solids!

getting the hang of "open wide"

cheesin' for daddy and the camera

yum!

by george, i think she likes it!

still getting used to the spoon...

It's official- Laine now eats "solid" food! I gave my baby food maker (the Beaba Babycook- totally awesome and makes making your own baby food SO easy) it's first test run with some squash last weekend and we gave Laine her first taste on Monday since Joe was home from work part of the day. She caught on pretty quickly and seemed to enjoy the new experience. Since then I have been giving her squash once a day at her second morning meal and she is getting to be a pro (although now I am definitely grateful for all of the bibs that have been waiting for use in a kitchen drawer... between veggies and drool they are definitely going to get good use now!). Next on the menu are sweet potatoes and avocados, then we will probably do one more veggie (carrots?) before trying out some fruit.

In other news, I decided to audition for a musical - Carousel - that a community theatre group (Town and Gown Players) is putting on here in Athens and am thrilled to have gotten a great part. It's one of the first things I have done purely for myself in a long time... I haven't done any performing since college (I was a theatre major, dance minor) and have definitely been itching to get back on the stage. While I love teaching my kiddos at the dance studio, I always get a little jealous of them when they get to be ONstage instead of BACKstage. Joe has been so supportive- we always look forward to the summer when I am not working and can be home in the evenings together more, but he was willing to sacrifice some of that for me to be able to do this. Plus, he says he likes his time with Laine (awwww). Wish me luck!

4 Months, Going on 2 Years

I cannot believe that Hadley is 4 months old! We made it through the second set of shots without incident. I split them up so that she got one shot at her 4 month checkup and then one shot and an oral vaccine a week later (today). She ran a mild fever with the shot she got last week, and no fever today, so we are relieved.

We made the switch to putting her in the crib to sleep at night earlier this month, and it was totally a non-issue. I actually think Tom and I had a harder time dealing with it than she did. We slept on the air mattress in her room for the first few nights. We also just stopped swaddling her a few nights ago, and so far that has been a non-issue too. Actually, these days, she is just a really happy baby all around. She barely cries anymore. However, she has learned to squeal REALLY loud, and it is her favorite sound to make right now. We just love it! ;)

She has all of a sudden decided that she is little miss independent, and I am not liking it one bit. As of late last week, she does not want to be rocked to sleep for her naps anymore. She wants me to put her in her crib (yes, I said she is napping in her crib!) on her side and rub her back until she is asleep. Then I roll her over onto her back. She has been napping in her crib sometimes for an hour and a half at a time! She also thinks she is big enough to feed herself now. She will gulp quickly with me holding the bottle until she is almost full, and then she pushes my hands away and tries to hold the bottle herself. She has not mastered that skill yet, so it is still messy, but she is determined. I praise her for achieving all these new milestones, but really it makes me sad. I liked rocking her to sleep and feeding her. :( I still rock her to sleep at night--so far she is not protesting that one yet. I think the fact that she is establishing some independence will help me when she eventually has to start daycare in about a month and a half.

Attached is a picture of her in her Bumbo chair. She can't sit in it for too long yet, but she sits in it long enough for me to get some cute pictures and video footage.

--Amanda

Sitting like a big boy!

So Andrew is about 5.5 months old, and I cannot believe how much has changed since he was born. I have been waiting for him to start sitting up and just a couple of days ago I was able to capture this picture! In the past he wasn't able to hold his body upright, and out of now where he is able to sit in the bumbo more comfortably and can sit supported by his boppy :)

This weekend we are going to be trying solids for the first time, and I am truely getting excited. Wish us luck!

mel

The Phantom Cry

Just curious if all you new moms suffer from the psychosis I've dubbed the "phantom cry?" This cry is a figment of your imagination and specific to the cry your own baby makes. It strikes me at times when there is no way I can possibly hear Isaac's wails and whining, but out of no where, I'll hear my little cutie start crying. If I'm in the shower, I'll rush through washing my hair so I can check on Isaac, who, when I turn off the water, is not crying and is sleeping peacefully. If I'm trying to take a nap, I'll hear his plaintiff yelps and convince myself he's up from his nap, despite the fact that we have a video monitor that shows Isaac is doing just great. The phantom cry has even struck me when I'm out grocery shopping and Isaac is home with Adam. I'll hear Isaac's cry in the grocery store and it gets my heart racing to finish up with my errands and get back home. It's one of those phenomena that makes me feel crazy, but I can't help but hear his squeals wherever I go! Just wondering if I really am heading for a mental hospital or if any of you have suffered from the phantom cry as well.

Here's the latest pic of Isaac from Easter. He'll hate me one day when he has a girlfriend, but I couldn't help putting the ears on him. ~Andrea

Sleep Positioning Issues Continued . . .

A month or two ago, I wrote a post about our issues with sleep positioning. Well, now there are more issues. Our little girl never stops moving--even when she is sleeping! A month ago, the issue we were having was that she was wiggling out of the sleep positioner (and out of the back sleeping position) in the middle of the night because we had the pack n' play mattress inclined. Well, we finally got the reflux under control, so we were able to take her off the incline. But she was still wiggling out of the sleep positioner. We stopped using the sleep positioner and I was pretty comfortable with putting her down on her back and just letting her find her own position. She has never rolled over onto her tummy during her sleep, but she usually ends up on her side. And there is no telling which way her head will be facing when we wake up--sometimes it ends up where her feet originally were when we put her down.

Well, now we have moved her to her crib and have a whole new set of issues. I woke up several mornings and found her on her side with her face only about 1/4 to 1/2 inch away from the bumper pad. That made me scared that she would suffocate on the bumper pad. When I looked it up online, I found out that the American Academy of Pediatrics actually now recommends that you not use a bumper pad. Easy enough--I took the bumper pad out of the crib. Problem solved, right? Not quite. Now she is rolling into the side of the crib and bumping her head, and her arms and legs are sometimes hanging out of the crib between the slats. Keep in mind that we still swaddle her legs (but not her arms)--so she is doing all this moving around while still being swaddled. Little Houdini? Dr. says it would be impossible for her to hit her head hard enough to bruise or hurt herself and the slats are close enough together that she can't get her head stuck. But it still seems uncomfortable--I know I would not be comfortable like that. So we needed another solution. I looked this up online and found that you can get mesh bumper pads now. The one we have decided to get goes all the way up the side of the crib and over the front railing. So when she starts pulling up she won't be able to hurt herself or climb out of the crib by climbing on top of the bumper, and the teething guard that goes over the front railing will prevent her from chewing on the wood railing. Here is the link for the one we ordered: http://www.childsafetyhousecallsproducts.com/Mesh-Crib-Shield.html. We actually ordered it from Wal-Mart and not from the website that is posted--but the posted website has more info. on it. We are going to put it on tomorrow and see if it works. Keeping our fingers crossed!

Also, next round of shots is this coming Friday--wish us luck! We are hoping for a better experience than the one we had last time!

--Amanda

Sleepless in Charlotte

Isaac is now just about 5 weeks old, and we’re starting to get into a pretty predictable feeding routine. The problem is his sleeping patterns. He refuses to take a nap during the day unless I am either holding him, or I put him on his stomach (and then I still can’t really walk away completely because I have to watch and monitor him more when he’s on his tummy.) At night, the only way we can get him down for more then 10 minutes is if daddy swaddles him so tight he can’t get his arms loose to startle himself. I basically suck at swaddling and can’t get it tight enough, so if he has to get changed at all at night I have trouble getting him back to sleep. Do any of you have any suggestions? He is sleeping for 5 hour stretches if he’s swaddled, but he’s getting a little big for that. How can we transition him to sleeping without the swaddler or on his tummy? I’ve read reviews for those monitors that sense movement and didn’t know if any of you have them and if you think this would help with my paranoia about tummy sleeping and sids. I know the chances are so slim, but it still scares the crap out of me. I know we were probably all put on our tummies to sleep as babies, but now it’s a deadly sin to even whisper about doing that with babies, and I’m just confused and frustrated about whether to try to give Isaac good meaningful sleep, or to keep torturing our whole family with crappy sleep until he's old enough to flip over naturally (I hear at this point, you’re ok to let him sleep on his tummy if he got there on his own.~ holy run on sentence, btw) He managed to flip himself from tummy to back on Tuesday, but I think it was a total fluke because he was so pissed off about tummy time. I guess we’ll see in the next couple weeks if he manages it again.

On a totally different subject, I’m so glad it’s getting warmer outside. The reason why might surprise you, especially those with girls. Isaac’s feet are huge!!! They won’t fit into the sleepers anymore (0-3 months) even though the rest of the garment fits him. Most of the warmer weather outfits he has have no feet, so it is much easier to dress him. I’m trying to get him into all the cute little socks we got as gifts before he totally outgrows them. We’ve had people suggest to us to cut off the feet of some sleepers, but that just seems wasteful when I can take those clothes to consignment (or keep the gender neutral ones for baby #2 ~years away.) I can’t wait to take him in for his 2 month checkup to see how much weight he’s gained. I feel like he’s changed so much in just the past week.

Thanks for any help or suggestions! We need it… ~ Andrea

cloth diapers

Is anyone using cloth diapers or are we all disposable mamas? It seems like everyone in the New Mom group I go to is using cloth for their little ones, but I just can't commit to keeping up with that much extra laundry! Not to mention the ease and convenience factor of disposable diapers. But did you know it takes almost 500 YEARS for a diaper to break down? And there are millions of them put into landfills every year. I'm not a huge environmentalist or anything but still! So I saw a thing in Parenting magazine about gDiapers and am thinking about trying them out. I like the option of trying cloth (maybe at night when poop is less likely) but then also being able to get the disposable (flushable!!! and compostable!!!) inserts. Plus the covers are super cute, especially now that the weather is warming up and we don't have to bundle our babies from head to toe! What do you guys think?

PS- We had some weight issues after Laine's 4 month check-up... she had dropped from the 50th percentile to the 10th! (But she had grown more than THREE inches... little stringbean!). After supplementing and offering both sides for 2 weeks, she gained a pound! I figure we will supplement for a while longer before I start offering solids and gradually wean her off breastfeeding. As long as she is growing, happy, and healthy, it's all good to me!

PPS- She figured out how to roll from her back to her tummy yesterday! Still not too interested in rolling the other way, but she enjoys tummy time a lot more now that she can get there on her own. Does this mean crawling is imminent? EEK!