8 months old~!!!!

Kyaaaa getting so big!!!!

Just 4 more months till he's a whole year old, and 5 more months till Little Boss comes along!

He's learned quite a few new tricks this month ... the most dangerous being that he can pull himself up to stand and lean on the pillows, or arms of couches, etc. that I put up to keep him from rolling off the bed, or couch, etc.

He's also started crawling ... backward! hehehe ... He actually gets such a good crawling pose as he reaches for something from a sitting position, but then he gets too distracted trying to reach it that he just flops around on his belly and flails his arms and legs. But he does know how to scoot backward and the confused face he makes as he gets taken further away from the toy instead of closer is so priceless. He also knows how to just roll around everywhere so that eventually he DOES reach the toy, or the edge of the bed ... or any random place.

On December 5th his tooth popped out! The mouthsore I mentioned before turned out to be the tooth breaking out and the break in the gum getting infected. I probably wouldn't have noticed it until the mouthsore healed up ... but Papoosie happened to bite me ... woohoooo!! I don't think there was ever a more happy Mama to have her baby bite her! ehehehe

Here's a pic of the little thingie ... it's much bigger now ... but its the first pic I took of his toothie!!!

He 'talks' and 'sings', and 'dances', and is such an active baby. Almost too active for me! I really limit the amount that I pick him up and hold him because Little Boss is really starting to grow and both of them together is just too much for me. I try to keep him really happy and fill him up with the 'mommy' time by sitting down with him, playing lying down next to him, letting him sit in my lap during school time, etc. but he's at the age where he knows the difference between sitting and standing so it's hard sometimes. He falls asleep most days with grandma or daddy or even grandpa most nights now because he still refuses to sleep on his own. I have tried a few times, but the times when he isn't too tired he makes a fuss and grandma comes in and begs me to let her hold him. I told her I want him to get used to sleeping on his own before he gets too big (because by then Little Boss will be too big to let that happen), but she promised that she would hold him ... so I let her.

He still loves the Paci ... but now I've pretty much gotten him off of it during the day. He only cries for it when he's sleeping ... and I'm not sure how to get him off of it, but his teeth are coming in so I'm hoping that somehow the feel of the teeth will make him not like it anymore ... fingers are crossed.

Also coinciding with his 6 month vaccinations and tooth coming out he got real sickly/grumpy and turned into a 100% co-sleeper. He now refuses to sleep in his crib, but loves to snuggle up in our big bed and sleep with me. I tried putting the couch back up next to the bed like we did when he was first born ... but that doesn't work either. He needs to be right next to me sharing my blanket and practically with my arm around him ... kyaaaaaaaaaa ... what am I gonna do .... for now I just want to enjoy what time I have left to enjoy with him like this before I turn into a whale and there's no space for him to snuggle up next to me.

His eating is progressing really well. He can now takes small chunks of solids (cheese, chicken, biscuits, etc) and 'chews' them in his mouth before swallowing them. He still has some stomach problems where it's hard for him to make a bowel movement ... he really has to push and struggle and he cries a lot ... so I still only feed him veggie and fruit purees, or soup or yogurt. I have considered that the formula we give him might not fit him so well so we are going to switch to a different brand ... we'll see how that goes.

His measurements are:

Height: 67.5 cm

Head circumference: 42.5

Weight: 7.6 kg.

His height and head circumference didn't really change since last month but he gained 600 grams which is quite good for him! Still a small baby but he's perfect to me!

He's getting so smart and learning so many tricks but in general he is still such a good baby and is such a joy to have around, even on my sick days.

11 weeks

So, yesterday my boy turned 11 weeks.

This week he has actually gotten a lot better, he has had much fewer screaming fits of pain, and has slept relatively well during the night which has been such a relief for us. His eating schedule has also stabilized somewhat thanks to the bottle, although he still has times when he refuses the bottle and wants to fall asleep only on the boob. Headstrong, my boy!

His daytime schedule is still quite up and down. One day he will sleep all day and wake only to drink, other days he will refuse to sleep at all. When his sleeping days come we both find ourselves taking turns sleeping all day with him! They say we shouldn't let him sleep during the day because he won't sleep at night, but I can't find a way to regulate his schedule. It seems no matter what I try, when he wants to sleep he sleeps ... even if I'm tickling him, putting him down on his back (two things he dislikes very much--being put down, and being on his back), or anything! And when he doesn't want to sleep, no matter how sleepy his is and no matter how hard we try to make him comfortable, he refuses to sleep. Stubborn boy ... he's going to be such a handful!

Ardit keeps joking that he has ADHD cause he has such a short attention span and can't seem to stay still ... even when he's looking at his mobile, or having playtime with us, or looking at flashcards, he's always moving and twitching his arms and legs like he's trying to shake something off of them! We see other babies happily staring and looking around sitting so still in their carriers or strollers ... and we joke about how something went wrong with ours. :D:D Of course I don't actually think he has ADHD and always tell Ardit to stop when he jokes ... but I do hope that he evens out a little as he gets older ... this constant need for attention and being held will get very tiresome as he gets older and fatter ... which he is doing every day!

Ardit has been home almost every day this week so it's been really fun (for me) having both my boys here. We go out to the lake everyday (in the evening when it's cooler) and baby boy seems to enjoy looking out at the world so much.

We still can't make up our minds about the vaccination ... so until we do we can't take him in to be weighed and measured ... but I'm guessing he's anywhere from 4.7 to 5 kilos now. He's doubled his weight since being born!

His belly-button hernia seems to be doing better ... it's not hard and popped out as much as it used to be ... it's getting softer and sticks out less. You know what the books say, but it's still a relief when you actually see and feel it getting better like it should.

In 2 weeks he'll be 3 months old! Kyaaaaaaaaaa ... soon he'll be rolling and I wont be able to leave him on our bed anymore! And then he'll be sitting, and crawling and I'm gonna have to put a gate on his room! I was looking at a picture of him 3 days old and gosh how yellow, and red, and Japanese, and tiny he was! How much he's grown ... how cute he's gotten ... how much more animated and attentive and aware! He's growing too fast (which is why I take so many pictures and videos ... cause I just KNOW how this works!)

Speaking of pictures ... I mentioned earlier how daddy's been home a lot this week ... baby enjoys daddy being at home as much as mommy does! Here's a picture of them bonding like boys ...

Mama and Papa love you baby boy.

June 12th

You know how lots of times you can't tell whether a baby is a boy or a girl?
Well mommy was wondering if I would look like a girl if she put girly clothes on me. And she didn't have anything girly to try on me until one day grandma came home with this. It's the girliest thing I have and mommy figured it would have to do. So tell me ... do I look girly, or do I still look boyish enough even when I wear questionable clothes?

First, here's another picture of me enjoying a quick rinse-off.

Tadaaaaa! Hi, I'm princess Aden! 

8 weeks old (pssst ... it's long ... feel free to skip!)

My baby is 8 weeks old today! And I've been meaning to blog for for his 6 weeks but that turned into his 7 weeks and that turned into this. It's what happens when between taking care of the baby, working, taking time with hubby, and hubby stealing computer, all my time gets eaten up. It's to be expected, I guess. But I also want some place where I have documented his growth (not just his baby book, because that only has the BIGGEST milestones included). And I have my journal where I wrote out stuff about my pregnancy, but nowadays as time is so much of the essence, I have decided its better to put it here because I type so much faster than I write. Although someday I hope to get around to writing it down too. No matter how convenient and nice and snazzy it is to blog and use the computer I will always love myself a good book, and writing in one. I'm just a little bit old fashioned that way. Anyway, I digress ... focus focus.

So, Papoosie is 8 weeks old today! And he will be 2 months old in 5 days! Although it seems a little pointless, I will probably blog on his 2 month again just to have a post on that day. (Ahem ... obsessive much?)

Between around 6 and 7 weeks I started trying to feed him exclusively from the boob (I had been pumping and giving him milk from the bottle not only because his mouth was too small to latch onto the boob properly, but so that we could monitor how much milk he was taking in). Due to that transition he started wanting to nurse every hour, and would only drink for 10-15 minutes. For a few days I worried, but I went onto my pregnancy forums and it seems like between catching him right on a growth spurt, and him getting too comfy at the boob and falling asleep, it was just bad timing. The main things I continued to watch was his diapers (which he continued to wet and soil properly), and the emptiness of the boob. And they seemed to be fine so I tried to continue. BUUUUUT ....

... At around 7 weeks when I was transitioning with him between the bottle and boob, he suddenly developed colic. Just from one day to the next he went from being a baby who hardly cried, to a screaming wailing monster! Well, even when he was screaming I wouldn't say he was a monster because he just looked and sounded like he was in so much pain, I could only feel sorry for him! Feeding him became even crazier because he would stay for 5 minutes, then wail till calmed, then stay for 5 minutes and wail again. I thought maybe it could be the acid reflux thingie (Gastroesophageal reflux) because they say babies who have that drink less in more frequent sittings to avoid the acid coming out. Even though he cries a lot I still consider us lucky compared to other cases I know because he screams and wails but never for more than 2 hours and actually it's usually only for 30 minutes or so before he tires himself out. We have our arsenal of remedies stocked: gas drops which also include mylicon which is supposed to encourage the growth or probodies in case it's that he needs (to help him digest the milk better), Gripe water for when he is having trouble burping and his acid reflux is bothering him, 3 different types of herbal tea (which we don't like giving him, but sometimes grandma sneaks it while we aren't watching), warm pads for his stomach to relieve the pain, and though it's not a remedy he also takes a vitamin 2 times a day. So all of this stuff adds up and we try not to give them all to him at the same time, because we don't know how all of these things mix. For example we try not to give him gas drop if we gave him the vitamin at that feeding, etc etc. Sometimes the remedies work, and sometimes they don't .... so as far as they go, when they work we are thankful, and even when they don't I guess we have the need to feel like we did everything we could to relieve his pain. But even though the success ratio is like 60-70%, I would recommend getting them cause when they work they work. Wow that really made a lot of sense.

Anyway, besides the medicines we've also tried anything we could. Music/white noise/nature sounds/heartbeat while he sleeps, changing sleeping position, bath time, etc etc etc. So far he seems to like the brook sound mixed with the heartbeat at a level LOUD enough to fill the room and have to speak loudly to be heard above it. It's getting hot here so he likes his bath time and staying in the water very much, until we take him out and try to dress him and then he starts screaming. He LOVES being taken outside so much that it's almost at the point where he will literally start crying as soon as we bring him home. He refuses to sleep on his back and will wake up after only 5 minutes or so unless we put him on his stomach. Which is a little frightening for me because they say that SIDS is more likely if they are put on their stomach. So we watch very carefully to make sure his head is positioned well, and quickly move his head if he faces straight. It's a little bit of a dilemma because we have started sleeping him in his crib in his own room since a couple days ago because it is so so so so hot and if he is in the room we don't open both the window and door cause it will let the wind blow through. Fine for the baby because he is fine with either just the window or the door being open but I still have layers of pregnancy fat to deal with and I get so so so so hot and it's too uncomfortable. During the day we check often and are able to watch him closely, but at night we have to sleep so we can't just get up every second just to check on him. We're going to buy a baby monitor that also has video so that every time we hear him move we can just peek real quick to see how he is positioned. We hadn't bought one before because I was planning on having baby sleep with us in the room until at least 6 months when hopefully I can bring his nighttime feeding to just once. So we'll have to buy a monitor. I'm sure I'm just being freaked for no reason because he is strong enough now to move his head on his own from side to side while on his stomach, so I'm sure that if he is unable to breath he will move his head on his own. It's not like he will be too intent on sleeping that he will forget to breathe, right? :D

I used to take care of babies so much but I don't remember about how we placed them to sleep! Parents, how have you let your baby sleep? Any opinions on letting the baby sleep on his tummy?

When we went for a quick checkup to the pediatrician a few days ago he weighed 4,500 grams with his clothes and nappy so they logged him at 4 kg.

Good news is that between his crying and fussy stages he is much more alert than a couple weeks ago, seems to know mommy and daddy more, tries to grab things (esp fingers and clothes!), 'talks' more, likes his song time, .... he's just growing and getting cuter every day~! His hair is getting lighter and is now a light brown/reddish/blond. He's losing everything that was like momma and getting to be so much like papa. I would be sad except I think it's cuter this way! :D:D

I know this is getting so long but please bear with me for one more topic.

Papoosie has an umbilical hernia. Seems they are more common in preemie babies. His is HUGE, and all the forums and books say that most of the time they start going in naturally around 6-12 months, but it doesn't stop me from still asking around to the parents here, or to you. Did your kids have the belly button sticking out, and around when did they start going back in? Did you have a problem with the skin getting red? The books say it's bad to put anything on it to push it in (i.e: belly belt, bandage, etc) but our pediatrician and grandma keep telling us to put something on it. I would prefer to leave it alone but would appreciate your opinions and experiences regarding this. I think I just need to hear your story so I can be reassured.

Anyway, thank you for slogging through all of this with me. I really would appreciate any feedback you might have especially regarding the things above. The crying/colic/tummy aches, sleeping position, and belly button.

Goodnight!