My Baby is Waving!

For the last couple of weeks, Ian has randomly opened and closed his right hand as if he was waving, but there didn't seem to be any intent behind it. He does it a lot when eating his finger food, especially as the lead-up to dropping the food over his tray and onto the floor. :-) But this morning and tonight, when I waved to Ian and said, "HI!" in that annoyingly sweet, motherly, singsong voice, he waved back and smiled at me! I don't know why I'm so excited by this, but I think it's SO cool. It's the first communication I have received from Ian that doesn't involve whining, crying, sobbing, smacking, biting or pinching and I LOVE it.

Here are my two sweet boys from this morning. We've gotten in the habit of letting Ian sleep in our bed after his early morning feed since we can get him to sleep a little longer. He makes an awesome snuggle buddy.

Avatar

My husband and I just got back from seeing the 3D movie Avatar. Wowzers. That was AMAZING! I would put that at the same level as the Wizard of Oz in technology break-through. The Wizard of Oz was the first movie in color and this movie was just...wow. Thanks so much to Baba for entertaining and babysitting Ian while mommy and daddy had a date!

In other news, Ian basically doesn't eat anymore. He refuses any spoon coming at his face unless we can get a little bit of yogurt on his lips and he'll eat that. He will eat some bread...maybe...if the mood strikes him. He only nurses when it's absolutely essential and if I try to feed him when he doesn't want to be fed, WATCH OUT. This is one seriously strong-willed boy. He does not hesitate to make his wishes known with both his muscles and his lungs. I hope he finishes this feeding/nursing strike soon because it's getting old. In addition, because he's not nursing before bed, he woke up at 3:30 am last night needing to feed. Sigh.

First Ear Infection

Ian is suffering from his first ear infection. We took him to the doctor the other morning because he had a low-grade fever for 2 days in a row and was just not acting like himself. I don't remember the last time he was screaming inconsolably WHILE I held him. It was probably back when he was 6 weeks old and suffering from horrible gas pain. So now we get to squirt amoxicillin in his face three times a day for 10 days. Oh what fun. It is NOT easy medicating this baby. Hell, he won't even let me wipe his nose, let alone squirt pink liquid down his gullet. But this too shall pass.

He hasn't been eating too well lately and getting him to nurse has been a bit of a fight too. I'm not sure if he's just feeling off because of this never-ending cold or whether his teeth are bothering him. All I know is that it is tough to be a baby! Let's hope that he feels better for our long holiday weekend together.

Radio Flyer Classic Walker Wagon

Ian loved his first Hanukkah gift - a Radio Flyer Classic Walker Wagon. This was recommended by other mothers and I see why now. It offers some resistance to the wheels so that your child, who is mostly unbalanced and unable to walk alone, doesn't go flying when he pushes the toy forward. It's really really fun to watch him play with it. Enjoy!

9 months old!

Ian is 9 months old today!



He is such a great little guy. He's generally happy and smiley and he crawls so fast around the house. He doesn't babble all that much, but when he does, he likes saying "dada," "baba", and "blah-blah." He also likes to blow air out of his mouth so that he is making an "eff" sound and he likes making raspberries. I have yet to hear him make the "emm" sound.

Daycare calls him "independent" and "strong-willed." Apparently, he really likes to eat because he will go after other kid's finger foods. He hasn't yet figured out how to drink from the sippy cup but he likes playing with the cup and chewing on the spout. He has 2 more teeth peeking through his bottom gums. This means he will soon have 4 bottom teeth and no top teeth. He hates to be restrained in any way and will loudly protest the following: diaper changes, getting dressed, getting undressed, getting into the car seat (until he has his paci), and getting into his booster seat to eat (until he has food).

I went to pick him up at daycare the other day and didn't immediately spot him. So I just stood by the door and scanned the room. He apparently spotted me because very shortly I heard him growling "ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" and he was crawling like a madman over to me. After a short distraction by a toy, he came over to me, pulled up to a standing position using my legs for balance, hugged me and wanted to be picked up. That was awesome. He totally recognized me as a familiar and loved person.

Ian has consistently woken up between 4:30 am and 5:00 am for the last 5-6 weeks. I'm not sure why he is waking up so early, but I'm guessing it's hunger. We bring him into our bed with us and I nurse him and he will fall back asleep again. I've been successful in putting him back into his crib and he will continue to sleep until 7 or even later. I'm going to try and feed him more during the day so that he will stop waking up so early. But who knows if that will work. I'm not even sure it's hunger that's waking him up.

I'm amazed every day by how much I love him. I rush home from the train station each night looking forward to spending time with him.

9 Month Pediatrician Visit

Ian went to the pediatrician today for his 9 month visit. Stats as follows:

Height: 28.75 inches, 75th percentile
Weight: 20 pounds, 1.6 ounces, 50th percentile

It was actually very hard to get his height measurement because Ian is such a squirmy little guy and he does NOT like to be restrained. The doctor actually measured him after the nurse did because Ian was apparently 28.5 inches at his 6 month appointment (meaning he only grew .25 inches in 3 months). But the 6 month height was clearly a mis-measurement because it put his height completely off the chart. This latest measurement fits on his curve a lot better. So I think his 6 month height was just incorrect.

Ian also took his Hepatitis B vaccine and second H1N1 shot like a champ with very minimal crying. We also got his blood drawn so that he could be tested for anemia and lead levels. I was SO impressed with him when he got his blood drawn. He sat on my lap sucking away contentedly at his paci. I held his left arm down and open while the nurse drew the blood. He didn't even flinch or cry when the needle went in. Amazing.

The doctor said that with certain exceptions, Ian could pretty much eat anything now. We need to stay away from honey, cow milk and nuts until later and limit quantities of tomatoes and citrus because of the high acid content, which could upset his tummy. I took this to heart and have been giving Ian lots of different things to try. He's now eaten kidney beans (although he had trouble with the skin), black beans, blueberries, cheese, turkey, banana, whole wheat bread and, last night, I gave him yogurt for the first time. He loves it all. I'll have to try and give him avocado again, which is the only food that he has rejected to date. I'm so lucky that he is such a good eater!

Ian hearts the cat, but the cat does not heart Ian.

Happy Baby!

Ian is SUCH a happy baby.

High Ceilings! Woot!

I've been so unbelievably busy lately that I've found it difficult to blog. But now that things have calmed down (my deal signed last Monday and I have recovered from the most recent pestilence), I have lots to update.

As I mentioned in my previous post, we visited my brother in Baltimore for Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful time (despite the fact that I had to bring work with me) and I'm really glad we went. One of the benefits to this visit is that my brother's house has very high ceilings (unlike our house, which has 8 foot ceilings throughout). We took full advantage of these high ceilings to throw the baby around. As you can see for yourself, he loved it.



Baby Ian got thrown around a lot before we were finally able to capture the above, in-focus, photo. (I have lots of pictures of my brother's ceiling too...)

Ian is eating real food like a champ. This is a big step for him (and me). As a first-time mother, I never know when it is appropriate to introduce a food. So I sort of just bit the bullet and started giving him new foods to try. We started with avocado a couple of months ago. He didn't like it and to let me know this, he decided to puke it up. But I didn't let that stop me and I'm glad it didn't because he eats everything else I've given to him. At 8.5 months of age, he now eats cheerios, Gerber puffs, organic puffs, turkey and various cheeses (mozzarella, Gouda, muenster, Cheddar jack and American). It is so cute to watch him "chew."

Ian likes to feed himself these days. It's pretty funny to watch. He will grab a fistful of whatever food is in front of him and try to shove it all in his mouth. Roughly 50% ends up back on his tray, 30% ends up on the floor, 10% gets stuck on his grubby hands, 5% gets stuck to his face and 5% makes it into his mouth. And he is SO very proud of himself for doing this that he smiles and laughs and the 5% that made it into his mouth promptly falls out. Luckily, mommy is there to help. :-)

I've learned that there is a trick to giving him food. The pieces have to be small enough that he won't choke on them, yet still big enough for him to pick up himself. I'm glad I went to law school to train my brain so that it has the capability to figure this out. Last night, I fed him pieces of banana and he loved that too. Except he couldn't pick up the slimy pieces of banana. So I smartly mashed the banana onto cheerios and whammo, we had the incredible self-feeding baby again. And he didn't want me to feed him last night. He wanted to take the food item out of my hand so that he could feed himself. He is one determined little boy.

What else. Oh right. While in Baltimore for Thanksgiving, Ian decided to walk behind a kichen chair while pushing it in front of him. So while not walking on his own, he is taking steps other than just furniture cruising. And he can stand on his own without holding onto anything for 3-5 seconds at a time. I'm very pleased that he is growing and learning so well.

He is also ALL boy. I call him Dr. Destructo. He crawls around the floor like a madman, pulls himself up on everything and promptly knocks whatever he can to the floor. And once said item is on the floor, he uses it as a hammer. Perhaps a girl would be no different, but Ian just seems so much like a boy. When he doesn't want to breastfeed anymore, he smacks me. He SMACKS me! I get mad at him and yell a little. He looks at me with a bewildered face and then grins. I'm in trouble with this one.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! I am thankful for so many things and at the top of my list is my family. I am very blessed to have my husband and son in my life, loving parents who raised me to have self-confidence and know right from wrong, and siblings with whom I have a wonderful relationship. At the moment, I'm typing this from my brother's kitchen. We decided at the last minute (Sunday) to buy plane tickets to Baltimore and we had an uneventful trip here. We left ourselves 2.5 hours between the time we left our house and the time of our flight and were happily surprised that the roads were empty and the airport very civilized. Ian had a great time on the flight and really enjoyed looking out the window before we took off.



I just need work to slow down a bit. As of yesterday, I have billed 235 hours for the month of November. I worked until midnight on Tuesday night and then woke up at 5 am Wednesday morning to finish some work and start packing for our trip to Baltimore! And I have an 8 am conference call tomorrow. I am very thankful for my job. I actually really like my work. There's just too much of it right now. But I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel because this deal should close soon.

Halloween Dinosaur

Halloween was unseasonably warm this year. We spent some time outside with Ian in his Halloween PJs. I tried to get some cute pictures of him with our pumpkin, but he just wanted to climb mommy's leg.

And I haven't had the time to post a picture of Ian in his cute dinosaur Halloween costume. He was absolutely adorable and had no problems wearing his costume for hours! He even went trick or treating with daddy to help him adjust to the new daylight savings time.

8 months old!

Ian is 8 months old!

Climbing the Stairs

We were in our basement this past weekend going through the pile of clothing and toys my sister sent up to me with my parents. Ian was crawling through everything and insisted on crawling through the office and into the unfinished basement room. And every single time we brought him back into the main, finished room, he decided to head for the stairs. And so after I while, I decided to see what he would do. Well, he climbed the stairs! He climbed right on up to the landing, with me behind him making sure he wouldn't fall. I didn't expect that he could do that!

Ian now appears to understand the word "No!" although I'm not so sure if he knows what the word means or simply understands the significance behind our tone of voice. When we say "No!" sharply and in a loud voice, he stops what he is doing (usually heading over to grab my husband's computer cord or play with the Wii remotes) and looks at us with this slight unhappy, quizzical face with a furrowed brow. It is SO cute.

I love him so much. I got a little teary-eyed saying goodbye to him this morning as I'm off for another business trip in NY and won't be back until Wednesday night.

Oh My God, I'm Busy

This is just a fly-by update so that I don't forget all of the things I want to say:

1. I am SO busy for work. I've had to work in NYC a bunch of times over the past 2 weeks and I have to go again next week. And I worked straight through this past weekend. My husband is fantastic about it and really helps out with the baby. I feel awful that I've had to dump so much on him (baby care, cooking and food shopping duties), but he seems to understand. It's not always like this at work.

2. The baby was the CUTEST dinosaur/dragon for Halloween. I have awesome pictures, but just need to find the time to post them.

3. The pestilence continues. It seems the baby contracted pink eye in his right eye and was rubbing his eye so much that the nurse was afraid that the skin around his eye was getting infected. So now we have to give him antibiotic drops in both eyes for 7 days and oral antibiotics for 10 days. I can tell you, it isn't fun to try and hold down a very squirmy, almost 8 month old, in order to get those drops in his eyes and the syringe in his mouth. Not a happy camper.

4. We are planning to go to Baltimore for Thanksgiving this year so that we can visit my brother and his family. I hope that work eases up so that I can actually go AND enjoy myself. And I'm trying not to get too nervous about a 6-8 hour drive with an almost 8 month old baby. Ian seems to love the car and so I'm crossing my fingers that it will be an easy trip.

5. When at the doctor for treatment of his recent pestilence, Ian weighed 19 pounds, 0.3 ounces. So that means he gained 1 pound, 2 ounces in roughly 2 months (and since he's been at daycare). I'm happy to see that he is still gaining even though his life is mostly out of my hands.

6. As of this weekend, Ian is now eating 3 solid meals per day. He has cereal + stage 2 fruit for breakfast, a stage 2 fruit or veggie for lunch and cereal + stage 2 veggie for dinner. He loves everything! Except for avocados, he hasn't rejected anything yet. And I think he was only rejecting the avocados because it was given to him as a finger food and not as a puree on a spoon. So we'll be trying that again.

Shuffling

Ian appears to be on the verge of furniture cruising. Gah! He's only 7.5 months old! He shuffles his feet while moving sideways along our leather ottoman. This is a new development because he used to just keep his feet in one spot while reaching for the TV clicker/phone and then fall over. Now he is shuffling his feet to move closer to the object of his desire. I think he'll be walking soon enough. We already have him wearing his first pair of shoes from StrideRite - a pair of size 4 sneakers. They look awfully cute on him. Too bad it's $40 for a pair of shoes that won't fit him in 2 more months.

I tried to eat breakfast this morning while watching Ian. Just as I was pouring cereal into a bowl, he crawled right past me, picked up the cat's water bowl and emptied it all over the floor. Good times. He was very pleased with himself and I could only laugh.

*We received TWO incident reports from daycare today. Ian, once again, hit his head on the toy bin and he also hit his head on the door. According to daycare, he is currently the most active (and clutzy!) child in his room. They can't get to him quickly enough! Let's hope he learns how to balance while standing soon or he's going to be in for lots of bumps and bruises.

My son = PESTILENCE

I knew my son would get sick at daycare. And I knew I would catch what he brought home. But man...

I went back to work after my 6 month maternity leave and promptly got mastitis. Okay, so you can't blame that on the kid and daycare, but still, I wasn't happy about the 10 day course of antibiotics (and the hurty booby). Then Ian had some sort of head cold for what seemed like 1 month. Constant drippy nose. Constant snotty noises. Gross. And so what happened? I caught a cold. And then, it turned into a sinus infection. And guess what? I had to take another 10 day course of antibiotics, which I just finished yesterday. So this past Saturday, after not feeding well all day, Ian decided to hork his dinner all over me just as I was putting him in his crib for the night. Puke all over me and puke all over the carpet. Daddy helped clean up. I didn't think anything of it. I thought Ian just choked on his spit and gagged and threw-up. I mean, he wasn't acting sick and he was totally fine the next day. So I get on a plane to NY on Sunday night for a business trip. I wake up on Monday morning to IMs from my husband..."I woke up at 4 am with diarrhea and at 5:30 am, I horked everywhere and didn't even make it to the bathroom." GREAT. I think "Oh my god are you okay and holy shit am I going to get this pestilence too?" I crossed my fingers that I would stay healthy since I was on a business trip. I was totally fine on Monday. On Tuesday morning, around 4 am, I woke up in the Hyatt hotel room feeling nauseous. Hmmm...it was nothing. I went back to sleep until 6:30 am when my alarm woke me up. Pretty nauseous now, but I bet a shower will fix it, right? I get out of the shower...really nauseous. But I have to start my day, right? So I climb into bed and start pumping and just in case I was actually sick (I wasn't, right?) I brought the bathroom garbage can with me. About 2 minutes after starting my pump, uh oh, sure enough, I'm sick! Darnit. Sorry if this is TMI, but that awesome lamb burger I had for dinner the night before did not taste good 8 hours later. Sigh. And I think I hit a new low by puking while pumping! Needless to say, I didn't actually work on Tuesday and managed to drag my feverish ass onto the 12 pm shuttle back to Boston.

Thank god we are all healthy at the moment...until the next plague hits. At least we got Ian his second seasonal flu shot this morning. Now if we can all just avoid H1N1!

7 months old!

Ian is now 7 months old and he's been crawling like a champ and pulling himself up on everything. Daycare says that he's on the early side for doing all of these things. It's also getting very hard to change his diaper and dress him because he keeps trying to twist around, get on his knees and crawl right off the changing pad! I'm so proud of my strong, wiry, happy little boy!

I'm about to crawl towards mommy and the camera!

Serious cuteness in my new fleece jacket.

Yep. I'm standing in my crib...

And I haven't figured out how to get back down!



And instead of helping me sleep at 1 am, mommy got out the bright flashy thing! Cruel mommy. :-)

Back to Work Post

I never did post about going back to work, which I did 3 weeks ago. Everyone who welcomed me back at work asked me how the "transition" was going. I think they expected me to say "Man, it's hard!" or "Wow, I don't think I can handle it all." But I'm actually extremely happy to be back in the office and doing what I do really well.

I miss Ian during the day. I miss him a lot. I called daycare every day during the first week to find out how he was doing. And I try really hard to make the 5:55 train so that I can get home by 6:30 pm and play with Ian and feed him before he goes to bed at 7 pm. It makes it easier to know that Ian is very happy at daycare. He gets to do so many things there that he wasn't doing with me at home, like paint and play with other kids. And I give him lots of love, kisses and attention on the weekends.

But so far, so good! I seem to be handling job and mommy stress just fine (and even the pumping at work is going well!)

Crawling?!?! Already??!?!?

It's official. Ian is crawling at 6.5 months of age. He won't crawl towards just anything, but apparently the TiVo remote provided enough incentive. :-) I guess we'll be doing some more baby proofing this weekend!



In other news, I'm quite proud of myself for billing 11 hours today, but still making it home in time to play with and feed Ian before his 7 pm bedtime. Being a working mom is definitely tough!

We're Biting and Sitting

My son now has two teeth. I knew he had one bottom tooth and I didn't think the other one was even close to coming out. I even told my mom this morning that the other one wasn't close to coming out. And yet, there it was. It was just breaking the surface of his bottom gum this morning! Cool?!? Right? Except, now he is BITING me when I'm breastfeeding him. Not good. That little sucker is SHARP! Somehow, he was calm enough this morning to take this picture.





Please ignore the dripping snotting nose that he has proudly displayed for the last week or so. I'm not sure how we're going to tell when his top teeth come in. I stuck my finger in his mouth to feel around today and yep, he bit me. Little bastard.

In other news, Ian sat up today on his own! We were pretty shocked. He was on his stomach, scooted backwards into the corner of the room and got stuck. So I moved him back out into the middle of the room and placed him on his stomach again. Except when I looked back 2 minutes later, he was sitting! I asked my husband if he put him in a sitting position. Nope. This happened again later again today. Finally, tonight, I caught him doing it on video. Proof!

And he's been getting into a sitting position all night and getting faster and faster and more efficient when doing it. It's crazy seeing how fast he learns things! Amazing. I LOVE being a parent (well, except for the chewed-upon nipples :-) )

Mastitis - I Haz It

I woke up on Monday morning at 4:30 am and my right breast was engorged and really super duper painful. After much groaning and rolling over, I decided that I needed to get up and pump. I was surprised that I needed to do this since Ian has been sleeping through the night for the last month and a half and I haven't had a problem. I think things got screwy because last week was my first week back at work and so I was pumping a lot more than breastfeeding. Anyway, I pumped and my boob felt mildly better but still hurt. I tried to go back to bed but I was just sort of feeling miserable and cold. I got through the day at work, but my boob still hurt when I came home last night. I showed it to my husband and he noticed that it was pretty red on the underside. Ruh roh. Those are some good signs of mastitis (or so says Dr. Google). I debated for a long time whether or not my symptoms were bad enough to go to the doctor. I had a lot of breast tenderness and the redness alarmed me. But I had no fever or aches or other flu-like symptoms. But, hey, I LOVE medical care (and I'll admit that I'm a hypochondriac that was slightly worried that my symptoms meant some strange form of breast cancer) and so I decided to see my midwife today. She said it was really good that I came in. She wasn't absolutely sure it was mastitis but she said that giving me a course of antibiotics was probably 80% the right thing to do and 20% overkill. Within hours of taking the first antibiotic pill, I felt better. The pain and redness were almost gone. And the body aches that I had (which I had attributed to weekend painting) were also almost gone. To me, this is proof that I did, in fact, have mastitis. I know that antibiotics can work that quickly because when I have UTIs, I always feel better within hours of taking the antibiotic. So now I'm REALLY happy that I went for medical care because apparently this could have gotten a lot worse really fast.

My only bitch...this is a TEN-day course of antibiotics! And they have to be taken FOUR times a day! And they have to be taken on an empty stomach - so 1 hour before eating or 2-3 hours after eating. Oh well.

Videos of my Sweet Baby

I took a bunch of videos of Ian today. I wanted to capture how he gets up on his hands and knees and rocks. He hasn't yet figured out that he can move his hands forward and crawl. So for now he does this and he pushes himself backwards with his hands.

The next video is of Ian laughing. God I love that sound. And I'm happy it's now on the internet because I can play it over and over while I'm at work. I could listen to that sound forever. Ian is pretty ticklish and so I was able to get him laughing while tickling his belly. I have to be careful not to tickle him too much or else those little squeals of laughter turn into screams of annoyance and general pissiness. :-)

6 months old!

Ian is 6 months old today. I can't believe it. He is the best thing that ever happened to me (besides meeting and marrying my husband).

Official 6 month chair photos:

He didn't want to stay put!

At 6 months old, he is sitting up without any support, getting onto his hands and knees and rocking and has one bottom tooth!

More later about my return to work and Ian's daycare experience so far.

Back to Work!

It's time. My 6 month blissful maternity leave is over. I go back to work tomorrow.* I'm ready now. I adore my son. I love every single part of him, even when he is screaming in frustration when the pacifier is just one inch too far away for him to reach. And I have thoroughly enjoyed all of the time that we have spent together. I've watched him go from an infant who only knew to feed, sleep and poop to a happy, smiling, calm, personable, interactive baby that loves to eat sweet potatoes, peas, pears and bananas and who can sit-up without support. But I love using my brain and I actually like what I do. I'm really excited to get back into the swing of things.

But man! It is HARD to get him ready for daycare. I had to make-up 4 four-ounce bottles and smack on each one a bright red label that announced his name, the date and HEY THERE IS BREASTMILK IN HERE! Then I had to decide what solid foods he was going to eat tomorrow and put those in the bag too. Finally, you have to fill out the daily sheet with any special instructions. Thank god we already dropped all of his other crap (extra clothing, sheets, diapers, wipes, etc.) at the daycare center. I always joke that for each pound of baby, you have at least another pound of baby junk.

I know he'll do fine at daycare. My main concerns are (a) my husband actually picking him up on time and (b) pumping at work. I'm crossing my fingers that I will continue to produce enough milk for Ian to drink until he turns 1 and we can start giving him dairy. Wish us luck!!!

* I actually started to work this weekend because there was a great project with a great partner that needed attention before Monday.

First Tooth - 5 months, 3 weeks

Ian appears to be cutting his first tooth - the right front one on the bottom! He woke up crying last night at 3 am. He did this the night before and went back to sleep within 15 minutes, so we didn't think much of it. Except he kept crying and crying last night. I soothed him after 30 minutes by picking him up and holding him, but as soon as I put him back in his crib, he started crying again. I didn't want to feed him because I didn't think he was hungry and I didn't want him getting back into the habit of expecting food in the middle of the night. So after another 15 minutes of crying, I finally suspected teething and stuck my fingers in his mouth with a little baby orajel and sure enough, I felt the rough edge of a little tooth. I also gave him a little Tylenol and he fell asleep again at 4 am. In the light of day, I can see the white edge of the tooth poking out of his gum. How exciting! This also explains why he has been so fussy while nursing lately. He's been pulling off a lot and smacking me with his hand. The doctor said that I could start using Motrin now that he's 6 months old and so I gave him some of that today. Let's just hope he doesn't use this new tooth on me!

Ian Does the Downward Dog

Ian is not quite 6 months old and hasn't figured out how to crawl forward. But he scoots backwards a lot and does something that looks a whole like the yoga downward dog position. See for yourself!

6 month doctor's visit

Ian had his 6 month doctor's visit today. Here are his stats:

Height: 28.5 inches, 100th+ percentile
Weight 17 pounds, 14.2 ounces, ~60th percentile
Head circumference: 44.5 centimeters, 75th percentile

I'm shocked at how tall Ian is. At his 4 month doctor's visit, Ian was in the 95th percentile for height and I assumed it was just a fluke or a bad measurement. But now he's even bigger! I'm only 5'5" and my husband is only 5'10" so I'm not sure why Ian is so tall. My dad is 6" but that's still not *that* tall! I hope he continues to grow nice and big and stays healthy!

Ian caught his very first cold from the 7 hours he spent in his trial daycare on Friday. It doesn't seem terrible. His nose was runny on Sunday and he was pretty snotty on Monday but by yesterday, he was pretty much fine again. He did manage, however, to infect the 9 month old girl that was visiting during our Labor Day BBQ. Oops.

Trial Run at Daycare

We did a trial run at daycare on Friday. I dropped Ian off around 10 am, after his morning nap, and picked him up around 5 pm. I hung out at the daycare center for the first 2 hours, not because I was worried about him, but because there was so much to do. I learned how to fill out his daily sheet and I labeled his extra clothing, sheets, diapers, wipes and cereal. I spent some time getting to know the teachers in the room and they are great. My gut is giving the entire experience 2 thumbs up and I always trust my gut.

Ian had a really great time during the day. While I was watching him during the first 2 hours, he tried launching himself backwards over the boppy pillow. So the teacher piled another boppy pillow on top of the other pillow to make a higher barrier and he launched himself backwards over that too! He was scooting backwards all over the floor and getting his knees underneath his body. The teachers remarked that he would probably be crawling soon. Gah!

I was really pleased to hear that he drank all three four-4 ounce bottles that were given to him. Although we introduced bottles of expressed milk to Ian early on, I have nursed him almost exclusively lately. The only downside of the entire experience is that Ian only napped for a total of 30 minutes while at daycare. He was so tired when I came to get him, but was still being a champ. I put him in the car seat to take him home and he was asleep at 5 pm before I even got to the car! I tried to transfer him to his crib, but he woke up and just cried and cried. He was so over-tired and he didn't know what to do with himself. He was just melting. So I nursed him and put him to sleep again at 5:30 pm and he slept until 5:30 am the next morning!

My husband should be all set to drop Ian off at daycare next Monday. All of Ian's things are already there. My husband just has to show up with the baby and food for the day. Now if things just go smoothly for me to pump at work, I'll be all set!

Ian woke up with a drippy nose this morning. I think he may have his first cold (which he probably picked up at daycare on Friday!). He doesn't seem to be too bothered by it. I took his temperature and it was 99.7, so he is probably fighting off something but it's not too bad. I hope he feels better in the morning so that we can go to our last Tuesday play group.

And now for a food update: Our child eats everything. We introduced pears to him this morning. He gobbled it up. Yum!

The jury is in. We have a good eater!

Ian has now eaten two different vegetables. On Sunday, we introduced sweet potatoes to him and he didn't even react! I put the spoon in his mouth. He mushed it around, swallowed and then looked at me for more. It was like he'd been eating sweet potatoes for years! He had more of a reaction (negative) to the rice cereal that I made with water instead of breast milk. And since the pediatrician says that we can introduce new foods every 3-5 days, we decided to try sweet peas tonight. I was fully prepared for him to spit it out, but nope, he downed that too. He paused after the first spoonful hit his mouth like he was trying to figure out what was going on. But he didn't make any icky faces and swallowed like a champ. I think he likes the consistency of the sweet peas. But I'm so happy that he's such a good eater! It certainly makes my life easier. Now that we know he will eat vegetables, we will introduce a fruit next.

Ian's also been moving around a lot when I put him down on the floor. Gone is the time when I put him down and come back 5 minutes later to find him in the same place. He loves being on his tummy now. He pushes up on his arms and scoots backwards. I found him halfway across the room, off the rug and up against the wall today. And yesterday he was trying to get into the bottom of the exersaucer. Today he was pushing up on all fours and getting his knees underneath him. If he figures out how to move forward, I think he's strong enough to start crawling. Yikes! My husband and I really need to think about baby proofing the house!

And as for the weight update, at 5.5 months, Ian weighed 17 pounds, 13 ounces.

Tomorrow, we are going in for a trial run with day care. My biggest concern is how many bottles to bring and how much milk to put in the bottles! Ian has never had a drop of formula and has exclusively breastfed since birth. Although he takes the bottle when we give it to him now and then, I really have no idea how much milk he takes in on any given day. It's all very exciting!

Rolling to the Left

Ian rolled over from his tummy to his back, but to the LEFT! That's great, but now it means he can move around the room by rolling. Lately, he's been moving around the room by pushing backwards when he is on his tummy. It's pretty darn cute.

Until this point (5.5 months), Ian has eaten rice, oatmeal and barley cereal mixed with breastmilk. I was going to wait until he was 6 months to introduce a food other than cereal, but I'm too excited and I think he's ready for it. So tomorrow, we're going to feed him some sweet potato and see how he likes it.

In other news, at 35 years old, it seems that I have developed an allergy to ragweed/goldenrod. My nose was SOOOOO itchy last night, I didn't know what to do with myself. At my husband's suggestion (and after researching it on the internet to make sure it was safe to take when nursing), I took a 24 hour claritin. It helped a lot and made me so much more comfortable. So yay for claritin but boo on the need to take it! I can no longer claim that I have no allergies.

Back to Sleep No More

I like the Back to Sleep campaign. It reduces the risk of SIDS and ever since people have started putting their kids to sleep on their backs, deaths from SIDS have been reduced by 50%. Ian never liked sleeping on his back, but we forced him to learn how to do it because of the SIDS risk. Well, now that Ian can roll over from back to tummy, he's rolled over in his crib. I knew it was inevitable and it happened. I figured we'd wake up in the middle of the night to his cries and have to go flip him over back onto his back. Nope. When we crept into his room at 10 pm last night, he was sleeping on his side. And when we peeked this morning at 7 am (he was still sleeping!), he was sleeping on his tummy. I'm not going to fret about it. If he's strong enough to roll over, I think he won't suffocate sleeping on his tummy. Man, I love him.

Week 23

Ian weighs 17 pounds, 10 ounces! My neighbors just saw him and thought he looked like a 9 month old!

Rolling Over from Back to Tummy - Take 2

Ian has been rolling from his back to his tummy quite consistently over the last 24 hours (at 5 months, 1 week of age). And yet...I never see it! I put him down on his back and then go off to do something (like clean the giant poonami that came flying out of his diaper and onto his cute outfit) and whammo, he's on his tummy! He's rolled at least 4 times now and I haven't seen it! I will have to watch him more closely.

There's not a whole lot else going on. I'm still anxious about returning to work in mid-September, but am excited about the barbeque we're hosting over Labor Day weekend. Our deck is almost finished and we just bought a new BBQ grill and I can't wait to have people over to celebrate. We are also completely the Fourth Bedroom, which is the unfinished room in our basement. I found some mold on some things when I was organizing Ian's toys and I FREAKED out and started going through everything. It turns out that other things were moldy (mainly those items that we had in storage before we moved into the house). But we've removed everything from the room and I'm planning to vacuum and mop everything down with bleach water. I'm crossing my fingers that the mold was a leftover from our storage unit and not actually caused by our basement. But we also purchased a dehumidifer for good measure and that thing is cranking out tons of water!

22 Weeks

At 22 weeks, Ian weighs 17 pounds, 5.1 ounces. He is sleeping through the night on a regular and consistent basis, which is just wonderful. He goes down for his early morning nap fairly consistently and easily, but the other naps are still a bit of a struggle and he ends up over-tired by 5 pm.

I am getting pretty anxious about returning to work. I don't think I'll be that upset that I have to put Ian in daycare. But it's going to be quite the jolt to my system to go from full-time mom to full-time lawyer with no transition. I've officially requested to work from home 1 to 2 times per week. I will still put Ian in daycare, but this arrangement will allow me to see him at nighttime and I can, perhaps, also get in some exercise. I'm waiting to hear a response. The head of my practice group said that he didn't have a problem with it "in theory" but he's worried about the slippery slope issue - i.e., that other associates will see what I'm doing and want to do it for themselves. I think that's sort of a lame response unless every other associate working at the firm recently had a baby!

5 months old!

On a Roll!

Ian first rolled over from his tummy to his back when he was 3 months old. But after he did it that first time, he only rolled very sporadically and inconsistently. That changed a bit towards the end of our trip in Florida, when he rolled over three or four times in a row for my parents. But this past Tuesday, at play group, Ian must have rolled over at least 30 times and I'm NOT exaggerating! I decided to record one of these roll-overs with my little camera, so the picture quality isn't great, but it's still fun! Now he just needs to roll to the left because he can only go to the right!

21 Week Update

We went back to mommy group/play group yesterday and at 21 weeks, Ian weighed 17 pounds, 1 ounce. My own weight hasn't changed that much. I'm still hovering at 142.0 pounds and except for the still ginormous boobs and the muffin top at my waist, my pre-pregnancy clothes fit me pretty decently. Since it is going to rain today, I plan on packing up my maternity clothes and shifting items in my closet to prepare for going back to work.

On the sleeping front, Ian has been doing quite nicely. He goes to sleep very predictably around 7 pm and wakes up fairly regularly around 6:30 am. Given that he is sleeping so much at night, he doesn't nap very much during the day - maybe a total of 1.5 hours. According to Dr. Ferber, Ian won't nap more during the day until we have him sleeping less at night. But I'm not sure his sleeping habits are problematic since, for the most part, Ian is quite happy during the day. He doesn't act cranky or over-tired until about 5:30 or 6:00 pm. That being said, I'm about to dive into the napping chapter in Ferber's book to learn if it is bad for a young child to allocate most of his sleep to nighttime and not much to daytime naps.

One last note - we started feeding Ian oatmeal when we returned from Florida and he seems to enjoy it. So now his solid food intake includes rice cereal and oatmeal (both mixed with breast milk).

Soft Coos

It is 5:45 am and I'm listening to Ian coo softly in his crib. That is music to my ears! We just had a wonderful night. Ian went to bed at 7:30 pm, woke at 8:30 pm (at which point I went in to soothe him and let him cry it out for a couple of minutes) and then he slept until 5:30 am! Wow. I remember him crying out twice around 12:30 am, but he went right back to sleep before I even got myself out of bed. I was sure I was going to have to do a middle of the night feed, but nope! Ian went 10 hours in between feeds! After feeding him this morning, I thought he might not be ready to get up yet and so I put him back in his crib where he is cooing and talking softly.

Our trip in Florida is almost over. We leave this afternoon to head back to Boston. We had a wonderful time and I'm so happy that Ian got to meet my sister, my brother-in-law and his 2 Florida cousins. And we had lots of firsts down here. First time in pool, first time seeing ocean, first time eating rice cereal, first time napping in crib, first time sleeping without a pacifier and first time SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!

And as is typical of trips to Florida, we are leaving just a little bit fatter than when we came.

Pacifiers are the Work of the Devil

Here is the update on our sleep training without the pacifier using Ferber's "progressive wait" approach, also known as the cry it out approach (although Ferber dislikes such terminology):

Yesterday's morning nap: a total of 13 minutes of crying --> 40 minute nap
Yesterday's afternoon nap: 7 minutes of crying --> 30 minute nap
Nighttime sleep: 1 minute of crying
8:30 pm and 9:30 pm wakings: 1 minute of crying
10:45 pm feed: 1 minute of crying

And then...and then??? Ian slept until 6:45 am! There was no middle of the night feeding for the very first time in his life. Unreal. And now, this morning, Ian took a 75 minute nap, which is probably the longest nap he has ever taken in his crib and is certainly way better than the 30-40 minutes he has been napping.

THANK GOD WE DITCHED THE EVIL PACIFIER!

Eye Color

I have long been focused on what color my child's eyes will be. While I will love him no matter what color his eyes are, I was really hoping that they would be green. So many people have blue or brown eyes and I feel that green eyes are something special. My eyes are very green (as are my parents' eyes) and my husband (whose mom has brown eyes and dad has blue eyes) has these really amazing hazel eyes with a brown ring around the pupil. Ian was born with very dark eyes and although I sometimes saw a greenish tinge when the light struck him just right, I was starting to admit that his eyes would be brown. But on our way to the beach yesterday, I was sitting with Ian in the back seat of the car and the light hit his eyes. And I saw this:

His right eye (left in the picture) has these amazing brown spokes radiating out from the center. Can you see it?! I wonder if his eye will stay like this or whether the color is in the process of changing. I guess I will find out soon enough. :)

I love Dr. Ferber!

I came to Florida with a baby who wouldn't nap in his crib and who was completely addicted to his pacifier. But I also came to Florida with Dr. Richard Ferber's book and I have been soaking up every word and following Ferber's advice in order to help Ian sleep better. Within 1-2 days of "Ferberizing" Ian to sleep on his back in his crib, Ian was sleeping nicely in his crib. Okay, so his naps are super short (30-45 minutes), but he's sleeping in his crib. So I consider that a success. But he is still so addicted to his pacifier. When Ian wakes up in the middle of the night (which Ferber assures me is a completely normal part of a sleep cycle) , he can't soothe himself back to sleep because sometime between falling asleep and waking up, he has lost his pacifier. And then either my husband or I have to get out of bed, search around in the dark for the pacifier, and plug the hole that is my screaming child's mouth. And Ian will instantaneously shut off and go back to sleep. But I don't shut off so easily and I seriously worry about sleep deprivation when I have to go back to work in mid-September. Ferber tells me that Ian won't be able to soothe himself back to sleep in the middle of the night until his environment then is the same as the one in which he fell asleep. Thus, it's time to get rid of the pacifier.

I used this morning's nap as my first experiment. After seeing that Ian was starting to get crabby and after seeing him rub his eyes multiple times, I swaddled him and put him in his crib without his pacifier. He screamed for 7 minutes at which point I went in and patted him and sang him a song. He calmed down pretty quickly (which means he can, in fact, calm down without the pacifier). But when I left, he started screaming again. But this time, he screamed for only 6 minutes and fell asleep! HE IS ASLEEP WITHOUT HIS PACIFIER! I'm so damn excited. And I'm really proud of myself for sticking to my guns (and Ferber's advice) even though my mom was hinting very strongly that I was being cruel to my child by letting him cry.

As an aside, I'm quite proud of myself for handling the baby all by myself for the last 4 nights.

Missing my Husband

We just drove my husband to the airport so that he can catch a flight back home. I'm staying in Florida with the baby for an extra week. I thought it would be nice to stay a little longer because I'm on maternity leave anyway, my parents don't get to see us that often and I'm home alone with the baby all day while my husband is at work. In addition, we are having a deck built and so I hear the nail gun and hammering all day long. But now that the time has come to spend a week without my husband, I'm upset. I started crying at the airport while saying goodbye to him. I've never been apart from him for this long. And of course I started thinking horrible thoughts like the fact that my child won't have a father if his plane crashes. Ugh. I will be happy to hear his voice when he lands safely in Boston.

The Pool!

We put Ian in the pool for the first time. The water was so nice and warm for him because after all, it's summertime in Florida! I wish I could say that Ian liked being in the water, but honestly, it didn't really seem like he noticed he was in the water! He didn't try to splash and I just held him and played with him. So he was happy, but I think he would have been just as happy if I did these things on land with him. But overall, at least he didn't cry or seem to hate it.

I was fairly happy with the way I looked in the bathing suit, although I would love to lose the back fat that seemed to creep up on me during my pregnancy. I know I'm being hard on myself because everyone is telling me how great I look for only being 4.5 months post-partum. And I know I look good for the situation. I just look forward to looking a bit better. But I bet I won't be able to get my body looking the way I want it to until after I stop nursing Ian. These D boobs are starting to be cumbersome! But really, it's all worth it to me. I love nursing Ian. I love that he has grown so much and thrived on the nourishment that only I can provide to him. I'm very proud of that.

Ferberizing

We have been "Ferberizing" Ian to help him sleep better in his crib. Even after adding back in the swaddle, Ian did NOT want to go to sleep on his back in his crib. I think he really would prefer to be on his side, but not only is that not safe for him because of the risk of SIDS, he just wakes up again when he rolls onto his tummy or back. So we picked up the new edition of Dr. Richard Ferber's book "Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems" and have been using his described methods to help Ian sleep in his crib. So far, it's been successful (although painful to do). The first night, we ended up Ferberizing Ian around midnight after he woke up and we couldn't get him back to sleep. He cried for 40 minutes (with intermittent soothing from us) and finally fell back asleep. The second night, we Ferberized Ian at bedtime and he cried for 30 minutes. The next time it was only 20 minutes and yesterday, when we did it for a nap, he only cried for 9 minutes. I hope that he will go to sleep soon without any crying!

We have been mostly successful at scheduling Ian's naps at 9ish, 12ish and 3ish, but today, when we went out food shopping, we couldn't keep him awake in his car seat and let him fall asleep at 10:45 am. It's 12:15 pm now and he's still sleeping! I wish he slept this well in his crib. We only get 30-45 minutes from him for naps in his crib. As my mom said, "He's not one for sleeping." But maybe he can learn to sleep better!

First Flight, First Food and First Naps in Crib!

We are in Florida right now visiting my family. The trip down was completely uneventful. Ian was a very good boy. He slept in the cab on the way to the airport and then woke up as we neared the airport. We sailed through security with him and I nursed him at our departure gate. He stayed awake for the first 1 hour of the flight and after nursing again, he slept the last 2 hours. (As an aside, nursing in the middle seat on a plane is not so easy. Ian kept kicking the guy sitting in the window seat and if I tried to nurse Ian on the other breast, I just didn't have enough shoulder room to position Ian on my breast. I finally switched seats with my husband and had a little bit more room to work in the aisle seat, with my husband in the middle seat). Ascending and descending in the plane didn't bother him AT ALL. And as I carried the still sleeping baby off the plane, I joked to my husband, "I can't get this baby to sleep in his crib, but he's still sleeping after the plane's descent." I think a couple of people snickered when they overheard this.

We also gave Ian rice cereal for the first time two days ago. We mixed one tablespoon of the Earth's Best organic rice cereal with 3-4 tablespoons of breast milk. Ian did really well! At first, he pushed his tongue forward so that the cereal came right back out, but after 3-4 spoonfuls, he seemed to understand that he could swallow.


Overall, he appeared to enjoy the experience because he didn't scream or fuss and he opened his mouth nicely for the spoon. We also fed him the cereal twice yesterday. I was really hoping that the cereal in his tummy would help him sleep better/longer, but unfortunately, it didn't help.

My sister and her family came over yesterday and met Ian for the first time. My twin nephews were adorable. After seeing Ian for the first time, they finally understood why the little baby wouldn't be playing Wii Sports with them! My brother-in-law played with Ian a lot yesterday and Ian just adored all the male attention. He does seem to prefer males to females in giving up smiles.

And best of all the firsts, Ian napped in his crib for all 3 naps yesterday! Here's the back story: I'm an idiot. I decided that since Ian was breaking out of his swaddle consistently that we would just take it away. We then had a fairly crappy week of sleeping. But I finally picked up Dr. Ferber's book "Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems" and we read that a child needs strong associations with sleep and a good routine in order to sleep well. And we realized that our child's strong association with sleep was the swaddle!! So we re-introduced it in modified form. We swaddled his legs, tummy and chest, but left his arms out. And it was immediately easier to put Ian to bed. He went to sleep quite easily, as he had before we had gone cold turkey on the swaddle. We then decided to swaddle Ian for each of his naps and that worked great too! Yesterday, he took a nap at 9:15 am (slept for 45 minutes), 12:15 pm (slept for 1 hour and 45 minutes) and 3:30 pm (slept for 45 minutes). No more naps in the bouncy seat! And we put him down for the night at 7:15 pm. He woke to feed at 10:30 pm and 3:45 am and he woke up a couple of other times needing the pacifier, but overall, it was just a more pleasant night than we've had in a long time.

The other thing that is helping Ian sleep is the Fisher Price Ocean Wonders Aquarium. My parents borrowed it from a friend. It has bubbles and music and lights and Ian stares at it in a way that he never stared at his mobile at home. And I truly think it helps him to fall asleep. We offered to buy it from my parents' friend, but she decided to give it to us for free! So we are most definitely bringing it back to Boston with us and may buy a second one from Ebay to put on the crib in day care.

Our next step is eliminating Ian's need for the pacifier. I will most likely enlist the day care to help with this. :-)

Is There Anyone Out There?

In honor of International Comment Leaving Week (ICLW), I would really appreciate it if those of you out there reading my blog would leave a comment and say hi.

I'm guessing I don't have too many readers (if any at all) for multiple reasons. One: My blog is probably pretty boring. It's more of a diary to myself than a literary piece meant to entertain others. Two: We're really on the fringes of the infertile community. Even though we had to use IVF to conceive my son, we didn't waste much time before seeing a doctor, the first IVF cycle worked and my insurance paid for the cycle. So I really have nothing to complain about and can only feel lucky that things turned out the way they did. Third: Have I mentioned I'm boring?

I happened to run into my RE on Tuesday after mommy group. She recognized me (sort of), quickly took a peek at Ian (like for a millisecond) and then ran off while yelling over her shoulder, "Send us a picture!" I forgot how lacking she is in social graces. But I should have known better. The first thing she ever said when meeting me and my husband was, "Let's talk about your uterus." But hey, she got me pregnant and I never signed up to be her friend. What's interesting is that another woman at mommy group used IVF to have her son. And she had a consultation with my RE. My friend said that my RE was really pretty awful and told her, in not so many words, that her only chances of having a child were adoption. Wow. So my friend went to Boston IVF and got pregnant on the first IVF round! I told her that she should write a big "You Suck" letter to my RE.

So it's a little weird how I happened to run into my RE in the first place. Mommy group is held in a conference room in the Harvard Vanguard building. Ten minutes before the group was over, I heard someone cry out "Oh my god. Ohhhhhhhh" and heard several women suck in their breath sharply. A 7 month old girl in the group had been sitting on the table and quickly pushed off the table with her feet. The consequence is that she ended up flying backwards. Her mom was right there behind her, with her hand on her back, but the little girl managed to roll out of her mother's hands and fell to the floor. God. It was scary. I didn't see the fall, but I saw the mother lose all color in her face. And the baby started wailing, which I learned is apparently a good thing because it is REALLY bad if a baby doesn't cry after a fall. That signals there is a head injury. But because the baby hit her head, the mother couldn't let her go to sleep for 1 hour. So instead of going right out to lunch like we usually do, a bunch of us waited around with the mother to make sure her baby was okay. But there was no good place to wait. We got kicked out of our conference room at noon. So we went over into the OB/GYN waiting area, which is also where the infertility specialists work. I felt bad. Here we were, 4 women with 4 infants, and we were all congregated around a woman who ended up having an appointment with my RE. I know this because my RE came out to get this woman from the waiting room and that's when I ran into my RE. Sigh. I tried to get the other women to move away a bit. I even said, "Hey, some of these women are here for fertility treatments and may not welcome us and our babies." But the other mothers (even the one who did IVF!) sort of looked at me like I was crazy. Oh well. I tried.

Cold Turkey on the Swaddle

First, the facts. At 18 weeks, Ian weighed 16.0 pounds.

We have gone cold turkey on the swaddle. I decided that this would be the right move since Ian has broken free of his swaddle for 4 nights straight and he was spending a lot of his sleep time attempting to get loose. The first night was fairly awful because we couldn't get him to fall asleep without the swaddle and then he got overtired. There was a lot of screaming. And even after he fell asleep, he woke up a lot needing the pacifier. But we're determined people and decided to try it again last night. We just needed a new bedtime routine without the swaddle.

My husband was working late and so I did this all myself. I fed Ian around 7 pm and he fell asleep on me. Crap. So I then woke him up by changing his diaper, put him in cotton feety pajamas (something we didn't do the night before) and read him a story twice (also new). I then rocked him in my arms while singing a lullaby to him. He got pretty sleepy and so I put him in his crib where he promptly started crying and flailing his arms. Swear words. I picked him up quickly (to avoid a repeat of the night before) and turned on the mobile and rocked him some more. He got sleepy again and this time, when I put him down, he stayed calm. I rubbed his belly for 1-2 minutes and he fell asleep at 7:30 pm. After this, he needed his pacifier twice before 8:15 pm, but then he slept until 12:30 am when he needed to feed. And then after that? After that? HE SLEPT UNTIL 6 AM!!! He didn't wake to feed. He didn't wake for a pacifier. It was bliss. I hope this happens again, but I know better than to say anything out loud because Ian likes to prove me wrong.

In other news, I've been swimming again and it feels great. The JCC has babysitting hours from 8:30 am to noon and it's only $4 for 1 hour! So I went for a swim this past Friday and Monday and swam 1500 and 1750 yards, respectively. Ian was a good boy for the babysitters and spent most of the time napping. I think the swimming has helped with my weight loss because I was 142.0 on the scale this morning. This is the lowest I've seen in a while. Unfortunately, I don't feel like I LOOK like I'm 142.0, which is my official pre-pregnancy weight. I still have a little bit of a gut and my thighs and ass still seem bigger. I think my shape may have changed permanently. I'm okay with this and it helps that my husband is so supportive. I just wish my clothes fit better. Oh yeah, I'm also a 36D instead of a 36C, which I found out when getting measured for a nursing bra. I hope these babies shrink when I'm done nursing!

4 months

Ian is 4 months old today! Here are his chair photos before and after his bath. :-)

4 Month Stats

Ian is almost 4 months old and he had his 4 month pediatrician visit yesterday. He handled his vaccinations like a champ (with very minimal crying when the needle went in) and wasn't nearly as cranky afterwards as he was after his 2 month shots. His stats are pretty impressive:

Weight: 15 pounds, 11.2 ounces - 75th percentile
Height: 26.5 inches - 95th percentile
Head Circumference: 42.5 cm - 60th percentile

I'm still not quite sure how my husband and I produced this little man. I'm 5'5" and my husband is 5'10" so it's not like we're huge people. And Ian weighs more than either of us did at this age. But I won't complain. I'm very happy to have a healthy and strong baby. I just wish he would sleep through the night!

I'm getting incredibly bored being at home. I usually look forward to Tuesdays because that's when I go to mommy group. But most of the old crew is gone (on vacation or back to work) and the new mommies that have shown up all have such little babies and none of them want to go out to lunch afterwards. So today I took Ian to the library where I picked out 3 movies and 2 books. Since it's the summer time and there's really no good TV on at night, this should keep me occupied. :-) I also requested The Milk Memos, which was recommended to me.

I'm ticked at one of the nurses that attends my mommy group meetings. When I mentioned that I donated 200 ounces of breast milk to a mother in New York who couldn't produce enough milk for her baby because of insufficient glandular tissue (IGT), the nurse kept saying how she had never heard of privately donating milk and that it didn't seem like a good idea because there was no way to ensure that the milk was safe (and the mom was disease free). She said she could get comfortable with a milk bank because they screen donors and ensure the milk is safe. But milk banks pasteurize the milk (which basically kills all the good stuff in the breast milk) and on top of that, they SELL the milk to mothers in need! And frankly I don't care what this nurse could get comfortable with. Obviously, women who seek out breast milk donations think it's still a better choice than formula. I did a good thing by helping this woman and her daughter and this nurse was making me feel bad about it, like I participated in something unsavory. Screw her. Once I build up another frozen stash, I am planning to donate to a local MA mother who adopted a baby that was exposed to drugs in utero. I have an abundant supply of milk and it really makes me feel good to help others.

I'm really looking forward to our trip to Florida at the end of this month. It will be so nice to be around other people for a full week. And since the pediatrician told us that it was okay to start feeding Ian solids, I'm going to give him rice cereal for the first time with my mother. She'll get such a kick out of it!

Damn, I Love this Kid.

I can't stop looking at this photo. Damn, my kid is cute! We had a good day today. Ian napped in the bouncy seat a couple of times and also fell asleep in the jogging stroller. And the weather is finally beautiful! It was sunny and 74 degrees today. After our walk and a snack, Ian and I spent even more time outside. He babbles and cooed in the bouncy seat while I dug up some weeds around the house. He really adores being outside (well, as long as the sun isn't in his eyes and the wind isn't blowing too hard). And I got to hear plenty more giggles today. Man, I ADORE that sound.

I'm also happy to report that I finally see progress being made on the deck that we're building on the back of our house. There was a 2 week delay to get the plot survey done and then another 1 week delay getting the building permit from Needham. And then the rain shut us down for a while. But now the framing is up and I can see just how huge it's going to be. I can't wait until we're barbecuing out there!

The Laugh!

First, let's get the facts out of the way. At 16 weeks, Ian weighed 15 pounds, 7 ounces (gaining 8 ounces this past week). My little boy is...not...little. We go to the doctor on Monday for his 4 month visit and I'll be curious what percentile he is in for height and weight.

Ian has been sleeping a little bit better at night. He goes to sleep very regularly around 7:30 pm now and is, more often than not, waking up only once to feed, usually around 2 am. (Of course, to prove me wrong, last night he woke up at 12 am and 4 am to feed.) The killer is when he wakes up needing his pacifier. We've had only one night since he was born where he didn't wake up at all for his pacifier. In general, he wakes at least 2-3 times per night needing that small piece of silicone stuck back into his screaming mouth. Sigh. He calms down immediately once he is sucking again, but I'm not quite sure what is bothering him enough to wake him up in the first place. We haven't made much progress with daytime naps. He definitely will not sleep in his crib and I'll usually only get 30-45 minutes from him in the bouncy seat. I like getting out of the house with him because he will nap in the car seat or stroller.

The really nice and new development is that we heard Ian laugh out loud for the first time this week. He LOVES being pulled up into a standing position by his arms and he was giggling like crazy. I also got him to giggle tonight right before I swaddled him for bed. I was tickling his tummy and chest and he was really loving it. I would do anything to just keep hearing that little laugh. It is music to my ears.

Today was the first nice day (no rain drops!) we've had in a long time. I took Ian in the stroller down to the center of town and ran an errand and then we sat in the park. Ian sat on my lap and I watched him while he watched everything. He stared at the kids playing and watched as each bird flew near him. He was so aware of everything and it was really cool to watch.

15 Week Weight

Ian weighed in at 14 pounds, 15 ounces today at mommy group for a 4 ounce gain this week.

Guilt

Guilt. I feel it. When I first had Ian, I couldn't imagine going back to work. Just the thought brought me to tears (although damn, I was hormonal for a while!). And for roughly the first 2 months, I was extraordinarily happy staying home, feeding the baby, napping when he napped, grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, etc. I took great pleasure in the simplest of tasks (which is not a new thing for me). And I was extremely thankful to have a long break from a demanding job. But then boredom started creeping in. HGTV was no longer that interesting. I was starting to see repeats of the medical shows on the Discovery channel. I finished reading books about early child development and infant sleep habits. The novelty of taking an infant to the grocery store was wearing off. It's hard to schlep bags full of milk and cat litter and a baby in a car seat up the stairs!

And now I actively want to go back to work and feel guilty about it. From a financial standpoint, I knew that I would always go back to work. I make more money than my husband and we have to pay our mortgage and buy lots of diapers! But I guess I thought I would be really torn up about the decision to go back to work. I am crossing my fingers that Ian thrives in day care (and of course I feel guilty that we're putting him in day care and not getting a nanny and I'll feel even *more* guilty the first time he catches some awful virus in day care). It doesn't help at all that my mom stayed at home with us and my sister and sister-in-law are currently stay-at-home moms. My parents have also stated at least a few times that they think at least one parent should be home with a child. But I have to live my own life in the way that works best for me and my family.

I'm all alone with the baby this weekend. My husband is biking from Quincy, MA to Provincetown, MA (150 miles!) to help raise money for MS. I knew this weekend was coming and even gave my husband the go ahead to sign up for the ride when I was pregnant. But now it's here and I'm bored and lonely. And I had to do the 5 am feed, which is usually my husband's job. It's really not *that* bad. I'm lucky that Ian is such a GREAT baby. We took a 90 minute nap this morning and then took a long run/walk in the jogging stroller. And finally, we went grocery shopping. But I've been watching the minutes tick by. I look forward to seeing my husband again tomorrow night!

14 week weigh-in

At 14 weeks, Ian weighed 14 pounds, 11 ounces. He is a darn big boy. I struggle now to get up from the floor when holding him!

Rolling Over from Back to Tummy!

Holy cow. I totally didn't see this one coming. Ian rolled over from his back to his belly this afternoon (at 3 months, 3 days). And he even got his hand out from underneath him and propped himself up and started playing on his tummy. Amazing. I still haven't been able to video record him rolling over from his belly to his back and now I have yet another move to try and capture!

Ian has been crazy fussy lately and he's pulling on his ears a lot. Based on other mothers' reports and what I have read, I assume that this is a symptom of teething. But it doesn't necessarily mean I will see teeth real soon. (I just asked my mom when I first teethed and she said that I didn't have my first tooth until 7 months. I wonder if my husband teethed sooner.) Anyway, just to make sure he wasn't sick, I took Ian's temperature. It was 99.7 and 99.9 (I took it twice because I wanted to make sure I did it correctly). I'm pretty sure that these temps are in the range of normal for a baby, so I guess Ian isn't sick. I also took his temperature right after giving him a warm bath and so that may have elevated the temps a bit. I will double check again tonight.

My guess is that he's probably just fussy because he's really over-tired. He doesn't nap well and he didn't sleep all that well last night either. I was out of bed twice to feed him and two different times to soothe him after he woke up crying. Sigh. At least we both took a 90 minute nap early this afternoon and he's sleeping in his swing now. Hopefully he'll wake up a happier baby.

3 month update

Ian was 3 months old on Tuesday. He weighed 14 pounds, 4 ounces at mommy group. We all wanted to make gifts for Fathers Day and so we ended up inking footprints. Ian's feet are so adorable!

I can't believe how fast time is flying. I try to spend moments each day just looking at my baby son. I want to take it all in so that I can remember these moments when he's an adult, but it doesn't seem to stick. Here are some 3 month pictures to help me remember:

Ian is still rolling over from his tummy to his back, but not very often and I haven't managed to capture it on video yet and his daddy hasn't seen him do it either. He's too sleepy/hungry in the morning to try and by the time daddy comes home from work at night, he is too tired. But I'm sure he'll make his daddy proud soon enough. :-)

Ian has been a bit fussy lately. He's also drooling a lot and pulling on his ears. These are signs of teething, but I doubt we'll see any little teeth any time soon. He starting to move to a sleeping schedule that requires only one feed per night. He'll generally go to bed around 8:30 pm and then wake up at 2ish for that nighttime feed. And then he'll sleep until about 5:15 am. So I'm pretty happy with the direction our nighttime pattern is taking. But I'm hoping that he will stop crying out in his sleep after he goes to bed. Last night we had to soothe him at 9:30 pm and 10:30 pm. We didn't even use the pacifier. We just went into his room and ssshed him and patted his belly. And it's not that big a deal because we're not in bed yet, but I'm wondering what's causing him to cry out like that. I hope it stops soon. If anyone is reading my blog, do you have any thoughts on what could cause Ian to cry out like that in his sleep?

Rolling Over from Tummy to Back!!

Ian rolled over for the first time this afternoon, just one day shy of 3 months. I had just changed his diaper and he seemed content and so I decided to put him on his play mat for some tummy time. I put him down and as I was standing up to his left side, he looked up at me and boom, he was over and on his back. I was surprised and excited but wondered if maybe I had put him down a bit on his side. Prior to today, he hadn't shown any signs that he was even close to rolling over. And so I rolled him back over onto his tummy and made sure he was on his tummy. And sure enough, 1 minute later, he rolled over onto his back! So it's a real milestone! I couldn't get Ian to repeat it for a third time. He got frustrated and tired with tummy time after awhile. And I couldn't get him to do it tonight when daddy got home. He was just too tired. But I'm hoping my husband will see him roll over soon enough! Maybe tomorrow morning...