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.