General Update

Nate has started noticing the world around him much more. He has also become aware that his hands and arms are part of his body and he has control of their movements. He loves to sit and stare at them and move them slowly in front of his face. He's also in control of their movement a bit more, which has resulted in us being able to swaddle him with one arm out. He prefers sleeping with his left hand above his head. So far, if he has both arms out he flails and wakes himself up but we're getting closer to being able to put him down without a swaddle.

A week ago Thursday at our last official Mom's Group meeting, Nate got a round of applause. While one of the ladies was talking, I put him down for some tummy time and he instantly rolled over. It had been about two weeks since his last roll over so I was excited to see him do it again. I did a free trial at a boot camp in Seal Beach this week and Nate was laying on his back on an exercise mat (with a blanket under him of course), and he rolled from his back to his side but I don't think he's ready to get over to his belly from his back quite yet.

For about a week or more I have been singing Soul Sister to Nate after his bath while I lotion him up and give him a little massage and he absolutely loves it. I think the first time I sang it, I chose that song because it was stuck in my head. He liked it so much that I decided to stick with it. He particularly likes the verse that starts with "Girl you can cut a rug, watching you is the only drug I need". I want to try a new song like Perfect by Pink but I don't know the lyrics very well. I've pulled them up on my phone though so I might try it tonight. It's funny that he doesn't seem to mind how terrible my voice sounds.

I don't remember if I mentioned this in my last post but Nate is getting more independent. After seeing how much Nate loved his friend Emmy's play mat, I hung some stuffed animals from his play mat to make it more like hers and he really enjoys laying there now. I also have a mirror hanging from it and he really enjoys talking to the baby. And there's a line of toys, Lamaze, that he likes a lot. He has a peacock, Jacque the Peacock, that keeps him amused for an unusual amount of time. He is also usually willing to spend more time in his swing and/or his bouncy seat. I pulled out a toy that attaches to anything and arches over and he loves that, too.

We are still a bit slow with the bottle but at least he's taking it. I think once he's in daycare and has to take 2-3 bottles per day, he'll get better at it. If he's more than just a little hungry, he won't take the bottle at all; he just cries and won't calm down until I put him on the boob.

And he's calling again... gotta run!

Another Post, Already?!

It's 8:40 pm and Nate's asleep (although I hear him on the monitor making a little bit more noise than I'm comfortable with) and Dan's on his way to a softball game nearby. For the first time in who knows how long, I'm sitting on the couch by myself in a quiet house. Now I've probably jinxed myself so that Nate will wake up. Funny how I worry about that ALL OF THE TIME! When somebody says something good about Nate's sleep, I always ask them to knock on wood or take it back for fear that they've jinxed me, and I'm always afraid I'm going to jinx myself. I know, it's crazy! So now I'm afraid to say this but we've had three nights with long stretches of sleep. Nate has been eating for double his usual length of time right before bed, his last feeding starting between 7-7:30, and he's woken up between 2:30-3 am each day for the last three days. Everytime I go to bed, I expect to be woken up in the 12 o'clock hour and when I'm not, I'm so happy and surprised! I don't know how long this can last and know that his sleep patterns will change so many times as his brain develops and especially when he starts teething but I'm enjoying this while it lasts! Of course, the second night it happened I was up for 2 hours in between feeds again. I told myself that we would move him into his crib upstairs once he started waking up only one time per night but I'm not mentally prepared for that yet and I'm definitely not counting on this lasting forever.

Yesterday I found out that I have a breast infection, which I think is partially caused by the longer sleep. I am on antibiotics but am still able to breastfeed. The bacteria in the milk is killed by Nate's stomach acids. The doctor was impressed with how in tune I am with my body; I found it early enough that I may not need to take the whole week of antibiotics. Of course, there's a delicate balance between bacteria and yeast so now that I'm on antibiotics I have to pay especially close attention to cleaning everything (I have to boil all bottle nipples and pacifiers every time they are used) to avoid thrush, which is a yeast infection in the baby's mouth. Please keeep your fingers crossed for me!

Tuesday Nate had his first trip to Disneyland. I told him how lucky he is to have his first trip when he was a mere 11 weeks old. One of the ladies from my Mom's group is pretty hot you-know-what at Disneyland. She was an ambassador two of the four years she worked there before going on maternity leave, which apparently is a huge deal. She is on unpaid leave now and plans to quit when that is over but she will have a free pass along with three friends for the rest of her life. It was actually a funny experience for us Moms. There were a total of four of us from the Mom's group. We arrived at 12:30 pm and had lunch at Downtown Disney. We didn't get to Main St in the park until 3 pm! And we didn't get to the end of Main St until about 4 pm! A couple of us wanted to buy Micky Mouse ear hats at one of the stores on Main St and then we wanted our baby's names embroidered. Once the hats were done, Nate had a meltdown (our first public meldown). One of the very nice workers in the store suggested we go next door to the museum because it was cooler in there. I walk through the museum, screaming baby in tow, and there are people watching a video on the history of Disneyland. They all turn around and give either looks of disgust or looks of concern, I couldn't really tell because I was too focused on Nate. I got him to calm down a little bit and sat down on a bench to feed him. It was early for him to eat but usually that's the only time he cries. And boy did he eat! Minutes later, one of the other babies in our group started crying so that Mom sat next to me and started feeding her baby. By the end of about 20 minutes, all four of us were feeding our babies on a bench in the museum. It was quite comical!

Well, I think I'm going to sign off now and enjoy the last 20-30 minutes of quiet time before I go to bed. Yes, I'm going to bed around 9:30 pm.

Oh wait, I just thought of one more thing. Nate got a round of applause at my last formal Mom's Group meeting today. I put him down for tummy time while one of the Moms was sharing something and he instantly rolled over. This is the third time he has rolled over but he didn't do it for about two weeks. Everybody was so impressed that my little 11 week old boy can roll over! Grandma says he was probably trying to impress his new girlfriend. Saturday we had a brunch with all of the Dads from our group. I put Nate down on the playmat at the host's house with the host's daughter and instantly, she put her arm around his.

Oh, Sweet, Sweet Sleep!

Well, I missed a Friday. My reminder went off when I was already in bed. I've been trying to get to bed earlier so that I'm not as tired. Last night I went to bed at 9 pm and was allowed to sleep until... 2:30 am!!! That is definitely the longest stretch of sleep I've gotten in the last 11 weeks. Nate went 7 hours between feedings!!! Now, I should delete some of those exclamation points because I know that the more excited I get, the less likely it is to happen again anytime soon. Of course, when he was done eating, burping, and changing at 3 am I couldn't fall asleep for a couple hours. Why does my body do this to me? I don't get it!

Nate is averaging about 14.5 hours of sleep per day and everything I read says he should get 14-16 hours. He's fairly consistently been taking one good nap per day but is still struggling to sleep longer than 30 minutes for the rest of his naps. If I'm home in the afternoon and the timing works out, I have been using The Five S's to get him down for a nap around 3 pm and he's been sleeping a good 2-3 hours. He's still taking a little while to get to sleep at night but most nights he's asleep by 9 pm so I can't complain. Everything I've read says his bedtime will move up to around 8 pm (or even a little earlier) within the next couple months.

We're getting more and more smiles and coos. Alright, he's calling my name so I've gotta run. More later?

Phew...

...it's been a long week. Until yesterday afternoon, Nate had been having a pretty difficult time napping. It was next to impossible to get him to sleep during the day and when he did fall asleep, he only slept for a short time. For example, throughout the day on Wednesday he slept 26 min, 25 min, 15 min, and 15 min, and that's it! He has also been difficult to get to sleep at night most nights for about a week and I think it's because of the lack of sleep during the day. Today he napped much better but was still difficult to get to sleep tonight, although not as difficult as he has been a few days this week. I'm hoping we're over the hump.

Not sure if I've mentioned it but I'm taking a month of Family Leave and will go back to work at the beginning of October. I wanted to work on the first day of school to set a precedent and introduce myself to my students but the district won't let me; not exactly sure why. I've gone in twice in the last week and a half to prepare for the substitute and will need to go in one more time next week. It has been kinda nice to use my brain in a capacity other than talking about poop, burps, and Nate holding his head up, but I miss him so much when I'm away!

The official, educational meetings of my New Mom's Group will be over in two weeks but we have plans to stay in contact, meeting at least twice a month from here forward. Tomorrow Dan and I are going out to dinner with one of the other Moms, her baby, and her significant other. I can't even begin to describe how much more sane I feel when I'm around these ladies!

Ok I think this is going to have to be a short one. I've now corrected several spelling errors and I'm pretty tired so I think I'll go to bed soon.

My Advanced Little Boy

I can't believe it, but Nate rolled over today!!! And it wasn't the roll over that happened a few weeks ago - on the soft couch cushion that slanted in the direction that he rolled. This was a real roll. I put him on the floor for tummy time and he propped himself up with his fist and pushed himself over. I was so surprised and excited that it was happening, I didn't think to grab my phone and record it. Hopefully I'll get the second roll on camera. It's pretty ironic because we just attended a milestones class this morning and were told that the first rollover usually happens between 4-6 months. I can't wait for more milestones! Hopefully I'll get some firsts on camera.

"How Could I Forget?" She Says With a Smirk on Her Face

Rima was over on Wednesday and mentioned that she hadn't seen a blog post in a whle. I had completely forgotten about my blog! How could I possibly forget? Yeah right, you all know how it's possible. I have set a reminder on my phone to blog on Friday evenings.

Here's a rundown of my last hour - tag team Nate with Dan after Dan rocked him to sleep to get him swaddle in his pack and play so that he doesn't wake up; have frozen waffles and milk for dinner at 9 pm; quickly search online for the baby monitor manual because I don't want to waste the time finding it in the many piles that have accumulated around the house; pound a large glass of water because I realized I haven't had nearly enough today; get the baby monitor in our room so that I can hear Nate despite the dryer running; start typing a new entry here. And it's past my new bedtime (9:30 pm) so this is going to have to be quick!

Nate had his two month appointment today. He weighs 13 pounds 12 ounces (90th percentile) and is 23.25 inches long (75th percentile). I think he's actually longer; the nurse didn't really stretch him out all the way like the other nurses have in the past. The doctor was again impressed with how talkative he is and was really enjoying his coos. She checked his neck strength by putting him on his belly and seeing how much he raised his head. She said for his age, he should be able to lift his head to 45 degrees and that he was already almost to 90 degrees. That's my boy! We got some suggestions for dry skin, medications to have around the house, etc and then Nate got his shots. I've never heard him scream the way he did when he got his shots. I had leaned over to shush into his ear because he was already aggravated when the nurse was wiping the alcohol on his thigh so I didn't see when she gave him the injections but I could tell by his wail each time she did it. He had three shots and an oral fluid. I actually started crying a little because it pained me to see and hear him but he calmed down quickly and fell asleep fairly shortly afterward. I took him on a walk with one of the ladies from my Mommy group because I wanted to make sure he got a good nap in but it turns out I didn't need to; he continued to sleep when we got home for a total naptime of 3 hours and took another 3 hour nap in the afternoon. When he was awake, he was quicker to fuss and cried easier but I was able to soothe him each time. He ate really well at 7:30 pm, had a good, calm bath, and went to bed fairly quickly.

About a week and a half ago, we had three days where Nate went 6 hours between feedings at night. It was quite marvelous! I think I actually got a 4 hour stretch of sleep one night. The last 2-3 nights he's had a decent stretch at first (4-5 hours) but then wakes up every 3 hours afterward. Of course, he goes to bed pretty early so that first long stretch equates to only about 2.5-3 hours of sleep for me and then by the time he eats, the remaining 3 hour stretches are 2.5 hours at most. I think last night I got about 6 hours in three-2 hour intervals. I have commented that I was surprised how well I've dealt with the lack of sleep however it is definitely starting to get to me.

We have regressed a little bit with breastfeeding but the details are boring so I'll spare you. I feel confident that we've figured it out with the help of Hoag's Baby Line and hope that he will be back to being a champion eater very shortly.

I am continuing to enjoy being a part of the New Mom's Group and can't believe how much more sane I feel when I am with the ladies. We've attended a baby communication class, a parent movie morning, gone to the mall, and had many lunches together. Monday we are attending a milestones class and Wednesday we're going to the movies again.

I'm going to sign off now so that I can wash my face and go to bed. My poor teeth have suffered in the last two months. My dentist was so impressed with my 8-month-pregnant-teeth because I flossed every day but not so much anymore!

Oh, and please ignore typos from now on; I don't have the energy, time, or desire to proofread.