Lots to Update

Oh, once again it's been too long.  I apologize!  I feel like we are almost fully adjusted to the move, although there are still a few things that we need to organize and we need to hang pictures.  I bought some wall art for Nate's room and hung most of it today.  It's the vinyl stick on kind and it really looks like he has a mural painted on his walls.  I'll post pictures of his room as soon as I'm finished.

We have also been busy planning his first birthday party.  Yup, that's right, the kid is almost a year old!  We are doing a small party with a sports theme.  I'm excited to make cupcakes decorated like baseballs and I bought I football and soccer ball cake pan.  We are going to have a ball pit and a kiddie pool set up.  I'll post pictures of that in a week or two, also.

So, onto new developments.  It's been so long since my last blog that I don't remember what I've written about.  I think the last time I wrote Nate was doing a pretty good army crawl.  He is now officially a crawling machine.  He is also pulling himself up on everything and today he stood for about a second without holding on to anything.  He hasn't started moving himself around when he's holding on to something so I think we still have some time before he's walking.

Food has become a bit of a challenge.  Despite being more active, he's eating much less.  I'm not concerned about him because he's definitely still thriving (as the doctor always says) but he's now waking up twice a night for milk and I think it's because he's not eating enough during the day.  I'm not sure if the decrease in appetite is because he's doing some pretty hard core teething or what; he's got a molar coming in on the right side and his fourth bottom center tooth coming in on the left.  He has started spitting his food out and dribbling it down his chin when he either doesn't like something or is finished eating.  At first I had a difficult time not laughing at it but now it's just frustrating.  He has tried some new foods in the last few weeks.  He has taken a particular liking to watermelon and peas.  He tried an almond butter and grape jelly sandwich and enjoyed it quite a bit but the second time I gave it to him he wasn't interested.  He is feeding himself quite a bit more and used a fork for the first time today.  He was feeding himself little pieces of watermelon and did quite a good job!

He has changed a lot in the way that he plays, too.  Liana has a music toy that he plays with at daycare and when we moved I realized that we have the same thing.  He loves it!  There's a button in the middle that he pushes to change the song (there might be six choices or so) and he seems to always switch to the same two songs.  He still really loves playing with balls and his aim is impeccable!  He has started hiding his balls, and his paci sometimes.  He gets down on his chest and looks under the couch or the chair for good hiding spots.  The other day he was playing in the kitchen while eating a cracker and hid it in the cabinet that he was playing in.  It was pretty cute!  And just today he was trying to shove a couple toys in the couch cushions.  I think he was mimicking me hiding the remote in there.  My Mom taught him Patty Cake quite a while ago and he started grabbing our hands and clapping them together whenever he wanted to play.  He's been doing that for months but just recently he started playing what I like to call Angry Patty Cake.  As soon as I start singing he opens his mouth really wide like he's screaming.  I joked with Dan that Nate wants Death Metal Patty Cake when he does that and started singing the song like I was in a Death Metal band.  And he's taken a liking to wearing my sunglasses.  I have the most adorable picture of him wearing them on facebook but my computer is acting up so I'll have to download it and post it on here at some point.

Enough about play; Nate has become the most loving, snuggly little kiddo.  Out of nowhere he will put his head on my shoulder when I'm holding him and just snuggle with me.  And in the morning he always leans his forehead toward me for morning kisses.  He has been giving kisses for a while.  They are very wet, mouth-wide-open kisses but I love them anyway!

He is almost exclusively sleeping by himself in his room on his new full mattress on the floor.  When he's a bit older and can get up and down we will put the frame and box spring together but right now he would go down head first.  Sometimes I fall asleep in there when I go in to nurse in the middle of the night and I've realized that he fidgets more when I'm sleeping in there than when I'm not.  There are some exceptions of course, like two nights ago when he was so congested that he couldn't breathe out of his nose so I slept in his bed propped up with him on my chest so that it would be easier for him to breathe.

I'm seriously hoping that the night feedings end soon.  I am exhausted all of the time; I spill things, I run into things, I don't make sense sometimes.  But I'm not going to deny him milk in the middle of the night when I know he's not eating enough during the day.  We have his 12 month appointment on Wednesday so I am going to ask the doctor if she has any suggestions.

Speaking of 12 months, Nate is turning a year old on Tuesday.  I am taking the day off and while he is taking his morning nap I am going to get a tattoo of his birth date in ancient Hindu-Arabic numbers (to commemorate my math background) on my wrist and then we are going to go to the Aquarium of the Pacific with a couple of his friends (from my New Moms Group) and my Mom.  I can't believe that my baby is turning one!  When do I have to stop calling him a baby?

More Teething, More Mobility

We have regressed a bit in terms of sleep because of teething.  Nate has a third bottom tooth coming in and I'm hoping that fourth bottom is shortly behind so that we can get through this.  His first two teeth were the bottom center and he had a very difficult time with it.  He was fine during the day but slept terribly!  After a bit of a break, he got all four top teeth at once and did fine.  Now he's had quite a break from teething but the bottom one or two started coming about a week or two ago and one is clearly close to peaking through.  For the last two nights he's woken up to have milk twice each night and didn't sleep well after his first waking.  I am grateful that he has been so well behaved during the day but I am also pretty exhausted!

Today Nate was amusing himself by pulling himself to his feet using the ottoman and then plopping down onto his butt over and over again.  I'm sure I mentioned that he has the army crawl down pat and gets on his hands and knees often.  He took another crawl-step today and sometimes takes a few steps on his hands and feet.  He's going to be walking before we know it; we have to get to baby proofing pretty quick here!

I think that all of this increased mobility will help him sleep better once those teeth pop through.  He has been taking longer naps for the past few days (except of course today when I was home with him).  He's still sleeping on the mattress on the floor and I'm debating on moving him to his crib converted to a toddler bed.  I'm going to wait it out for another week or two and see what happens as those teeth pop through.  It's still really convenient to hop onto the mattress with him when he wakes up for milk and sometimes stay there with him when he's in pain and can't sleep.  Our bed is in a temporary holding pattern as well.  In the new house, our bedroom is upstairs and Nate's is downstairs, fairly far away.  So right now we have our mattress on the floor in the small room directly across from Nate's room, Dan's office.  I'm actually sleeping really well on it but it's cramming Dan's space.  Like I said, I'm going to wait it out for a little longer and reevaluate in a week or two.

We got the go ahead to give Nate whole milk a little earlier than usual.  I had a couple days in a row of incredibly low supply so I called the doctor.  I didn't see a point in trying to force the formula issue and then switch over to whole milk in a month when Nate turns a year old.  I was expecting the doctor to suggest that we wait but they actually were completely on board.  So we gave him his first cow's milk Thursday night, 1.5 oz before his usual bedtime bottle.  He had about 6 oz spread throughout the day on Friday and only a few ounces today.  I'm going to keep nursing and pumping for at least a couple weeks to see if his night feedings stop once those teeth break through (that's what happened last time he had the bottom teeth coming in).

I've come to figure out that things work themselves out.  Right when I start to worry about something, it works out and then there's something else to worry about.  So I've stopped worrying.  He's not going to be waking up forever and he's only going to be little for so long.  I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts!

We are mostly moved in, just have pictures to hang and a few little things to organize.  My Mom, step Dad, and brother are moving in next weekend so there will be boxes all over the place again but I won't look at them with the pressure of knowing that I have to unload them.  Once they are all settled we will start baby proofing and organizing the garage.  Before we know it, we're going to have to plan Nate's birthday party.  We already have ideas and a theme and I've ordered the invitations!

It's going to be a busy household with five adults and a baby but we definitely have the space and I'm going to enjoy having my little brother around so much for a few months before he moves in the summer.

Oh, and Nate's 11 months old today!!!

It's Been Quite a While...

...but life has been pretty insane for the last five and a half weeks. We accepted an offer on our house at the end of March (I'm sure I've written since then) and a few days later I realized that we started escrow four years to the date after we closed escrow when we bought our house. We started looking for a new place to live pretty quickly. And we searched, and searched, and searched. We didn't end up signing a lease on a new place until a day before we closed escrow. Fortunately we built in three days after we closed to move out. We are now residents of Newport Beach, very close to Hoag hospital. The move has added about 10 minutes to my commute, less than I expected.

Anyway, now I'll write about the kid because I know that's why you're here. Nate has perfected the army crawl and moves around pretty quickly. He's also beginning to pull himself up to his feet. He's taken a few crawl-steps and gets up on his knees really well but isn't great at crawling on his hands and knees. He has a lot more space now in the new house so he's going to get even better at getting around.

He has started doing some funny, cute habits. He really likes playing with my locket necklace. Dan bought it for me for our anniversary right after Nate was born; it says "Nathan" on one side and his birthday on the other. I have a picture of him in it and plan on putting a locket of hair when we do his first hair cut. I have worn it or had it with me (in my pocket on a busy day when I forgot to actually put it on) every time that I've been away from him for more than a short time. I plan on giving it to his future wife.

He is also obsessed with rubbing eyebrows, most often when he is dozing off. He will put his hand to my face and rub my eyebrow over and over with his thumb. He also likes playing with my eyelashes at times, which worries me about getting my eyeball scratched but I always squint pretty hard to be sure to avoid that.

Nate was sleeping in our bed for the majority of the time that we were in escrow. He had started waking up in the middle of the night in his crib and not going back to sleep unless he was in our bed. We figured there was no point in sleep training if we were going to be moving and getting him adjusted to a new room and a new house. Since we've moved, Nate has been sleeping on a mattress on the floor in his room. I slept with him for the first week. The next two nights, he slept alone until about 1 am, woke up to eat, and wouldn't sleep without me so I stayed in that bed until I got up for the day. Last night, I fed him, he fell asleep, and slept in his bed alone until he woke up in the morning. I'm not holding my breath for that to happen again tonight or anytime soon but I'm glad that we are seeing progress!

He's been waking up for one nursing session as long as we've been here. I'm not sure what's going on but I know he's actually drinking a lot. He has also stopped drinking much of anything during the day so I think that he's making up for it in the middle of the night. He has only had one bottle for the last two days at daycare. Liana tries to give him milk but he has no interest. He's still got wet diapers and his poops haven't been changed so I'm not worried. But I'm thinking of calling the doctor and asking if I should offer him cow's milk or almond milk to see if he'll drink more of something else. He's usually pretty good about drinking water or watered down juice but Liana said he hasn't even been doing much of that lately.

 Anyway, I'm going to sign off for now and expect to log on once a week again now that things are settling down.

So Much to Write!

I'm not feeling a long post in me tonight but I'm going to try to write about as much as possible because my list is long. And I still have "b, r, w" on the list and still have no idea what it was supposed to mean!

Nate has been growing longer and leaner. I looked at pictures from shortly after I went back to work and I can't believe how much of a chubbers he was! He definitely still has baby fat but is much leaner than he was. He still has his pterodactyl yell but doesn't use it as often. The other day I put him on the floor right before we went out the door so that I could grab something and he was getting frustrated and yelling. I couldn't figure out what was going on and then I realized that he was only able to move backward because he had socks on and couldn't get any traction with his feet. He is also still doing his silly little lip blowing where he sucks his lower lip in and then blows it out. It's pretty cute!

As I mentioned above, Nate is getting around quite a bit. He's able to completely get up on his knees or his hands and feet (if he doesn't have socks on) and is pretty adept at army crawling. He can turn around completely on his butt or on his tummy and is pro at sliding backward to get where he wants to go. He is also very good at getting up from laying down to a sitting position, either from laying on his tummy or his back. He took his first crawl-step on April 4; he got completely on his knees and took one knee forward before he went to his tummy.

I've noticed that he uses his feet kind of like hands. He tries to grab things with his feet or move things around with them. It's kind of funny! I guess we grow out of that once we get longer and it becomes easier to reach things with our hands?

The other day when I was putting him to sleep he grabbed my hand, moved it to his face, and made me rub his cheek. It was so adorable. He often rubs his tummy with my hand when he has a tummy ache but this was the first time he did it to his cheek. And speaking of adorable, about a week ago as I was walking Nate up to daycare I told him that I had to leave him there later than usual and he put his head on my shoulder. Liana answered the door and usually he turns his head from wherever he's looking but he kept his head down until I spun him around to see her and even then, it took him a few seconds to raise it. I don't know what the chances are that he understood what I was saying but maybe he understood that I was sad to be leaving him. He was such a snuggler!

Alright, I'm going to be done for now. Hopefully I will write again soon but I have a feeling things are going to be hectic for several weeks. We are in escrow on our house; the buyers are supposed to be removing the appraisal, loan, and inspection contingencies today or tomorrow and we should close on April 20 with three days after that to move. But... we don't have anywhere to move to. We have been looking at rentals regularly but there's not a lot on the market and nothing that we've seen has been what we're looking for. We are both a bit gun shy about buying again. So between house hunting, packing, and moving, I don't know how much time I'll have to blog.

So Excited! Hoping My Hopes Aren't Up Too High

Today I finally looked into going part time next year. I had been under the assumption that if I went down to working 50%, I'd have to pay 50% of our health benefits and I had no idea how expensive that would be. I checked with the district and found out that as long as I work at least 50%, I get full benefits and don't have to pay anything. What?!?! Really?!?! That can't be right. I literally emailed the lady at the district office a second time to make sure that I understand what she said. So what it boils down to is that my salary will be cut in half. I've already figured out that we can afford that with the price of rental homes that we are looking at. In fact, it won't affect the way we live at all.

The only reason I am worried about my hopes being too high is that the union has mentioned that we may not be able to keep our amazing health benefits next year because of the potential continued cuts to education. I have emailed somebody on our negotiating team to find out what the chances are that they will change the 50% = full benefits policy and am anxiously awaiting a response.

If I can cut down to 50%, I'll be able to work from 8-11 am or 9 am to noon. I don't know which will be better but right now I'm leaning toward 9 am to noon because Nate is happiest first thing in the morning and also because I will have to offer some kind of additional help for my students; if I work until noon I can stay for lunch a couple days a week and offer help then.

Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Sleep, Food, and Poop... That's All I Talk About These Days

Probably in that order; sleep and food might be tied when it comes to the frequency that they come up in my daily conversations.

So let's start with sleep. This week, we have been having trouble. For some reason Nate has taken two hours to get to sleep four of the last six nights. Three of those nights I gave up and brought him downstairs at 8 pm and he fell asleep laying on my chest and then I transferred him to our bed. He then slept all night without waking up. For the last two nights (not including tonight) he fell asleep easily but woke up in his crib after 20 minutes three times. He'd wake up, we'd either pop a paci or rock him back to sleep then put him back down, and then he'd wake up again. Usually by the second wake up but sometimes the third, he wouldn't let us put him back down in his crib. Two nights ago I just brought him downstairs and again, he slept all night. Last night I decided to try to put him in the bed upstairs with towers of pillows on either side of him. He slept up there until 2:45 am. I don't know what was going on but he was awake until 4:45 am despite me bringing him to our bed. I wonder if he would have slept in the bed upstairs all night had he not been having whatever issue it was that kept him up for two hours. And tonight we were back to a kiddo who couldn't fall asleep. I really think that the reason is that it's too stinking hot in his room. It's so aggravating! The sun is beating on the windows up there right around the time that I'm trying to get him to sleep. Tonight it was 78 degrees up there according to our monitor. His cheeks were pink and I could just tell that he was hot. He finally just fell asleep so we'll see how it goes with him in the bed upstairs.

I just can't bring myself to cry it out or Ferberize him. Sometimes he can't sleep because he's in teething pain. Sometimes he can't sleep because he has a sensitive stomach. And sometimes he can't sleep because he wants us nearby. All of these things are short term and he will outgrow them. Also, being able to explain to him that he has to sleep in his own bed is so much more appealing than letting him cry all by himself when he's too young to understand what's going on. Maybe I will live and learn and do things differently when we have a second baby. Or maybe I'll have to do things differently just because of the craziness of having two babies. But right now, I just can't do it. It would break my heart!

Alright, on to food. I am seriously having so much fun watching Nate learn to eat. There's something so funny about the way he picks up his puffs with his forefinger and thumb, puts it partway in his mouth, and bites on it. Watching him nibble on kiwi and broccoli for the first time was so much fun. And seeing him devour yogurt makes me hope that he has the same love of food that I do.

A little more than a week ago we started supplementing his bottles with formula because my freezer supply of milk was diminishing so quickly. Nate DOES NOT like formula. I tried 2 oz of each in the first two bottles and he wouldn't have any of it. After some more experimenting, we discovered that 2.5 oz of milk with 0.5 oz of formula was the most he would take. After doing that for a week I think I will try to increase the formula to milk ratio tomorrow. The funny thing is that in the last wee, I've pumped far more than he's been drinking. My supply didn't increase but he's been drinking less. I think that he is just switching to eating more food and needing less milk. If I have more milk than he needs next week, I'm going to stop using formula for the time being.

He is so close to crawling and is getting around pretty well. He scoots on his butt and also works his way around on his tummy, moving backward and turning around when he runs into something and gets stuck. Right now, he can get onto his knees but they always slip out from under him. He is also pulling himself up to a seated position from laying down and is able to pull himself up to his knees. He is working on pulling himself up to his feet.

I know I am biased but I really think he is smart for his age. There are so many examples I could give but I'll just list a couple. We play this game where he stands up in my lap and then quickly falls to his butt and I say "Bonk!" and he laughs. Now I can ask him if he wants to play "Bonk" and he immediately falls to his butt. Also, my Mom has been playing Patty Cake with him sitting in her lap facing forward. Now, whenever she sits him like that, he grabs her hands and starts doing Patty Cake. He even knows how to "roll it".

He is also very aware of his body, I think. There have been several times when he's been up at night with tummy trouble that he pulls my hand to his tummy and makes me rub it. Tonight he was playing with my hand as he was trying to fall asleep and pulled my hand over his face as if he wanted it to be darker in the room or something (he goes to bed long before the sun is down after the time change and with daylight getting longer).

On a different note, we went into escrow Thursday morning. We got more than we thought we would get for the house before we met with our agent but had to drop the price quite a bit from where he suggested that we start. We had to sell for less than we bought for but will easily be able to cover the mortgage and come out with a little bit of money. I'm really hoping that everything goes well because I am pretty desperate to get out of here. But at the same time, it makes me really sad to leave. I love this area so much and this house has so much sentimental value to me. But we need more space and we need Nate in a room that doesn't hear every single noise in the house.

If all goes well, we close on April 20 and will have three days to move out afterward. The timing is actually good because we will close on a Friday and have until Monday to be out. We are both on the same page that we don't want to buy again until the market goes down more. We feel a little burned by the market; everybody told us four years ago that we would be able to sell for what we purchased the house for after five years and now we are being told it will be at least another five years before the market hits its bottom. Also, since I want to work less we want to keep the bills down. In five years or so when I'm ready to go back to working full time hopefully we will be ready to buy the house that we will stay in forever. Neither of us wants to buy again until we are able to do that.

I'll spare you on the poop talk.

Quick Morning Post

I figured I'd hop on and write a quick post to let Nate sleep a little longer. Sunday he went to bed an hour later after the time change, as expected, so I slept a little later Monday morning. He then woke up early and my morning became hectic. Monday night he went to bed as if the time change never happened so I woke up extra early Tuesday morning... and then he slept late. Last night he was back to remembering the time change for bed time and it seems he's sleeping a usual length of time.

Nate's pterodactyl scream has gotten more intense. It is clear that he thinks it's his primary way of communicating. Danielle came over on Saturday to take me out to lunch for my birthday. Afterward we were hanging out at the house and feeding Nate some peas. I was talking to her while feeding him and he kept screaming his little high pitched scream, asking for attention, so I looked at him while talking to her and he stopped.

Speaking of peas, he is really learning to feed himself faster than I expected. He's pretty adept at finger foods. He still sometimes misses and the food ends up hitting his cheek instead of going into his mouth but for the most part, he'll just pick something up and eat it. He's not great with texture still though. He's not eating purees anymore; I'm either mashing things or making sure that there are still little bits in them. But I gave him the tiniest little bite of cottage cheese and he immediately gagged... and gagged... and gagged... until he threw up his apples. I don't think it was about flavor because there are things that he hasn't liked the flavor of but he's still able to get a bite of it down and then he just turns his head to refuse future bites.

Well, I've been on here three minutes longer than I had planned so I've got to get going!

Finger Foods

Nate got the go ahead from the doctor to start eating table foods and finger foods at his 9 month appointment. I've given him Joe's O's (Trader Joe's version of Cheerios) a few times and today he actually put one in his mouth and ate it! I'm looking forward to giving him peas tomorrow. He's tried some very overcooked spaghetti, too. I'm looking forward to giving him some ground meat (turkey or beef) and diced up veggies and fruit. I purchased some pouches of premade meals to get an idea of what they should look like, size-wise, and then I will start making him some meals myself or doing variations on whatever we're eating. Today I tried giving him a small spoonful of cottage cheese and he immediately started gagging then ended up throwing up the apples that he had eaten prior to it. I'm certain that it was the texture that threw him off because he never swallowed any of it. Maybe we'll try Ricotta instead!

He is continually becoming more independent. Yesterday we were playing on the couch and there was a bottle with a little milk left in it nearby. He rolled off of me, over onto his stomach, grabbed the bottle, rolled onto his back, and then drank it. I was pretty impressed! I'm also still really in awe of his development. He is always trying to find a new way to make Sophie the Giraffe squeak and it's so cute. Sometimes he'll bend her neck, sometimes he'll pound her on the ground.

Nate's 9 month appointment was pretty uneventful. Monday morning he woke up sounding very wheasy so I started breathing treatments right away that morning and night and Tuesday morning. We saw the doctor Tuesday afternoon and she said his lungs sounded clear but if I thought he needed the treatments, we could continue with them. He's had one a day since then except for today and he sounded wheasy again when I put him to bed tonight so I think we need to keep it up a bit longer. Nate is over the 95th percentile for height and around the 85th percentile for weight. He is developing as expected. He got the last of his Hepatitis vaccinations and once again, barely even flinched when it was injected.

I guess that's it for now! Happy Saturday

That's Encouraging

I have been worried that we are raising a codependent child by allowing Nate to sleep in our bed and that he will never sleep an entire night in his crib, let alone sleep through the night like he was when he was four months old. Last night I got a little bit of encouragement. Nate went to sleep at 5:45 pm and slept in his crib without waking up until 5:48 am. Well, now that I think about it, he may have woken up after about 40 minutes and Dan went up, popped a paci in his mouth, and he conked right back out. I don't expect that the same will happen again tonight or anytime soon but I am encouraged that he is capable of doing it!

He is getting closer to crawling and pulling himself up. The other day I put him in his crib sitting up while I did something upstairs and he scooted himself over to the railing and grabbed on. We immediately dropped the mattress to it's lowest setting. He is constantly trying to pull himself up using my shoulders when I'm holding him. He is very adept at rolling to get places and is getting really good at scooting on his butt. Over the weekend I put him down on the floor in a nice open space near the kitchen while I cooked him a bunch of baby food and before I knew it, he was hugging the leg of the island.

Speaking of baby food, I made him some new combinations. He tried beets and apples over the weekend and really likes it. I also made him leeks to mix with peas, broccoli to mix with pears or apples, and corn to mix with sweet potatoes and apples. He hasn't tried any of the other mixtures because I'm waiting to have my Mom feed them to him on Thursday. He still isn't a fan of asparagus or avocado. I'm going to try to mix the asparagus with something he likes to make it more enticing but I'm not exactly sure what it would go with. Liana said he was gagging when she gave it to him at daycare today. And over the weekend I tried mixing avocado with banana but he didn't eat much on Sunday. I think he was a little blocked up from having had a bunch of apples.

After the apples and beets were a big success, my Mom and I came up with a good salad idea: greens with apple slices, beets, goat cheese, nuts, and balsamic vinaigrette. It was really good! All of these new combinations of food got me thinking; I should start a personal chef business for babies. I bet rich people in Newport Beach or Laguna would pay big bucks to have baby food made for their children with fresh, organic ingredients and new combinations that they can't find in stores.

I know that there's more I want to write about but I haven't been good about making notes when something comes to mind so I'm going to sign off for now.

If This Isn't a Growth Spurt...

... then I don't know what to think! Over the last two weeks, Nate has increased the amount that he's eating and drinking at least twofold. Today he had almost a cup of food in one sitting. Last night, he had almost half a cup of oatmeal and a 6 oz bottle before bed. He woke up three hours later and we gave him a 2 oz bottle. He sucked it down in no time so we made another 2 oz bottle. Repeat two more times; he had 8 oz. He was up several times after that to eat but he was in our bed by then and I was nursing him so I don't know how much he ate. (We started with bottles because I wanted to know how much he was eating and ensure that he wasn't just sucking himself back to sleep. I didn't want to waste milk, which is part of the reason why we went with 2 oz intervals, but I also didn't think he was going to drink much.)

I called Hoag's Baby Line today and the nurse didn't really know what to say. She said this isn't a common time to have a growth spurt. What?!?! She suggested switching our bedtime routine around so that we do bath before cereal so we tried that tonight. He didn't eat quite as much cereal, maybe because he was more tired or maybe because he had eaten so much during the day today. I'm not really expecting much of a change because it only moved his cereal time back about 20 minutes. His 9 month appointment is in about 2.5 weeks so I'll probably just wait to ask about it unless it stays as bad as it was last night (up four times, I think). I'd like to try giving him a bottle each time he wakes up to really see how much he's drinking and also in hopes that he might decide he doesn't like the bottle so much and stops waking up. But it's so much easier to nurse, especially when he's already laying next to me. Last night, between making all of the bottles and trying to get him back to sleep, we were upstairs for at least an hour. After shushing him and rubbing his back in his crib for what felt like 30 min, he woke up again so we just took him downstairs. He actually ended up eating a little more, even after the 8 oz, so I think that's why he wouldn't stay asleep.

Anyway, enough about that. I don't remember if I mentioned that we were planning on lowering the list price of our house; we did that the other day. We are both getting pretty antsy and are tired of having to be so quiet all of the time. However there are some fun things about it. Sometimes we serve ourselves dinner and eat together in our bedroom. It kind of feels like we are in a hotel room or something. That probably sounds a little bit pathetic!

Speaking of a hotel room, my Aunt Karen and cousins are coming into town in March and they are staying in Long Beach. My Mom mentioned that they are going to stay in Long Beach the first night that Karen arrives, since it's a Saturday and Dan W won't have to work the next day. That got me to thinking so my Dan and I decided that this would be a good first night away with Nate. It's super close and only one night. We are going to try to get an adjoining room with my Mom so that we can hang out with them after Nate goes to sleep.

Well, wish us luck tonight! I'm starving and waiting for Dan to get back with Athens West.

It's Truly Amazing

I'm finding it quite amazing to watch this transformation from knowing and doing nothing. The little things amaze me, like how Nate now puts his arms through the straps when I unbuckle him from his car seat or stroller and lifts his arms so I can grab under his pits. It seems like such a short time ago that I was wondering when he was going to find the moving pieces on his Tri-Angle toy and now he's moving all of them. Several doctors visits ago we had to see a different doctor in the practice and she commented on how smart Nate is. She said that throughout the exam he was looking at her but would check back to make sure I was still there. I told her that Grandma says he's smart all the time and she said something like, "Well, she's a little partial. You know it's true if I'm saying it." I joke that he's got to be smart because he has my genes but I also really attribute it to daycare, observing the older kids. Nate has also realized how to get our attention - by yelling. We call it the Pterodactyl scream. He hasn't taken advantage of it yet but we'll see... He mainly uses it when he's stuck, if he's playing on the floor and tips over into an awkward position, or when he's in his high chair and is ready to get out.

He's doing all kinds of funny things with his mouth. He likes to suck his lip in and then blow it out over and over again. Or he will put his forearm up to his mouth over and over again while he's babbling to change the sound that comes out of his mouth. He also likes to dribble water (or drool) out of his mouth and nibble on my shoulder but I think that has to do with the FOUR teeth that are coming in on top. There are two that are already poking through, one is very close, and the other is just an outline in the gums. On the teeth front, we may be nearing the end of our breastfeeding days. He's drinking less as he begins to eat more so I don't really nurse him all that much (it feels like I pump more than I nurse, but that's actually not true). I'm going to feel things out this weekend and decide what to do. I still enjoy nursing but pumping has just become so cumbersome. But Nate has started running his fingers through my hair when he's nursing and it's so cute! It's really been a difficult decision that I've struggled with for several months now. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends breastfeeding for the first year. My initial goal was six months but once I got there, I started thinking I might make it to the year mark. I'm really taking it a day at a time at this point.

Speaking of hair, he has a lot more of it and it's starting to get long. One day I will post some more pictures here. I feel like I will have more time to do those kinds of things because I was forced to get caught up at work at the end of the semester. Missing the first five weeks had me coming into the year very far behind and I was never able to catch up; I felt like I was just trying to keep my head above water for those first four months. On the appearance front, I have a note to mention that he's looking leaner however this morning I just noticed that his shirt barely buttoned around his belly. He has been eating a ton for the last several days and I think he was having a bit of a growth spurt... in both directions!

He is sounding a lot better, not wheezing or coughing as much, so I think we are going to slowly cut out the breathing treatments and see how he does. That will be such a huge relief for all of us!

I'm excited to be trying some new recipes for him. I have carrots steaming right now and I'm going to try adding a tiny bit of ginger to them. (He's had carrots before, just not with ginger.) I also found a recipe for peas, edamame, and apple that I'm going to throw in the steamer later after we go to Trader Joe's. (He's had peas and apples, but never together and never with edamame.) I bought him some new jars of food, also, and he really liked corn with butternut squash (he's had butternut squash before). We have three other options: potato and spinach, a summer vegetable medley, and apples with plums. I wanted to buy jars of the new foods to test them out before I made a big batch.

I'm also really excited to cook for Dan and me. With all of the sickness and busyness at work, I haven't done anything besides throw prepackaged food from Trader Joe's in the over since maybe early January. I have Monday off and I'm looking forward to prepping a bunch of stuff so that I can cook this week. When a) we move into a house where Nate's room doesn't open to the kitchen or b) Nate starts going to bed later after Daylight Savings, I hope to be able to cook even more. Right now, I'm limited to things that I can prep ahead and then throw in the oven after he's gone to bed or cook in the slow cooker. I've actually found some really good slow cooker recipes!

Alright, well the luxury of writing needs to end so that I can feed Nate and puree his carrots!

I Miss My Kiddo

This morning I was thinking back about four months ago before Nate ever got sick, when he was sleeping like a pro and going to bed at 7 pm. I used to get up at 5 am so that I'd be ready before he woke up and was able to spend some time with him before work. Now, we have breathing treatments in the morning that take 30 minutes so even if I am ready before he wakes up, like today, the time we spend together is diaper changing, feeding, dressing, and nebulizing. Also, I used to have several hours with him after work before he went to bed. Now, I'm lucky if I get more than 30 minutes with him before we have to start his breathing treatment at 4:30 pm. After that, it's cereal, bath, book, feeding, and bed around 6 pm. I really miss my kiddo and wish that working part time had come through for me! I'm still hopeful that it will work out in the Fall. It will be much easier from a scheduling standpoint on the school's end but we'll have to figure out if we can afford it on our end; I really want to cut down to 50% and be done at 11 am every day but I'm completely open to cutting down to 2/3 and being done at noon.

We are still waiting anxiously for an offer on our house. As sad as it makes me to leave the house that Dan and I came home to after getting married and the house that we brought Nate home from the hospital, we really need more space and a house with rooms that aren't so close to all of the kitchen and living room noise. The fact that Nate's room is completely open to the kitchen makes it impossible to get anything done after he goes to bed, which leaves a lot for Dan to do in the morning after we've left (and it leaves me waking up to a dirty kitchen every morning, which is a huge pet peeve). I am trying to enjoy our beach walks and my runs as much as possible before we move.

Speaking of running, I ran my first half marathon on Sunday. It had been a goal of mine after I ran my first 10K in February 2010 but I knew we were going to start trying to get pregnant a few months after that so I didn't want to start training for such a long distance. I decided to use my first half marathon as a get back into shape plan after having our first baby. Well, I overestimated how much time I'd have to train. Prior to two weeks ago, the longest run I was able to do was 5 miles. Two weeks ago my Mom and I did an 11 mile run/walk and I felt pretty good so I knew I'd be able to do the 13.1 on Super Bowl Sunday. It was a great experience and I plan to do it many times again! I was sore on Sunday but otherwise I've been feeling great afterward.

Alright, well I'm typing this at work so I've gotta keep it short. Hopefully I'll be able to check back in and give more of a Nate update later this week. He is growing so fast and learning so much!!!

Breathing Treatments

We took Nate back to the doctor yesterday. After seeing the doctor on Monday he seemed to get a little worse on Tuesday and stayed consistently bad for the rest of the week. I called the nurse line Friday morning and they said it had been a long time for him not to be improving so we brought him in. Dr. K said that the virus he had when he had croup might make his colds worse for up to a year, causing him to be wheezy. The inhaler seemed to be helping with that but she suggested that we try breathing treatments to see if we can get a faster improvement, although she said he could continue coughing for up to two weeks. The only reason to bring him back in will be if he starts having labored breathing. She also gave us a large prescription so that we can use the nebulizer for future colds if he starts wheezing and we won't have to bring him in to the office. She also insisted that we clean out his nose three times a day, even if we have to do it a lot each time to get anything out. I hate doing it at all because Nate hates it so much but I'm following doctor's orders.

We had a whole situation with the prescription yesterday and this morning (not worth sharing the details) so we weren't able to start the breathing treatments until late this morning. We are supposed to do three per day but we were only able to do two today because of it. I have a picture of the kiddo with the mask on that I hope to post soon. One day, in a dream world when we are all healthy and don't have a ton of extra things on our plate, I hope to upload pictures and post them here. I also hope to update the blog over the summer and make it more interesting to look at.

I'm sure I mentioned it several times but Nate's bottom teeth are really starting to show! I would say it was about two weeks ago that I knew he was definitely getting teeth because I could see the outline through the gums, then at least a week ago they broke through. Now we can see at least one tooth getting ready to break through on the top. I'm sure this is contributing to his misery.

Today was a much better day than any in the last week. Nate was talking and smiling a ton (although he's a pretty smiley baby in general) and I could tell that he's feeling a lot better. He's still really congested and wheezy. He's also still more sleepy than usual. But I was glad to see his spirits up and hope he continues to show great improvements each day. I'm hoping he doesn't have to have breathing treatments at daycare for too long.

Speaking of him talking, he's experimenting with far more syllable sounds. The other day he and I were hanging out and Dan walked in; he swears he heard him say "Mama" but I'm certain he was just babbling. Today he was experimenting with his "b" and "d" sounds.

I think that Nate is going to be on his hands and knees pretty soon and crawling not long after that. He is also trying to pull himself up to the seated position quite often. I remember looking forward to this age, where he can sit and play with a toy but isn't mobile yet, and I'm loving it. I'm not quite ready for him to start moving but I know it'll be here before we know it!

Sick Again

Just when we decided that Nate was going to sleep in his crib all night no matter what, he gets a really bad cold. Saturday night he sounded a bit weazy but had no other cold symptoms. Sunday morning he started getting a bit of a cold and I brought him in to the doctor on Monday. His chest and ears were clear despite the wheezing so the doctor said to put him back on the inhaler three times a day. She said that the worst night would be anywhere from the third to the fifth night. I asked her if it was normal for a baby to be sick three times in a little less than three months and she asked if he was in daycare. Ugh! She said that they expect daycare kiddos to be sick ten times per year. Ten times?!

I'm hanging my hat on a study that I read when I went back to work. It said that kids get sick the same amount in their first five years of life whether or not they went to daycare, suggesting that daycare kids get sick more often when they start daycare and other kids get sick more often when they start school. I'm looking at this as a positive: while other kids will be getting sick when they start school, Nate will be there learning every day, strong immunity and all! One of my girlfriends from college just went back to work on Tuesday and her kiddo already has a cold. I empathized with her on her facebook post and told her about this study. Somebody else quickly commented that her little girl didn't get her first cold until she was 2 years old and misses school all of the time; she never went to daycare. I'm taking this as encouragement.

Nate doesn't appear to be getting any better. Since the third and the fifth night have past, I'm considering bringing him back to the doctor tomorrow. Dan is going to stay home with Nate because I've already missed too much work. I will call in the morning and see what the nurses say (or have Dan call).

I have been planning on meeting up with a few of my good Tesoro friends tomorrow for a birthday happy hour. I'm really having a hard time with convincing myself to go, despite Dan's urging. He wants me to have fun but I feel so guilty for not being home when Nate is sick, especially because he hasn't been taking the bottle as well since he's been sick. I'm going to try to get a coworker to cover the beginning of my fifth period so that I can come home and nurse (and spend time with him, which will ease my mind) during lunch. I'm really hoping that he wakes up a new "man" in the morning but I'm not expecting that to happen!

Today I accepted a friend request on facebook and checked out that person's photos, like I always do when I accept a new friend. She had an album with about 20 pictures from when her daughter was born until when she looked like she was about 5-6 years old. I looked at the pictures, all on one page, and got choked up. I saw this little girl, whom I don't know, grow up on a single page on facebook and I thought about how quickly Nate is going to grow up right before my eyes. I want to cherish every moment as much as I can!

I found out on Tuesday that I'm not going to be able to reduce my schedule for second semester. It's a long story but basically there's a scheduling conflict. I was told that this might happen a couple weeks ago so I had the opportunity to get used to the idea and wasn't incredibly disappointed. It's probably good because we haven't gotten any offers on the house and I'm not certain how much of a pay cut we can afford while still living here. But it makes me even more determined to find a place that we can afford for me to work part time when we do sell this place. I'd love to go down to teaching three classes in the Fall but I'll be happy with teaching four (instead of the standard five).

Speaking of selling the house, there has been a young lady interested in the house since before Christmas. Her Mom lives on 20th St and is helping her with the purchase of a house. They both love our house and have seen everything else in their price range; they don't like anythinge else. We had two Open Houses two weekends ago and they came back both days. Our agent is in communication with them often and the Mom says that the daughter is very deliberate in every decision she makes, so she's not surprised that she's taking a while to make us an offer. Also, the step Dad (who has no money going into the deal) is telling her that we are overpriced. But she wants something in this downtown area so everything here is going to be overpriced! We are actually priced very well for this area. Other than that, our agent hasn't gotten a vibe from the Mom or the daughter that they think the pric is too high or that they are waiting for us to drop our price. I'm staying optimistic and hoping that we won't have to drop our price too much again before we can sell! As much as I can't imagine packing up and moving (for sentimental reasons and because I don't know where we'll find the time), I really want to be in a larger house!!!

A Confident Mama, No More

I used to feel pretty confident about everything that we were doing as parents but now I'm beginning to feel like we are doing everything wrong when it comes to sleep. Shortly after he turned three months old, we transitioned Nate from the Pack N Play in our bedroom to the crib in his room. It was a pretty smooth transition and he began to stretch out his sleep at night until he was sleeping 12 hours right around his four month birthday (right when I went back to work, which I greatly appreciated!). He continued to be a champion sleeper and even let me put him down awake several times, to drift off to sleep on his own. We did nothing special to make any of this happen; Nate did it on his own. I figured babies are on their own timetable and will do things when they are ready.

Then he got sick. And then he got croup. And then he started teething. Up until about a week and a half ago, the poor kid wasn't feeling well for one reason or another for all but about seven days out of the last six weeks. He was waking up like a newborn much of this time and because his room is not so close and up some steep stairs, we would often bring him into bed with us in the middle of the night. (Dan and I were also sick, me twice and Dan once, during this time period, which also contributed to our desire to make things as easy as possible.)

Now we are working on getting him to sleep all night in his crib and hoping for longer sleep stretches. Two of the last three nights he's slept five hours in his crib, I fed him, put him back down, he woke after about 30 min, Dan rocked him and put him back down, then he slept another five hours. After eating the second time he continued to wake up every 30 minutes or less. The first of the two nights we brought him into bed but last night Dan stayed upstairs with him and they slept on the bed up there together. We figured having him in his own room was better than bringing him into ours if he wasn't going to get good rest in his crib.

Once we having him sleeping the entire night in his crib, I'm hoping that the same progression will happen as before, when we first moved him into his crib: he stretched his sleep out and then started to be able to put himself to sleep. Right now, if he doesn't fall asleep eating then we rock him to sleep. Last night he had to be dead asleep for me to be able to put him down in his crib.

We are considering what we will do if things don't work themselves out on their own. A friend from my Moms Group just recently had to have her one year old cry it out in intervals because she has been waking up about eight times per night every night for her entire life. She made it a lot longer than I would have in that situation, that's for sure! As difficult as I know it will be, we may have to resort to CIO if Nate doesn't start being able to put himself to sleep soon. I keep coming up with excuses not to do it just yet though, like "We are going to be moving sometime soon and that's going to ruin any good habits that we've established, so we might as well wait until after we move." Who knows when that's going to be?

Anyway, Nate has been sitting like a champ for a while now and, although he doesn't using rolling as a mode of transportation just yet, he can roll from front to back and vice versa. He also taught himself to clap. The last day of my Winter Break, out of nowhere, he started clapping while he was on the floor playing with his toys. I was sitting on the couch and started clapping back, which cracked him up, then he would clap again. We continued taking turns for a little while. He also bounces to music when it's on and likes making music with his rattles. My Mom said they had a little band going one day last week, Nate on the rattle and her using things from around the house as other instruments. And we have some teeth coming through! I can see the tops of his two center teeth on the bottom. He isn't in pain anymore and has been in a great mood for the last four to five days. (Although his mood during the day was never really bad; it was the night wakings that were the difficult part of this first round of teething for us.)

Right now we are all on the couch watching football. Dan brought the newspaper over for Nate to play with and he is having a great time waving it around. I can already see his hands and feet becoming black with the ink and he has a little spot on his nose, too. It's almost time for his late morning veggies. He has been eating a ton lately!

My Best Winter Break Ever

I have had a great break and am very sad to be going back to work tomorrow. There were a couple of days that I wished I had some form of stimulation besides a 6.5 month old baby but by far, I had the best winter break I've ever had. I feel like Nate has changed so much in the last two weeks and that his daycare provider isn't going to recognize him. I'm not talking about him changing physically (although I swear he gets bigger and bigger every time I turn my head). I'm talking about him doing so much more and needing different things than he did two weeks ago.

He is sitting up like a pro now. It is rare that he tips over; usually only when he's sitting on something unsteady or when he's tired. We have also stopped using the car seat in the stroller; he's using the stroller like a big boy and he loves it! It's a lot easier to go for a run with him in the stroller now without the extra weight of the car seat. And he still prefers drinking out of a big boy glass instead of a sippy cup. He really enjoys water after his meals but sometimes he just takes water into his mouth and then plays with it, spitting it out or letting it dribble down his chin. I know I shouldn't but I can't help myself - I laugh every time.

Speaking of meals, we've had our ups and downs. The poor kid went through the ringer for over a month with the cold, croup, bad cold, ear infection, and then wheezing. He was well for a few days before I had to take him in to get his 6 month shots, which we had postponed until he was feeling better, but of course those made him feel icky for a few days. Poor kiddo!

And speaking of his 6 month shots, I always lean down and shush into his ear when he gets his shots and therefore can't see what's going on. Last week when I was leaning down I saw his face cringe a little and I thought the nurse had used the alcohol wipe but when I looked up, he already had a band aid on. He had gotten a shot without making a peep! The nurse said the second and third ones would burn a little. He made a slight whimper with the second one and a little louder with the third but he didn't cry at all. There were several nurses at the desk right outside of the room we were in and they all said how impressed they were with him. My little trooper!

I think that he is teething. His drool volume has increased and he's chewing on things more feverishly than normal. He's also changed his preference to chewing on hard things over soft. In addition, he often likes to chew on my nose. He will now grab my head and go right for it. I'm sure part of his interest in my nose is to have something to chew on but I also crack up every time he does it so I'm sure that's motivating. I froze some banana pieces and some apple slices and have given them to him in his little mesh chewy thing. I can tell that they give him some relief. I also froze pieces of bagels but he has no interest in those yet.

On New Years Eve we took Nate for his first bike ride in his iBert seat with my Mom and Dan. He fell asleep pretty quickly but while he was awake he enjoyed himself. Then I took the whole gang to the pizza place that I frequent with my New Moms Group in Costa Mesa. The waitress offered to bring Saltines for Nate and I had never thought of giving them to him but they were a hit. I bought him a box of unsalted tops Saltines to have at home. They have contributed to making meal times a bit messier than they used to be. Also, Nate likes to hold his own spoon sometimes and try to feed himself; those are the really messy days!

Lately Nate will be sitting or laying playing with a toy or amusing himself in some other way and all of a sudden, for no apparent reason, he starts laughing. I've started to think that he sees ghosts and they do funny things to make him laugh! That's the running joke I have with him and Dan now. Today he was putting his hands together like he was clapping so I started clapping and he cracked up. Then we took turns clapping, me encouraging him while he clapped and him laughing while I did. It was pretty cool!

I keep notes on my iPhone so that I remember things to write about. One of the notes is "B, g, w." I remember typing it and thinking that I would definitely remember what it means when I got around to blogging. I must have been half asleep when I did that. If I ever remember, I'll write about it!