Sleeping on his own

It may not seem like a big deal, but this is a HUGE milestone in my eyes.

Last night, AJ fell asleep by himself, without needing to be held, rocked, or breastfed.  Aside from him falling asleep in the car, this has NEVER happened before!

Last night's recipe for success:  bathtime --> feeding --> binky in his mouth --> laid him down to sleep on his side --> burp cloth for him to play with --> gentle pressure/patting on his bum --> sneaking away (actually me laying down on the ground so he can't see me --> sound asleep baby --> I reappear to steal his binky.

My little creeper is growing up!

On a side note, he woke up 40 minutes later crying inconsolably like he's in pain.  Damn teeth.  Cut through already.

Daddy, I turn it!

This post is named after MIL's famous broken English quote. "Daddy, I turn it!"  Which she FB messaged me when AJ was 12 weeks and rolled from tummy to back for the first time.

But right around 4 months, he STOPPED.  Yeah, like completely un-learned how to roll over.  He picked it up again a couple of weeks ago, but still only does it about once every 5 days.  And that's still belly to back.  Back to belly? Yeah right.

The last few days have been strange.  Lots of weird stuff happening, including a stomach bug (see last post).  The other "weird" behavior I noticed was that he was arching his back A LOT.  Like in his sleep, in his jumperoo, in my arms, you get the picture.  After he started vomiting yesterday, I started FREAKING OUT (yeah, I'm a little bit of a hypochondriac).  OMG.  Could it be acid reflux? Pyloric stenosis? Is he arching his back because he's in pain?!??!?!

And then today, it all became clear.

We were laying on the ground with me next to the top of his head, "reading" a picture book to him.  He was starting to arch his back and I could feel my goosebumps rising, as I anticipate with fear that he was going to throw up or something.  But instead, with one swift motion of a back arch, AJ flipped over onto his belly, for the first time ever!!!  My husband walked through the door JUST in time to see his happen. 

DUH.  He was practicing arching his back so he could use the momentum he generates to roll from back to belly.  DUH!!! 

Might be time to start baby proofing soon.  

6 months and some vomit

AJ turned 6 months on Friday the 18th!

I'm unfortunately going to keep this post short, as I'm laying on my belly, 12 inches away from a sick kiddo who is sleeping soundly RIGHT now, but just might turn over and vomit on me any second now...

6 totally awesome things that happened in the 6 days around AJ's 6 month birthday:

1. He started sitting up.  FOR REAL.  Like back straight and everything!

2. We graduated from mom's group.  It was a very bittersweet day, but I felt like we were ready for it (to be posted another day, or maybe even tonight if he lets me)

3. He ate avocados and smeared his face green.  Green like a baby Frankentstein.  It was so awesome.

4. He went to his first swimming lesson. EVER!  Got submerged in a "guided" swim.  Got cranky, but got a great start to swimming.

5. He clocked in at 29 inches (well over 97 percentile) in height, 20 lbs 8 ounces in weight (90% percentile), took his shots like a champ, and even had his first big boy lab draw (heartbreaking to watch them extract blood).

6. He vomited on my piano 6 hours ago.  Yup, little boy is sick...or having some type of mild reaction to the vaccines...or ate too fast...or all of the above.  I dunno. All I know is he vomited on my piano.  And MIL painstaking scrubbed down each key for me.  I love her :) oh well.  Sick child = I get to cuddle.  Win for me.

Happy 6 months, AJ!

The computer thinks I'm fat

Once a year, I have to take an online health assessment.  You know, tell a computer program how much I weigh, how happy I am, how stressed I am, how much sleep I'm getting, how many days I'm ill, you get the drift.  The computer program churns all my answers and basically spits out a plan to "help" me with my health problems. Or something like that.  Most of the time, it's a bunch of crap. It's all stuff that I already know I need to do, just don't care to.  An algorithm that spits out motivational tidbits is very unlikely to change my mind.  Well, most of them time. Sometimes it does come up with something useful.  Nonetheless, it's 90% annoying, but I put up with it because I like the rewards I can reap by taking said assessment, including a healthy-sized candy bar that a colleague usually issues as bait.  Ohhhhh chocolate.

I digress.

Anyway, I took the survey today, and it told me that my weight was very concerning. According to this application, I needed to start thinking about weight loss 3 months after I've had my baby.  Ummmm....what?  ENTER ANGRY HORMONES!!!  I'm about 5 pounds above my baseline weight right now, and exclusively breastfeeding...is it really unreasonable to carry that extra 5 pounds around???  I dunno, I'm pretty sure (at the rate of my metabolism, and the rate of weight loss since the birth), that a few more pounds will go away in the next few months.  Besides, on days that I eat less than usual (like cutting out snacks or reducing carbs) I actually feel SICK to my stomach.  That and I see consequences with my milk supply. LAME RECOMMENDATION.

Ok, next item of irritation.  It asks me how stressed I am.  'Nuff said.  

Then it asks me about sleep, as it's determined that insomnia is one of my "problems" and asks me to identify what the trigger is. Oh wait.  There's no box for "I have a six month old who thinks my boob is a 24 hour friggin' buffet."  So I check the box that says "none of the above."  Oh, I don't have an actual problem now.  Hmmm.... So helpful.

I'm not even going to go into the details of the "physical activity" section.  It's just irritating.

After it thinks about my answers, it basically comes up with a composite score of how good my health is.  I see that it's dropped from "good" (last year) to "fair" (this year). I can't help thinking that while that may be true (I am more stressed, more fat, less awake, less active), I'm the happiest I've ever been in my life.  I don't know many people who can say their health has declined, but can say they're glad it's happened. There's something to be said about the power of our children - everything can be bad bad bad, but at the end of the day, none of the bad measures up to the good.

Someday, I'll change my health behavior.  But not today.  My son is crying in his crib while I type away on this keyboard.  It's gonna be a long night. 

I LOVE MY PUMP

I love my pump! I can't believe I was using a 2001 model pump...that hurts!

After 3 weeks of use, here's what I've consistently discovered

-it no longer hurts to pump!!!!!

-the automatic 2-phase expression tool really matches up with what baby actually does, and therefore makes letdown easier

-it's quiet.  I actually pump during teleconferences and it doesn't disturb people!

-the bag is well-designed and sleek looking.  The pockets are just right

-It's really easy to use.  No instructions needed.

I can't say enough good things about this Medela Pump In Style.

OK. That is all.

Why nursing covers are starting to get lame

About 2 months ago, when AJ started getting real "active" while feeding, nursing got all kinds of more difficult.  There was the biting, the pulling, slapping, the thrashing.  Then, he refined some of his fine motor skills and consequently added a new set of special services to his nursing routine: finger dental exams, nose-picking (mine), digging, flicking, you get the idea.

IT'S ANNOYING. Nothing actually makes it go away, but I do my best to fight it every time. Holding his free hand. Offering him a toy.  Keeping things real quiet.  Being like a hawk and watching his every move to anticipate the next distraction.

Oh, and while we're on the subject of annoying. Nursing covers.

I know why I originally wanted one.  I was one of those moms who totally judged and was like, "oh, I don't wanna one of THOSE girls."  Inside my home, we're cools.  Boobies out, no one cares cause it's my home. Out in public? no no no!  I'm gonna be a 100% covered mom.

News flash.  Nursing under a cover makes it 500% harder.

1. There's patterns on that gosh darn thing.  Babies like anything with patterns.  Babies smash anything with patterns.
2. Patterns are distracting.  They'd rather watch that instead of eat.
3. Covers are hot.  Babies are hot enough the way they are.
4. Covers cover things up.  I don't know what the **** is happening under there.
5. Oh wait, I do.  Because they don't stay on. The baby (insert violent verb here)'d it off.
6. It takes me 3 minutes to nurse a baby without a cover, but easily 15 to nurse one with the cover. Why bother?

Yeah, mine's been folded up neatly in a box for precisely one month now. I know what you guys are thinking.  You're flashing people in public now?

No.  No boobs for you.

When he needs to eat, we leave whatever we're doing and return to my CRV (future post coming up on just how awesome this car is).  I actually keep a spare old boppy in the back to make things comfy.  Being in an isolated environment also helps reduce the noise level, which is usually a huge factor on whether or not he feeds successfully. My windows are tinted.  I figure people can complain about me nursing in "public" all they want, but the fact is, you had to look hard into my car with tinted windows to see that I'm feeding my son, and I'm pretty sure that crosses some sort of level of social appropriateness anyway.

There. no more stupid covers.

How to get baby on back in a Beco

AJ is something like 21(?) pounds, so as you can imagine, carrying him is no piece of cake now. If I anticipate carrying him for more than like 10 minutes, I almost HAVE to get his Beco out. He loves the Beco.  This kid spends 1-2 hours a day in that thing.

Up until now, he's always been worn in the front.  But even front carrying is starting to get a little too much for me now.

I struggled for WEEKS trying to get him in this back carry position.  It's not as easy as it sounds or looks.  It involves a lot shimmying and shifting to get baby in the right spot.

Here's how I do it.

(before mastering this, you'll wanna try doing this over a bed, just in case you let go of the baby accidentally!)

1. Buckle in all the straps to the right sockets except the front closure - you'll wanna do that at the very end.
2. Wear one shoulder strap (I prefer the left to leave my dominant arm free)
3. Hold baby in a hip carry position in right arm
4. Using your left arm, reach through the armhole and pull baby's left leg into it
5. Simultaneously (this is tricky!) wrap your right arm around front of baby so that baby is on your back. You'll probably want to bend forward also, to make sure baby doesn't fall off your back.
6. Find the right strap and wear it
7. shimmy baby in until comfortable

Yes, I realize these instructions are horrible and sounds totally insane.  So here's a video!

And here's us all strapped in.  AJ looks happy so I'm happy.

My only real problem with this carry is not being able to easily stick his binky back in his mouth.  I have to take off one of the straps to free my arm in order to reach his mouth.



10/5/13 addendum:

I'm not as mastered as I think I am, in this back-wearing method.  I almost dropped the baby twice yesterday while shimmying him in!  With my dad, the engineer watching, he proposed a simpler method, for now, until I can figure out this way without almost causing a bad accident.

so here's the new method.

1. Lay the carrier out on the couch (with the arm straps buckled in already)
2. Lay the baby on the carrier, with his legs in the right holes.
3. Kneel by the couch, buckle the waist strap in
4. Wear the carrier like you're putting on a backpack (stay kneeled), make sure baby is in all the way
5. Get up and shimmy the baby around so he's comfortable.

Yeah, embarrassed to admit. This is so much more comfortable, and takes a lot less time. lol.