Category Archives: weekly

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week 15

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I was contacting potential babysitters today, writing, “We have a 3 month old…” and then I realized I should be rounding up to 4 month old!

That’s like… a quarter of a year!

I still feel like I’m forgetting things that I wanted to take note of.  Last week I realized I forgot to mention the raspberries.  And the DROOL.  The kid is worse than a rabid St Bernard, what with all the slobber pouring out of his mouth.  I’ve read that this is exactly what should be happening (the drool started weeks ago) and is a precursor to teething, but MAN!  THE DROOL.  Last night I was telling Felix that I can’t wait for this drooling thing to end and Chris commented that  after all the poop, it’s the DROOL that grosses me out.  Well, yeah.  The poop is occasional.  You don’t have to touch it, really.  But the drool gets all over everything.  His collars are always wet and slimy, and the the left shoulder of all my shirts always have a giant wet spot on them.

The raspberries, however, are kinda new, as of last week.  It’s as though he suddenly realized that he could be DOING something with all that drool.  Something like making noise and blowing it all over the place.  And the hand-eating.  Have I mentioned that yet?  He sure does love to suck on his entire hand.  Usually the right one.

Thankfully, he’s been back to his cheerful self for awhile now.  He even slept till 8-8:30 a few nights! WOO HOO!  I dare not get any crazy ideas, again, about staying up to do yoga when he gets up instead of going back to bed, because then he’ll start getting up at 6 or earlier again.  Feh.

Speaking of babysitters.  So, I’m going to suck it up and get one or two.  Chris has been suggesting it for awhile now.  It’s not so much that I’m nervous about it – I think I’m surprisingly NOT one of those over-protective, anxious mothers (surprising to ME, anyway.)  I worry more about his intellectual development than I do about leaving him with a babysitter.  (I’m paranoid about how much interest he takes in the television when I have it on, to the point where I no longer even turn it on during the day.)

I’m looking through profiles of babysitters and I realized that – again, surprisingly – what I want is one of those chirpy, cheerful, cheerleader-y college types of girls.  I want one like one of the roommates I had in Prague for a short while.  I don’t want a dark & brooding teenager and I don’t want an older mother who would probably be more concerned with her own children than mine.  I like the cheerful-looking girls who were nannies or babysat in high school and are now in college.  Particularly the one who are majoring in psychology or childhood development.  Oh yes, I have this very well thought out!

(Hmm.  Maybe that makes me really protective, after all?)

I’m not really sure what I’ll do with myself, when I have a babysitter.  Obviously, I can use her when I want to go to the eye doctor, etc.  But Chris wants me to just get out and do stuff on my own which sounds nice in theory, but once left to my own devices, I just don’t know what to do!  Maybe I’ll just don a black turtleneck & glasses and take my laptop to a cafe, a la my erudite (or not) 20s.

But that’s me and this is supposed to be about Felix, who’s asleep right now.  He goes through phases.  When I want him to sleep, of course, he doesn’t.  20 minute catnaps.  But when he’s all cheerful & happy and content to sit in his boppy seat for hours just watching me organize the house, then – THEN – he takes naps for hours, falls asleep early and sleeps so much I worry about that.

His room is on my list this weekend – we finally got the changing table half put together, and I have creatures on his walls (for decoration.)  But the crib still isn’t up and there’s clothes strewn all over the floor.  The crib I’ll only use for afternoon naps because I’m nowhere near ready to sleep so far away from him.

The photos from this past week here.

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Weeks 13 and 14

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I still have to finish uploading the past two weeks of pictures, so that’ll take another day or so.

Having not posted for two weeks, I feel like I’ve forgotten things already.

He’s up to 15 lbs now, probably an ounce or two more.

We had a few more horrendously fussy, grumpy days and then, as usual, they cleared and he’s back to his usual chatty, smiley self.  And BOY, is he ever chatty!

He’s been fiddling with his hands more & more, he grab things more (he keeps pulling his pacifier out of his mouth and has attempted, a few times, to put it back himself.)

The drooling is nothing new, but JEEZ, he’s worse than a Saint Bernard.

We took our first trip to the zoo last week – originally, to meet up with other mothers from an online group I joined.  But since we couldn’t find them, Felix & I spent a couple hours strolling through on our own.  He was fascinated with the new scenery and stared down a black & white picture of a raccoon.  Again, I found myself longing for the days when I can take him to the zoo and he can run around telling me about his favorite animals.

While I don’t believe in forcing babies to conform to a schedule for our convenience, I was feeling pretty fried for a few days.  He was grumpy as hell and was waking up early again.  He’d been waking up at 6:30-7 and I was seriously thinking about staying up to do yoga instead of going back to bed with him after he was fed.  But of course, that’s when he started getting gretsy and waking up early. 7 am I’d stay up.  5am, no way.

So, upon a few people suggesting, I tried giving him a little rice cereal (brown, organic, of course.)  Not enough to make me feel badly about giving him solids too early, but enough to see if it might do something for him.  Lo and behold… I’m now wondering if all his fussing was because of constipation or gas, because for the past few nights that I’ve given him the cereal, he started pooping daily again and has been all smiles.  Hmm…

I’m sure there’s more that I’m forgetting – but a lot of the changes & things I notice are subtle and I can’t quite put down on paper.  But that’s what all the photos are for!  (Speaking of pictures, Week 13 is here and Week 14 is here, but I still have a bunch of great photos on my camera that I need to upload yet, so… another day or so for those.)

smile

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Week 12

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So we’ve hit week 12, but it’s still not quite a full 3 months.  Not for another 8 days.  3 months!  A quarter of a year!  There I go, trying to rush things again.

It’s been a pretty quiet week, just more of what he’s been doing.  If you REALLY want to know all about him, lately, he’s taking to pooping  just every other day.  3 months is supposed to mean another growth spurt, so we’ll see what happens – he’s been holding steady at a little over 13 pounds the past couple weeks.  That’s unusual, seeing as up until now, he’s gained an average of a couple pounds every couple weeks.

Oh, but he HAS been consistently giving us a good 6+ hour stretch of sleep every night.  That alone is a godsend.

I slacked on taking pictures this week – we’ve been mostly busy with the house.  That’s my only excuse.  But at least I got a few of he & I, even if it is pretty much the same picture over & over.  So there you go, Mom & Dad.

My thinking is that we’ll be officially moved in to the house next weekend (we kind of have to be, since the temp housing is done on the 17th.)  I CAN’T WAIT.  Felix can’t, either, though he may not be aware of it.  He needs some fresh air & daily walks just as much (if not more so) than I do.  And I’m really hoping to get a new bike soon & see how we do with that.  Luckily, our neighborhood is very bike friendly – lots of paths and places to ride around without running into any major roads.  Oh, and luckily for ME, it’s flat enough that I can get back in shape with bike riding without killing myself on big hills.

One thing from this week that’s worth remembering – yesterday was pretty big in terms of realizing how aware of us he is.  He was hanging out in my lap and had had enough (he likes to move around quite a bit) and was starting to fuss.  Chris came home just then and said hi.  As soon as Felix heard him, he stopped fussing and sat on my lap staring up & right at Chris and smiling.  He certainly recognized that Daddy was home!

The past week’s few photos here.

PS I need to add, because this is just as much a record of his life for me as it is for everyone else to keep up with him – that picture of him with the bottle, it’s NOT formula.  I feel pretty triumphant about that.  Since he’d been unable to latch for whatever reason & I started pumping – I never thought I’d even last this long.  In those first few weeks, all I could do was to pump day by day and keep giving myself little short term goals to get to, (one more day, one more week, just until he’s 6 weeks, etc) and I’ve surpassed them all to the point where it’s just part of the daily routine and I think nothing of it anymore.  There are days when it sucks & I feel like I want to quit, but I’ve been dead set against him being a formula-fed baby.  In my mind, I’m screaming, “I had a home birth, dammit! Home birth and formula do not go together!”  I’m pretty hardcore when it comes to natural & unprocessed foods – I won’t even drink pasteurized milk (I prefer raw milk, much better for you.)  So how do I, who doesn’t eat any chemicals, decide that it’s ok for my child? I would think that every time I felt like giving up and just keep going.  Another day, another day.

Some days it feels like all I do is frantically pump, trying to keep up with him. Other days – like now that he’s sleeping in 6 hour stretches & no longer needing that extra feeding or two at night and I can keep up with his demand – it feels perfectly manageable.

I could try to get him to latch again, now that he’s bigger & older. The pediatrician has suggested we wait until we’re moved in to the house & settled, because honestly – the whole latch struggle was & is emotionally & physically exhausting.  There’s a part of me that wants to contact another LC (lactation consultant) and go for it, after the official move.  Another part of me feels like at at this point, let it rest.  We have a routine, he’s thriving, I’ve adjusted.  Trying to get him to latch again could just stir up a new wave of feelings of failure.  Is it worth it?  Yes and no.

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Week 11: Sunny Skies Are Here Again

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Just like that, as quickly as he turned into a miserable little demon, he went right back to being his old, cheery self.  Behold:

I stand by my original assessment that the lack of sleep had caught up to him.  That chamomile water worked WONDERS.  Every since those two days where I had given him some, he’s gone from barely ever sleeping to sleeping A LOT.  He’s consistently slept 6-7 hour stretches at night, for the past week, and he takes a few long naps during the day.  When he’s not sleeping, he’s happy, cheerful & alert (unless he’s hungry/wet/tired).

His routine now is that he falls asleep around 10-11pm (unless there are grandparents around to exhaust him, in which case he falls asleep as early as 9-9:30). He’ll wake up around sometime from 5:30-6:30, fall back asleep until 7-8 during which time I’ll feed him and then take him back to bed just for us to lie together.  For about an hour, he’ll lay there and coo and smile (and I’ll either coo & smile back or just try not to fall asleep, depending how tired I am) and then about an hour or two later, he’ll sleep again, until about 10-11am.

Then during the afternoon, he’ll sleep a couple times.

I have to say, we’re damn lucky.  I hear horror stories about babies that wake up at 5:30am and stay up.  Our kid sleeps from 10-10, for the most part.  Weekends are great.  I’ve (hopefully) started a nice little weekend routine – some family time of just laying in bed, awake for an hour playing with him.  I think that might be my favorite time, ever – the three of us, waking up together.

I’ve also gotten far more adept at recognizing his cries & his mood.  I can tell when he’s cranky & tired and usually a few minutes in the swing will be enough to knock him out.

A couple things I keep forgetting to mention – he loves when you rub something soft over his face (especially my hair.)  I discovered the hair thing by accident one day – I was leaning over him on the floor and my hair was in his face.  I suddenly heard noises of ecstasy like I’ve never heard before!  His eyes were closed and he rolled his head back & forth, rubbing his face in my hair.  He’ll do something similar if you drape a piece of cloth over his face, but my hair gets the biggest reaction.

If you put cloth over his face – he LOVES to eat soft things, as well.  Or just lick & gum them, I suppose.  You can set him down & put fabric over his mouth and he’ll lay there for ages just licking & smiling away.

He also started to eat his hand a couple weeks ago – or try to.  At times it seems he’s trying to suck his thumb, but but often he’ll just make a fist & slobber all over it, or try to shove his whole fist in his mouth.

Then there’s his eyes.  Straight on, they’re bluer than blue.  But from the side, they look green.  There’s definitely a ring of green around his pupil, some days it’s bigger than others.

We’re starting on the 11th week now – it’s hard to believe he’s about to turn 3 months.  Again, I think “that’s it?” and “wow, it’s been a long 3 months” at the same time.  There’s certainly been a lot of ups & downs, but I suppose anyone will tell you that that’s all part of having a baby.  The ups far outweigh & make up for the downs.

Now that we’re moving into the new house, I’m SO excited to finally make up a room for him.  Not that he’ll be using it much (they say co-sleeping should be done for up to a year, and I fully intend to – if not only because I can’t bear to sleep away from him.)  Though I will try to use his crib for afternoon naps.

His room, as with all the upstairs rooms, is white.  I want to get a brightly colored color block throw rug, and I got these vinyl decals for the walls:

Chris wondered if they might not be too scary, but a 3 month old doesn’t understand “scary” yet.  I thought about dinosaurs, but they’re too cliche.  Me being me, I wanted something unique.  I’d have liked to have gotten vintage robots, but the only ones I could find on short notice were black & white, and I wanted color.  By the time he’s old enough to think they’re scary (which I doubt, if he’s been looking at them since he was a baby), he’ll be able to choose his own motif.

Photos from the past week here.

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Week 10 : The Fuss-Maker

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fuss1

This past week will be known as The Week He Became a Demon Baby.

See, I thought we’d escaped all that crying, colicky stuff.  Serves me right for telling everyone how easy he is, and how he only cries when he needs something.  Oh, we’re tired, but this having a baby stuff is so simple – tra la la!

And then the all day fussing started.  About 10 days ago.  I originally attributed it to another growth spurt, but once we hit day 10 of me wanting to shove hot pokers through my ears & into my brain, I got it.  This was no growth spurt.

fuss2“Colic”?  MY baby, really?  Sigh.  We hold him, he’s happy for 10 minutes, then he cries.  Put him in the swing.  Happy for 10 minutes, then cries.  Put him on his mat.  Happy for 10 minutes and he cries.  I’ve tried everything.  I gave him a bath one day, followed by a massage, and he napped for an hour and a half. That’s unheard of.  He’s still not much of a napper, but we’re working on it.  Kid needs sleep.

So I thought BATHS! BATHS & MASSAGES ARE KEY!  I tried again the next day, but of course, it didn’t work again.  While he may look increasingly more like Chris every day*, his personality is mine, all mine.  Difficult.  Inconsistent.  Or maybe that’s just the “colic” talking.  On good days, he’s a huge bolt of sunshine.  In the morning & just before bed, he still coos and smiles, just to let us know he’s still in there.  But in between… OH, LORDY, THE CRYING.  THE CRYING THAT JUST NEVER GOES AWAY.

I went to the pediatrician today, just to be sure there wasn’t something else going on.  You know, something concrete & simple that could be fixed.  Nope.  No such luck.  Being the all natural person that I am, I was happy to accept a bottle of chamomile water & a recommendation to give him a pinch or two, each day, from my probiotic capsules.  Chamomile is supposed to be calming and the probiotics are good for the whole digestive system.

I was almost convinced he was teething – you can see the outline of every single one of his teeth through his gums.  I don’t know if that’s normal, but based on this past 10 days – WOW, am I ever looking forward to when the teething starts.  Yeah.  Looking forward to it.  Just like I’d look forward to ramming my head against a cement wall.  Although, if I rammed my head against a cement wall, I’d eventually knock myself out and get some relief.

fuss3Ok, that’s a bit dramatic.  I jest.  I mean, the crying sucks, but I know it’ll pass – and I also know it isn’t nearly as bad as most people have it.  I’ve heard many stories of “colicky” babies who would start crying every day around 6pm and not stop till 2 am.  For weeks on end.  Felix is a considerate little man – he gets it all out during the day and gives us peace through the night.

At some point this afternoon, our realtor is supposed to be coming by to drop off the keys to OUR! NEW! HOUSE!  *I* am looking forward to it because it’ll be so much easier to get out more often, and go for walks.  I also can’t wait to have all my kitchen stuff back.  Well, WE can’t wait for me to have all my kitchen stuff back.  I’m sure Chris is just as sick of all the grab ‘n go & pre-made food as I am.  And just maybe Felix is sick of not being settled already, too.

PS It occurred to me that maybe I should put links to the weekly photos here with the newsletter, as well, so here’s a link to this past week’s photos (week 9.)

* He is starting to look more & more like Chris, isn’t he?  His eyes are still blue and I thought they were going to stay that way, but some days, when the light hits, it looks like there’s a pretty ring of green around his pupil, spreading outward.  *Fingers crossed*

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Week 9

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As we speed towards his third month, I try to remember that we should be enjoying every moment of right now, but it’s hard not to want to hurry up to the days when we can take him to the zoo, museums, etc.

He’s been drooling like crazy, which I originally thought was just his new signal of hunger, but it turns out it’s just a normal development – a precursor to teething.  (Oh, can’t wait for that fun!)

The joy of napping continues to elude us.  This kid does not nap.  Did I say this already? – I stopped napping completely at 5 months.  So I guess this is mom’s revenge.  I think I’m done reading all the guidelines & books about “this is what babies do at this age,” because everyone else I talk to is quite insistent on these things, whereas I’ve realized pretty quickly that all these guidelines are absolutely not true for everyone.

Especially when you have a kid as unique as Felix. *smile*  Takes after his mother, that one – always bucking the system and doing things differently from everyone else.

Well, it’s not entirely true when I say he doesn’t nap.  He takes 20 minute catnaps, at best.  Perhaps 2 or 3 a day (depending on how desperate I’m feeling.)  He agrees to nap for 20 minutes whenever I want to take a shower.  So, that’s nice of him.

I’ve already warned everyone off of giving me suggestions on getting him to sleep – I’ve tried it all.  The ONLY thing that does any good is movement.  Again, like me, who only slept in the car.  He sleeps in the car (so long as we’re not at a red light), in the stroller (so long as we’re actually walking/moving), in his car seat when we’re carrying it AND I’ve discovered, if I put him on my lap and bounce him around.

So, we’re buying a baby swing today and see if that might become my “mother’s little helper.”

I’d say, on average, including nighttime (or rather, ONLY at nighttime), he gets about 9-10 hours of sleep a day.  He actually doesn’t seem all that cranky for getting so little sleep.  Occasionally he is, but then I put him down for one of his infamous catnaps, and all is well again.

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8 weeks

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Here’s the “weekly newsletter” as we begin the 8th week.  Two months.  To which I say, “Wow, two months already?” and “Really?  Has it only been two months?”

Last week I confirmed my suspicions about him needing/wanting his space when he sleeps.  This week, I’ve determined that it has something to do with his arms.  I need to get more photos of this, but when you spend some time with him, you notice that he’s always throwing his arms out wide.  He loves to have those arms out.  Maybe he’s just showing that he’s ready to embrace the world.

When I set him down on the couch, next to me, to doze – if he’s against the back of the couch & can’t have both arms out, he won’t sleep.  But if I move him diagonally across the cushion, so that he can, he’ll sleep.  He’s not a big fan of being cradled against you – he prefers over the shoulder ( to look around) or up and down on your knees – where he will throw those arms out.

I’ve also realized that it’s best for me to keep my hair pulled up at all times.  He’s begun clutching at everything – if you hold him, he’ll clutch at your arms & shoulders or, in my case – my hair.  Ouch.

Since determining that Little Mr Independent wants his space & letting him sleep in the basinette (next to our bed), he’s been sleeping 4 + 3 intervals at night, on average.  After Chris leaves for work, he’ll generally go another hour and a half or so.

We got a digital baby/toddler scale last week and he was up to 11.9 pounds.  Probably about 11.12 or thereabouts by today.  Inititally, he gained a lot of weight, fast – which was a good thing.  Now it’s slow & steady.  Also a good thing.

I know that eventually, I’ll miss these days and wish he were a baby again, but I’m really looking forward to interacting with him more.  I want to read to him and take him to kids’ museums and the zoo.

felix-148But I know what my mom would say – he’ll grow up too quickly, enjoy every moment without looking ahead so soon!

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7+ weeks

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7bI’m going to try to write a weekly update, especially because I still haven’t gotten out to buy a proper baby book & we want to remember all his quirks & milestones.

So we’ve made it to almost 2 months – it’s absolutely flown by.  During those first few weeks when you’re frazzled & exhausted & feel like you’re about to lose your mind, people continuously tell you, “It’ll get easier,” and it does.  I also kept in mind what my mom had told me, “It doesn’t last forever.”

He was so easy and wonderful during the big move last week.  He slept through the ride to the airport, the 3 hour wait at the airport and during the flight.  He woke only when he was hungry or desperately in need of a diaper change.  He really isn’t much of a crier, at all, only crying when he needs something and settling as soon as he gets it.

The past week or two, his personality has really started to come through.  Just as we’d arrived in Seattle, I noticed that he’d begun to coo.  When my parents came to visit last week, all the attention & urging and has made him one chatty little fellow.  Even now, as I type, he’s laying on the floor making all sorts of happy little racket.

We aren’t sure how much he weighs now, but we guess it’s at least 10 lbs, if not a pound or two more.  He eats like a little monster.  (He also, today, has gas like a little monster.  WHEW!  How something so little & cute gives off a scent so powerful…)

He’s an independent fellow & already breaking his mother’s heart.  We’ve been co-sleeping with him since the day he was born.  I noticed, lately, that everytime I moved at night, he’d wake up.  I suspected he wanted his own sleeping space, so we experimented by putting him in the basinette, next to the bed, last night.  He slept soundly, for two full 4 hour stretches.  Sigh.  Already I miss seeing his face first thing when I open my eyes.  I even miss his flailing and his little hand smacking me in the face.  Yes, I do.

(He eats, a lot, and I think it’s because of something my mom pointed out.  He never stops moving. Hardly ever.  Always flailing, swinging his arms about, kicking his legs.  He’s an active, active boy.  (I have many pictures of him where his arms and legs are a blur.)

He showed an incredible amount of strength almost from the moment he was born by lifting his head and looking around whenever you’d hold him.  Already I remember the days when I called him Bobblehead.  But he’s gotten stronger and steadier & can hold his head much longer & higher, without quite so much waving about.  (We still call him Wrecking Ball, though, as he occasionally just let’s his head drop and WHAM! right into the side of your head.)  We put him down on his belly a couple times a day and he’s about *this close* to flipping himself over onto his back.

But you’d think with all that moving, he’d exhaust himself & sleep a lot, right?  Nope.   He’s inherited my inability – or rather, refusal – to sleep.  I laugh when I read “babies sleep about 16 hours a day.”  NOT THIS BABY.  He might finally be on his way to a nighttime sleep pattern of about 8-9 hours.  However, daytime naps?  HA HA HA HA  Once in a while he’ll sleep for an hour or two in the afternoon, but typically he’ll only take a couple of 20 minute cat naps.  Weeks ago it seemed he was grumpy because he was overtired, so I’d do everything possible to get him to sleep.  Now, though, he seems just fine with as little sleep as he’s getting.  He doesn’t want to miss anything.

7Back to the independence, though.  He also loves to have his space by being laid down on a blanket on the floor to flail and talk and look around.  Super alert and getting noisier every day.  He makes lots and lots of beautiful happy noises.  Based on all the cooing and squealing, I think he has a mighty lot to say, once he figures out just how to say it.