located on the 4x4 beaches. In order to get to your location, you must have a vehicle with 4WD because the highway turns into the beach! No joke, you must drive in the sand, along the Atlantic Ocean to get to where you are staying. Also, wild horses roam freely in this area, so you've got to be on the look out for those, too!

Again, blogging about the entire trip would take too long, but here are some pictures from it.

Alabama

The last few weeks have been such a whirlwind! A couple of times a year, we are fortunate enough to visit our family down in south Alabama. I finished working on June 15 and then on Father's Day (June 20), we headed down after church. We were planning on getting in late Sunday night/early Monday morning, staying the week, then leaving on Saturday. What ended up happening was much different!

The original 5 days we were supposed to be there were packed-to-the-brim. Every single breakfast, lunch, and dinner were planned. Since we don't go home often, we are usually pretty busy when we do go, but adding a child to the mix has introduced a completely new level of chaos! Those 5 days flew by as we spent time with wonderful friends and precious family. We wanted to stay longer, and some preferable circumstances gave us an excuse to extend the trip. I was able to stay for another full week and Alan flew to Raleigh and back (for work) and was able to drive back with us, enabling him to have a couple extra days, as well.

Blogging about the trip and the time with family would take more time than I could imagine. We had such an amazing time and God has truly blessed us beyond belief! I could spend hours upon hours blogging about everything--but I won't. Instead, I will post a few pictures highlighting the trip...

Cousins meeting for the first time! Dylan immediately went for Silas' wrist rattle.

Four Generation photo: Cliff and I with our babies, and my mother and her mother.

Alan's family. There are no words to describe how special this picture is.

At The Tin Top Restaurant in Bon Secour, AL.

At least someone got some sleep.

Cloth Diapers

We've had a lot of people ask us about our cloth diapers and how it is going, so I thought I would write a blog giving some information about them for those interested. I know that cloth diapering is not for everyone, but there are plenty of people out there considering it.

Let me begin by stating that we LOVE our diapers. Practically everyone was so negative about us using cloth diapers and yet, we love them and have no intention of using disposables again. We did use disposables briefly--while his umbilical area was healing, and then when he was circumcised. We were so happy to go back to cloth after that.

We use Bumgenius 3.0 diapers. I did hours upon hours of research before we came to decide on these. Euphoria Baby was a great source for information and was where I bought the diapers from in the end. Everyone has their own preference and this is what I felt would work best for us. Bumgenius has many different types of diapers and there are many other companies, as well. My brother and sister-in-law use the gDiapers, and these seem to be working well for them. At any rate, the Bumgenius are machine washable and can be put in the dryer. They come in a variety of colors, and are very durable. Finally, they have snaps that enable the diapers to grow with Silas--from newborn to toddler!

We bought 18 diapers and have yet to use all of them in one-day. At his best, we've used 7-8 in a day. Then again, we aren't typical first-time parents--we don't feel the need to change his diaper 25 times a day. We are pretty laid back, but, it is definitely a comfort to know we have plenty of extras. They come in an array of colors so we got yellow, light blue, dark blue, light green, and dark green). This way, if we have another child and it is a girl, we can still use the yellows and greens (and even the blues if we want!).

How do they work? Well, each diaper shell has a pocket and you put the diaper inserts into the pocket. The thicker end goes up front for boys and in the back for girls. Once the insert is in and situated (it's super easy) you put the diaper on baby. That's it. The tabs are velcro and are really easy to pull and stay put. We had disposable tabs break frequently, but these don't and they've never come un-velcroed. Yes, they are thicker, so Baby may wear slightly bigger clothes, or, the clothes may stretch a bit, but it is no big deal. They are adorable!

Clean up is not as hard as imagined. When he has a wet/dirty diaper we take it to the bathroom where we have a garbage can with a special cloth bag liner. You take the insert out and throw both the insert and shell into the can. If it is a dirty diaper, you rinse off the the diaper in the toilet. How do we do this? We use a diaper sprayer. It easily hooks up to the toilet, and you turn it on, rinse the mess into the toilet, and turn it off. The diaper and shell then go into the can.

Washing the diapers is easy, too. We run the diapers once in a cold cycle and then again in a warm/hot cycle. The cold rinse is done without detergent and we add detergent during the hot rinse. We do use special detergent called Country Save because it is chemical, dye, and fragrance-free. You don't need much of it, though, and it will last us a LONG time. There are a few other recommended ones and there are many websites that can lead you in the right direction. Once the wash cycles are done, we put the liners in the dryer to dry and hang-dry the shells on an extra shower-rod in the bathroom. Yes, you can dry the shells in the dryer, but they do last longer if you hang dry those. Hang drying everything outside is even better, if your neighborhood allows (ours doesn't)!

That's it. Seriously. Doesn't sound too difficult, right?

There are some other things that you need to know, and I will try to address these as questions...

Q: Why the special liner in the garbage can? Couldn't you just use a regular bag?

A: Yes, but I don't recommend it. These diaper pail liners are great because not only do they contain the smell, but we toss bag and all into the washing machine and dryer. They are machine washable, and we don't have to touch the dirty diapers again.

Q: Why special detergent? Can't I use All Free, or something without fragrance?

A: Yes, but again, not recommended. Detergents with any type of fragrances, dyes, or chemicals can damage the diapers and affect their efficacy. Plus, Country Save does a great job getting odors out and is safe for baby's skin. As I mentioned before, there are other usable detergents we've just used this one. By the way, Dreft and other baby detergents are not usable. They still have fragrances and chemicals.

Q: What about diaper rash and using creams or powders with these?

A: You shouldn't use just any diaper cream with these diapers, because like the detergent, they can affect the efficacy. We've only had to use diaper rash cream once so far (for not even a day) but we were prepared. We purchased hemp liners that go on top of the inside of the diaper, that way the cream from his bottom rubs onto these liners and doesn't touch the rest of the diaper. We also use Aveeno Baby Cream which we found was safe for the diapers and also not a ridiculous price. Destin, Boudreaux's, and other popular ones will hurt the diaper.

Q: How does traveling with cloth diapers work?

A: So far, so good. The diapers do take up more room in the bag, but I have a really nice, large diaper bag. You will need wet bags for traveling. Wet bags are small bags that are big enough to fit 2 or 3 cloth diapers in them. They can also be washed and dried, and contain smells within the bag. We are taking a couple long trips this summer, so I am going to give these flushable liners a try. I'll let you know how that goes.

Q: How do the diapers hold up overnight?

A: Pretty well. But, we double up at night. We bought extra inserts to put in the diaper at night so by morning, he hasn't soaked through. Also, the hemp liners mentioned above are also diaper doublers that can be used overnight. You can use this throughout the day, as well, especially if you have a baby that tends to fill the diaper well.

Q: What kind of prep must you do before using the diapers for the first time?

A: LOTS of washing. I spent an entire Saturday washing everything. Not just once, either. The inserts and shells had to go through 2 or 3 washings. The hemp liners had to go through 5-6 washings (they have a specific oil in their material initially that can ruin the diaper if not washed out). But once that was done, they were good to go. Also, not washing them enough times will increase the likelihood that the diapers efficacy will decrease.

Oh, and I also gave my washing machine a good cleaning before the prep. I wiped down everything and did a vinegar/water hot wash. This helps to get rid of smells, chemicals and any other lurking bacteria.

Here is a list of the things we bought in preparation of cloth diaper use:

• A starter pack including 18 diapers, 18 inserts and 5 diaper doublers (for overnight use)
• Additional hemp diaper doublers/inserts (about 10-15 more)
• A diaper sprayer
• 2 diaper pail liners
• 2 wet bags for traveling
• Country Save laundry detergent
• Bounce-free dryer sheets
• Aveeno Baby Diaper Cream
• Flushable liners (which we will be experimenting with this summer during traveling)

I think this is it. Overall we spent about $500 for all of this, maybe a little less. It is a lot up front, but, that's it. We don't have to buy ANYTHING else. Plus, if we treat the diapers kindly, we can use them for another child or re-sell them (yes, you can do this! Some people want your old cloth diapers). We are going to save thousands of dollars; and while we are using more water than normally, it is a renewable resource and much cheaper than buying disposables. We are trying to be better stewards of this earth that God has graciously provided to our depraved hands.

Whew! Have I answered all your questions? Feel free to leave a comment and ask more!

DISCLAIMER: My linking all the various products in this blog is simply to give examples of what I use. There are many other fantastic products out there that are perfectly acceptable. I have not been paid to blog about this issue and the products within it. I am simply a fan and want to help those out there who are looking for information.