Goodbye 2010

Goodbye 2010. You were a wonderful year... a year that I got to meet my little man and watch him change from a tiny infant (well, tiny to me!) into an active, happy, and amazing little guy. Motherhood has been an experience that has been so much more amazing then I ever dreamed. The simple act of a smile is enough to make my day go from bad to good and even the most exhausting sleepless night is made okay by the act of a few babbling noises that string together to sound something like mama or hi. It is so amazing to me to watch him each day discover new things... the way he sits and is truly amazed by something as simple as a plastic plate or a hairbrush, the look on his face when he tries new foods and discovers he likes them, the grin on his face when he finally accomplishes something he has been trying to do. These moments I will never forget. I would never say that things have been easy, but motherhood is the most rewarding experience I have ever had.

I don't want to say this too loudly...

but i'm getting SLEEP!! OH MY GOD SLEEP!!

The first night I swore it was a fluke. He went down at 6:30, woke up at 8:30, then didn't wake up again till after 11! Then again at 4... then not again until 7! It was a fluke... it HAD to be a fluke. Then the next night was the same... up at 8:30, then 11, then 5, then 6:30 (I woke him up when I got up for work), then he went back to sleep until 7:30. At this point I was getting hopeful... excited almost! But surely, surely there would not be a third night in a row.

But there was!!

Thats right folks, for 3 nights in a row i've only had to get up twice! 11ish and 4ish. He's also been sleeping in his bed ALL night! I get up and feed him and put him back to bed! Sometimes if he wakes up and fusses my husband goes in to rock him back to sleep... but that typically only takes about 10 minutes.

What changed? NOTHING! I have NO idea why now all of a sudden he's sleeping! But he is... and I have to say I feel like a new person! This morning when my alarm went off at 6am I was not in a half asleep stupor hitting the snooze button for almost an hour. I actually got out of bed... had a showre... and didn't feel the strong urge to drink coffee!

PLEASE let this trend continue! PLEASE!!!

9 Months!

Somehow my little man has turned 9 months old! How did that happen again and where is the pause button???

As I was sitting this evening putting Eirik to bed, I noticed that slowly he has been loosing that infant look and it is being replaced by a toddler look... my baby is growing up!



I have to try and weigh and measure him this weekend. I know that he's getting sort of snug in some of his 12 - 18 month clothes depending on the brand. In one piece things and some sleepers he's in the 18 - 24month however in pants and shirts he's still in 12 - 18 months most of the time.I've been slowly moving over his wardrobe as thing gets snug, especially since for Christmas he got a bunch of 18 - 24 month clothes!

Nothing big in the way of new skills this month. He's a speed crawler now and has discovered... the stairs. We try and keep him distracted from them but if we aren't paying attention he makes a beeline for them! He hasn't figured out how to climb them... yet. He cruises on anything he can pull up on and will push objects around the room! He's not standing on his own yet though so I think i've got a little longer before he figures out walking. On the talking front i'm 99% sure we're saying dada and knowing its dada so in my mind thats his first official word. There are times when he's seen my husband and gone "dada". However he also just generally babbles dadadada... This month we've been getting mamama and bababa babbelings too! He also says something that sounds like kitty sometimes... i'm thinking that may be word number 2!

On the food front we're sort of in a weird place. I think he wants to eat food but he gets frustrated trying to eat it. We're doing the self led solids so he's always been finger fed which is okay, however he still doesn't have a great pincher grasp. For example tonight he was trying to eat peas and while he wanted to eat them he had issues getting them in his mouth so he gave up. He gets frustrated easily when he's tired so dinner is typically his worst meal of the day because he has no patience to eat the food. At this point I'm pretty much giving him just about everything, even some foods on the "no" list because we have no family history of allergies and so far he's not shown any signs of allergies. We haven't done anything peanut yet, no shellfish, and no citrus. But pretty much whatever we eat for dinner he eats too!

He's still very much a boob man though. I'm still pumping twice a day at work which is covering what he takes in a day and still allows me a little extra usually. I did have a large supply drop about a month ago because my body is attempting to figure itself out. I had a few really low output days and even now i've rebounded i'm not pumping as much as I was before. I had thought about stopping pumping at a year but now i'm considering going longer but just pumping once a day. But, that's a more in depth post for another day.

Sleep? yea... about that sleep thing... we have our good nights and our bad nights... and then we have our "mommy is going to go get a hotel room and sleep all day instead of going to work" nights (no, i haven't really done this). I have to admit that things have gotten better. He is in a pretty good nap routine at the moment and is typically taking 2 1 1/2 - 2 hour naps! We also have a great bedtime routine now... we are starting bedtime at 6:30 and I would say about 90% of the time there is no fight getting him to sleep. He has a bath, a story, he eats, and then we'll rock until he's asleep. After that its hit or miss as to when he wakes up again. On good nights we are up 4 times a night total, on bad nights its 6 or 7 however most of those are early in the night. Some nights he sleeps in his crib, some nights its our bed, but most nights its a combo. Honestly we go with whatever works. We put him in his crib to start and the typically after 11 he's in bed with us and then sometimes at 4 or 5 am if he doesn't resettle and trys to play we move him back to his crib.

I really can't believe how quickly he's growing up and changing. Each day he seems to do something new, even if its just something as simple as figure out a toy!

I guess now I had better start thinking about his birthday! I'm not quite ready to do that yet...

Let The Biting Begin...

Its official, Eirik has started to bite me. Until now I think he would, but it wasn't enough that I noticed. Well, the top two teeth are on their way in and the biting is out of control! I had hoped maybe he wouldn't be a biter... so much for that dream! Thankfully so far he hasn't actually hurt me too badly. I am doing the unlatch and a stern NO when he bites in hopes he will quickly realize that biting is NOT okay. He gets a very upset look on his face when I do this... he doesn't cry but you can see him processing. Here's hoping he gets the hint soon!!

Merry Christmas!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas today! If you don't celebrate Christmas I hope you enjoyed whatever it is you did instead. =)

Before we get to what I know you all want to see, cute pictures, I'm just going to take a moment to reflect.

It was Christmas day 2007 when my husband and I for the first time tried to have a baby. It was that special night that you suddenly go "no more preventing". At the time I had dreams in my mid of being pregnant by spring and having a baby by Christmas of 2008. Well, as we know that isn't the way life played out and it wasn't until the middle of 2009 that I actually became pregnant. Today watching Eirik enjoy his first Christmas brought back memories of so long ago. It made me remember just how far I've come. The road I traveled to get here was emotionally exhausting and draining. This Christmas I am so thankful for my little man. His smiles make my roughest days better and seeing the simple joy he gets out of things brings a smile to my face.

And now, on to the pictures.

He quickly discovered gifts that were for him! Note the cat keeping a close eye on things.



Showing daddy the gift he made. Its an ornament with a handprint in the middle!



My cats as usual enjoyed the empty boxes



Big Christmas Smiles!



My parents sent him a chocolate santa clause.  His first taste of chocolate!



To say he liked it would be an understatement....




At the end of the day however he was quite an exhausted little man...



Overall I think he found the entire experience quite overwhelming. My father in law, his girlfriend, and my brother came over and at first he was not a happy little guy. While he did enjoy his new toys (we tried to limit ourself but of course my brother and father in law got him toys so we're going to have to reorganize the toys a bit) it was all a lot for him to take in. He didn't nap well either today which made things more difficult. Those top 2 teeth are on their way in (I think they may have actually cut through) so he was a grumpy little man from that too.

Mommy had a good Christmas however! She got a new wii game (on my list of things to do after this!) DVDs, kitchen stuff, LOTS of yummy things to eat and drink, and a Kindle! Needless to say I am now surfing the web trying to find things to read. Anyone have any good advice??

So, as I said before, I hope you all had a wonderful day! I am now off to eat another Christmas cookie and play with my Wii!

Some Thoughts On The Internet

This is a topic i've been sort of kicking around for a while, but its come up on quite a few blogs I follow so I think i'm going to address it here at last.

How public is too public?

I am very aware that my blog is currently able to be read by anyone. And honestly that doesn't bother me too much... nothing I post on here is that shocking. I post a few opinions but typically my updates are limited to how Eirik is doing and what new things he is doing.

The older Eirik gets however the more I have begun to think about what I should be posting in a public forum. Does the whole world really need access to pictures of my son? I love sharing them, but I don't know who is looking at them. This subject is one that became in the front of my mind a few months ago. On facebook there was a huge outcry because a grown man with weird fetishes as his likes was joining cloth diaper sites. Because of this a lot of cloth diaper sites took down any public photos in their group because there was concern over who was looking at them.

I'm sort of torn. On the one hand I really want to leave parts of this blog public but on the other I think I need the option to protect some things starting next year. The problem here is that blogger will not let me just protect some posts and not others... it seems I have to make the entire blog privet. Of course that is an option, however i have no issues with having blogs concerning baby items I find useful and cloth diaper reviews public. In fact I have been toying around with starting another blog that was dedicated to cloth diapering, breastfeeding, and whatnot.

So be prepared my followers for some changes next year.

Its Begining To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Ah Christmas... only a few short days away! This year has been exceptionally hectic for me, trying to squeeze everything in during Eirik's naps or when my husband is home! Where as before I could just do my christmas shopping after work without a care in the world this year I had to plan in advance on days when I could stay out a little later. Needless to say a lot more shopping was done online this year! Baking too proved to be more time consuming then planned. I didn't get all the cookies I wanted made because I simply ran out of time. Some may think i'm a little insane to try and bake cookies, but I really do enjoy baking and its an easy gift for my husbands students.

This weekend we finally got the house completely decorated and the tree purchased. I love live trees. I would really love to go cut one down but due to time constraints we instead went down the road and purchased one. Maybe next year! Eirik has completely ignored the tree much to my relief. I had images of him trying to pull it over. No, he still thinks that the cats and the coffee table are much more interesting!

Of course after we got the tree up I had to dress Eirik up and take some photos of him under it. Sadly the camera battery died only minutes after I got him in place and of course all the batteries need to be charged... but I did get a few cute ones.





Now off to finish writing Christmas cards and MAYBE start wrapping gifts. I haven't wrapped a single one yet!

You Never Know Their History

Last night I attended a Christmas party that was thrown by a friend of mine from college. There were a few of us from college there and the rest of the guests at the party where her new boyfriends friends. Needless to say most of the night was spent with the small group of college friends catching up and laughing about college days. The one girl that I talked to quite a bit I didn't know that well in college. We had probably met once or twice in passing at my friends house, but it wasn't really until after graduation at a previous party that I started talking to her more.

I try not to be nosey about children when talking to people, especially since you never now their history. However as we were talking she made a comment about saving up her vacation at work for when they have a baby. At this point the topic of kids was fair game. She had asked about Eirik and said how cute he was so casually I asked her if she and her husband were thinking of having a baby soon.

Before long it all came out... they had been trying but she has endo and was told my her doctor that they had almost no chance of getting pregnant on their own and she had been doing clomid and it wasn't working so now she was seeing a fertility specialist but the insurance didn't kick in. I sat there and nodded at her in complete understanding and slowly over the course of the night we ended up talking more about infertility then anything else. I got the distinct feeling that everyone else in her life had it easy when it came to having babies and she had no one to really talk to about her struggles that understood. She talked about how she wasn't going to anymore baby showers because it was too painful and about how everywhere she went she saw pregnant women.

As we talked I told her about our struggles, my issues, and my miscarriage. It was the first time I've really sat down with someone I didn't know well and talked about this. Most people whom I have talked with about infertility I knew well... they are people who know my story and my history. But here was someone who I really didn't know all that well. I tried to give her hope... I told her stories of women I knew who had gotten pregnant using various fertility treatments.

I got a message on facebook this morning from her saying to keep in touch. 

I think last night we went from acquantances who knew each other through a mutual friend to actual friends.


 

An Early Christmas Gift...

With one week to go until Christmas and a week and a half until Eirik turns 9 months old it seems my period has returned. Maybe. I think.

Last week I noticed my  milk supply had dipped majorly. Typically I was getting about 16 - 20oz a day out of 2 pumps however last week I was only getting about 12oz a day out of 2 pumps... that's just enough to cover Eirik for the next day and have nothing in the freezer. I freaked. First thought was a parts issue so I purchased new tubing. But then the cramps started. Now I have to add here i've had on and off weird cramps for months and nothing happened. However this time the cramps and the supply drop made me go "hummm".

Then this morning, spotting... and more cramping. We'll see if this turns into a full blown period of if its just spotting.

I did not miss my period. I did not miss insane cramps and ridiculously heavy bleeding. I did not miss needing to take 800mg of ibuprofen every 6 hours for the first 2 days of my period. I did not miss pads and other feminine articles and wearing black clothes just in case of leakage (yes, I am prone to this thanks to the heavy bleeding).

Merry Christmas to me!

Surprise 9 Month Appointment

So today Eirik had a doctors appointment. It was supposed to be a follow up visit from when he was there 2 weeks ago for a sick visit. Well apparently since its so close to 9 months they just decided to go ahead and do all his 9 month appointment stuff while he was there! Now usually I wouldn't mind, but I wasn't there today. My husband took Eirik. In fact I had specifically taken off on the date we scheduled his 9 month appointment for so I could be there!

So, since my husband took him it means I don't have his length but I do have his weight: 21.6lbs! He has really slowed down in growth since he started becoming more mobile. I guess that makes sense, he's burning all those calories moving around EVERYWHERE! He's still in the 75 - 90th%. I'll have to pull out the tape measure and try and see if I can guess how long he is. I think he must be pretty long because a lot of his 12 - 18 month sleepers are starting to fit him perfectly and a few pairs of pants are even too short!

Apparently the little man got 1 shot and a vision test. I had no idea they did a vision test at 9 months! My husband said they attached electrodes to his head and made him watch a monitor with images on. The score is 1 - 5 and he got a 3, which apparently is good.

The doctor of course tried to give my husband advice about sleep... doing the cry it out method to get him to self sooth and moving him to his crib at night. While neither my husband or I are interested in doing cry it out we are going to try leaving him in his room at night. The reason for this is because we THINK its too overstimulating being in our room at night. Eirik has been having this awake period between 1 and 3 am. He'll fall back asleep but the second we put him in our bed he's wide awake again. Last night I played asleep while he had a conversation with the cat. Yes, he sat up, looked at the cat, took out his pacifier, and started talking and laughing to her. Then he decided that mommy and daddy made great climbing obstacles. After spending 2 hours rotating rocking him and me nursing him only to have him fall asleep and wake right back  up again we put him in his own bed... and he slept for 3 hours.

I have to confess here I am not ready for him to be in his own room. I love having him next to me at night. But, it seems that maybe Eirik is in his own way trying to say he is ready. We're going to experiment and see how it goes. I've learned parenthood is a series of experiments... trying things until you find something that works. and sometimes what you want to do and what actually works are 2 different things!

Finally here are a few pictures from the past few days!

Enjoying Pasta! Not sure how much he ate... but he enjoyed himself!



Helping me fold diapers! I thought maybe putting it on his head would distract him... nope! He ignored it!



Standing holding onto my pants!

A Graduate Again!

This post is a step away from mommy stuff for a moment and focus on... me!

In late 2007 I began trying to get pregnant. I was stressed and frazzled and trying to think of something to take my mind off of things... I had been toying around with the idea of going back to school and doing an online program but I hadn't found one that I liked. Then suddenly I came across a program that was perfect for me! It required no GRE's, was online, and would give me a masters degree in Biotechnology. I had an undergrad degree in Biology but quickly realized that to get anywhere I would need a masters degree. I applied for the program and was accepted to begin Fall 2008.

And now, 2 1/2 years later, I am officially done. That's right, tonight I made my last message board posting. I will admit that its been challenging at times. There have been classes I truly enjoyed and other classes that honestly I barely made it through. While i took most of my classes online I did spent my first semester doing a horrible commute (1 hour each way 2 nights a week after work) so that I didn't have to delay starting my classes.

I was concerned for a while about what would happen if I got pregnant while taking these classes and how difficult it would be to complete the courses with an infant. I have to say that these past 2 semesters, balancing new motherhood, work, and classes has been trying and difficult. I have found myself forced to choose between time with Eirik and doing homework or reading. I'm glad that I am done now, when Eirik is 9 months old, as opposed to when he's older. The older he gets and the more he's awake in the day the more difficult the balancing act is.

The funny part is that now I've accomplished this I find myself seriously questing my professional aspirations. almost 3 years ago when I decided I wanted to persue a masters degree I thought I knew what I wanted. Now after having Eirik I'm not so sure. Either way I'm proud to have accomplished this feat of getting my masters degree!

Reverse Cycling

Eirik has reverse cycled... after weeks of trying different tricks to get him to sleep and analyzing his sleeping patterns and responses to comforting this is the conclusion I have come to.

To those who don't know, this basiaclly means that since he's away from me all day he makes up for it at night. I have to admit until a few days ago this thought never occured to me becuase Eirik eats while I am at work! A lot of babies who reverse cycle don't take milk in the day hence hte all night nursing sessions. Eirik however will easily guzzle down 12oz while I am gone for about 9oz! (for a breastfed baby thats a lot). Then this week I started connecting the dots and after a few trial and error things this weekend I realized that yes... it was reverse cycling.

We were getting pretty good wtih sleep... around when I went back to work Eirik had started sleeping the occasional 5 - 6 hour stretch. I honestly thought we were going to be sleeping through the night! Then slowly things started getting worse... and worse... and worse. The epic nighttime battles of trying to get him to sleep and down for naps. Thankfully we seem to have gotten a nap and sleep schedule figured out but the one thing that I haven't been able to stop is constant night waking. Between 6 and 10pm he's up every 30 - 60 minutes and after that its about every 2 - 3 hours. I can almost set my clock by his wakings. Every efw weeks he throws me a bone and has a great night of sleep however these nights are few and far between.

If my husband tries to rock him or put him back to sleep its 30 minutes of all out screaming... then he is given to me and within seconds he's back to sleep or just about there.

My research on google has told me that there is no fix to reverse cycling... It seems this is just one of those things that I'm going to have to learn to live with. The best advice I have found is to make sure to do lots of extra breastfeeding at night before bed to "tank them up" so that is my new plan. Fingers crossed this helps at least a little!

More Food Progress!!

So for a while there I really felt stuck with food... I wasn't sure what to feed Eirik because he hasn't really developed a good pincher grip. I also felt that even though I was offering food he wasn't really eating it most of the time! Being paranoid I started to become worried he wasn't eating enough! The downside to doing the baby led solids approach is you have no measure of how much they are actually consuming! Then I came across information that made me realize I was completely over thinking this whole solids thing.  Hes still getting most of his nutrition from milk so its not a huge deal if some days he hardly touches his food!

Suddenly this week however I've gone all in about feeding him. Almost nothing is off limits!! I've also been really making sure my husband gives him something to eat for lunch. Dinner we always do but lunch has been hit or miss. Last night Eirik had pasta and a little sauce for dinner and he really enjoyed it! I was surprised! I'm not sure he ate much of the pasta but he did suck the sauce off his fingers. Tonight we did potato, brussel sprouts, chicken, and broccoli. He tasted a little of each but honestly didn't think much of any of it. I have to admit its really nice just plonking food that I am eating down in front of him and watching him eat! So far i've been really surprised by what he seems to like. The other night we had spinach and he really seemed to enjoy it!

Eirik is also getting better with actually picking up food and eating it. At first of course he played with it more but now hes realized that when I put food in front of him its for eating. Some foods are easier to pick up then others... but he is doing really well. I've also started to learn what his "i'm done" ques are.

Who knew food could be so much fun??

Do As I Say, Not As I Do!

I've discovered that the older Eirik gets the more it is actually encouraging me to change my lifestyle as well in a positive way!

When I was a kid we ate dinner in the kitchen at the table... no TV. I can only remember about 3 occasions where the TV was on during dinner, and that was when I was a teenager! Of course once college hit I began to eat more and more meals in front of the TV and by the time I had gotten married I was quite used to balancing my plate on my lap while I ate. My husband and I would typically watch something while we ate dinner. Usually a movie or an episode of a TV show. I always knew however that once Eirik was old enough to eat at the table with us my days of eating in the living room would be over. Sure enough once we started Eirik on solids and had him actually eating with us back to the table meals went. Now every night we sit down to dinner at the table!

I've also been a lot more careful about what foods I am buying and preparing. I am by no means only feeding him organic and natural foods... honestly I don't have that kind of money. But since we are doing baby led solids and he eats off our plates I am trying harder to prepare meals with fresh foods and to make sure things are healthy. Of course some nights are better then others... Saturday for example my husband and I had pizza while Eirik had broccoli.

It'll be interesting to see what other changes I make as he gets older!

More Mommy Guilt

Even though at my job the holidays are not specifically a busy time of year it always ends up that something occurs to make the month of December busy. Every year it seems that this time of year requires long hours and late nights and this year is no exception. We are a very small company therefore when something comes up everyone is needed so its hard to pull the baby excuse... especially when I know other people have infants and young children too.

For example, yesterday was our company christmas party as well as company wide update meeting. Typically I leave work at 4pm so I can get home for my husband to teach. This is not normally an issue however yesterday I was needed at work later. As we had no babysitter our solution was that Eirik actually came to work with me for about an hour and a half between the company meeting and the Christmas party so that my husband didn't have to cancel his lesson. While it was great for me to see Eirik for that hour and a half (otherwise I really wouldn't have seen him at all yesterday) it was another reminder of just how stressful being a working mom is.

Next week i will be staying late at work for 3 days... late enough that by the time i get home some of those nights Eirik may already be in bed as we start his bed routine about 6 or 6:30. Its so sad for me when I come home late and find him already asleep. An entire day without giggles and smiles and laughter and playing. It really makes me realize where my priorities in life are and dedicates me to getting myself in a situation where I don't have to sacrifice entire days at work and hardly see my son. While right now I know things can not change my hope is that next year they can.

Because honestly, who wants to be away from this face any more then they have to?

8 Months!

Thats right, somehow Eirik is now 8 months old!

In the past month hes mastered crawling and standing. He now pulls up on EVERYTHING and wants to play with everything he's not supposed to! He's even started to take a few tentative steps while holding on to things. The other big thing I have really noticed is now when I say his name he instantly turns his head! Before it was hit or miss, but now the second I say "Eirik" he turns and looks at me and usually gives me a large grin. I also have obviously been taking too many pictures of him because the second he sees the camera come out and aim at him he gets a huge cheesy smile.

He has 2 teeth now officially. I can't get a good picture of them because the little stinker loves to stick his tongue out at me! Foodwise we are still trying new things and reoffering old ones that he didn't take to at first. He still hasn't quite mastered the pincher grip so our food offerings are still a bit limited to things he can grab. I did buy some of those puffs and while he couldn't pick them up himself he quite enjoyed me feeding them to him!

I have to say here I think we are also doing better with sleep! Some nights are better then others, but we haven't had the night time battles like before in a LONG time. I think it helps that we are more focused on getting his naps in the day. He does still get up about every 2 - 3 hours at night... but honestly it seems like thats sort of normal for a breastfed baby of his age. I'm going to do another formal sleep log in a week or so... it'll be interesting to compare it to the last one! We have tried to attach him to a lovey but he has shown absolutely no interest in that what soever. I'm still trying though!

And just because no day is complete without baby laughter, here is a short video. Why he finds this toy so funny I still don't understand!

Technology Today

Close your eyes, relax, and think back to a time... a time when you yourself were a child. Computers? Few and far between. Cell phones? Who had those?! Cable TV didn't have millions of channels with still nothing on and the closet you could get to reality TV was an episode of Cops! Video games were a new thing and hardly anyone had them. Phone calls weren't cheap and and all correspondence was done by old fashioned mail.

Today I have found myself thinking about just how much has changed since I was a child. In Elementary school I remember how special our school was to have a computer lab! There weren't enough for each of us to use a computer so we had to share. I still remember our teachers telling us over and over "do not stick your finger in the hold of the floppy!" My dad had a laptop computer with a black and white screen because his job had something to do with computers (to this day I still couldn't tell you what he did). I remember watching him one night installing a new version of windows... sticking disk after disk into the computer. There were no cell phones. The internet? Well, I'd heard of it, but we didn't have it. It was expensive to get connected! We had a Nintendo, but not a ton of games for it. I remember talking to my relatives in England only on birthdays or Christmas because it was so expensive to make a call. I remember having a boom box with a cassette player and thinking how cool it was. Sometimes my dad would take me to the record shop with him... yes, the store sold vinyl!

Just how much things have changed!

I realized today Eirik will never know a world where computers are a luxury item. I'm embarrassed to confess here my household currently has 5 computers.. My husband and I each have a desktop and a laptop and my husband has an additional music computer built especially for that purpose. He will never know life without being connected. At the age of 8 months old he already has a pretty impressive digital "footprint". By the time he is a teenager I can't even begin to imagine the sort of technology that will be available to him. In just 10 years look how far cell phones have come! What was once a device used to make calls can now surf the web, post facebook updates, make calls, and even tell you how to get from point A to point B!

When I was a child photographs took a week to develop and were picked up at the grocery store. You could get copies and mail those to your relatives. Now I can instantly take a photograph of Eirik, put it on the computer, and e-mail it to my parents. Video? I still vividly remember the big bulky video camera my friends dad owned. Today my cell phone can record videos and upload them directly to a webpage.

Today however I got to experience one of the best aspects of all of this new technology. This afternoon I sat in my living room and had a video chat with my entire family in England. What was impossible to do when I was a child is now commonplace. I could see the look of happiness and joy on my relatives face as they sat watching Eirik playing with his toys on the floor. No longer do they have to wait to see updated pictures and hear about what he is doing. No, now they can watch. I smiled because even though today he doesn't understand who the people on the screen are, I know as he grows up we can continue to have these video chats. It will give him a relationship with his grandparents and great grandparents that I never had.

I can't begin to imagine what sort of technology will be coming out in 10 years time. Really, its amazing how far we've come.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

So it seems like the theme this Thanksgiving is sickness. I can think of 4 families who are all sick at the moment, and that's just off the top of my head! There is something nasty going around at the moment I guess! I was feeling worse this morning instead of better. Thankfully Eirik decided to sleep in a little so I got some much needed extra sleep. As the day went on however I slowly began to feel better. It gives me hope that maybe by Saturday i'll be good as new!

Eirik enjoyed his first Thanksgiving!



He even ate some thanksgiving food!



Despite the look on his face he did really enjoy the turkey! The carrots not so much and I don't think he even touched the brussel sprouts. Unfortunately he woke up early from his second nap which meant by the time we all sat down to eat dinner he was starting to get a little tired and fussy. I've noticed the more tired he is the less interested he is in eating.

He even did okay with my father in law! For some reason Eirik always cries when my father in law comes over. We have no clue as to why... it must just be one of those weird baby quirks. It started when he was about 3 months old and has only gotten worse instead of better. Of course as soon as my father in law came over he started to get upset and unsure, but by the end of the evening he had crawled over to him and sat on his lap!

So I hope everyone else had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Now I am off to get some much needed sleep!

Lots of Sickness

My appologies for my lack of updates recently but it seems everyone in the house has been or is sick! First my husband got sick last weekend and then last Sunday night Eirik woke up at 2am with a fever. Thankfully he doesn't seem too worse for the wear now.. but sunday night and monday were rough and then, go figure, I got the cold so now I am sick! I can't win! I really miss my awesome immune system. Before having Eirik I hardly ever had a major cold yet in the past 4 months I think I have had 3! Its going to be a long winter if this keeps up!

Here are a few photos to tide you over. Between being sick and preping for Thanksgiving tomorrow I'm beat!

I'm one of those women...

I wanted to post this last weekend but one thing led to another and an entire week has gone by.

Last weekend I became one of those women. Those women who you hear about on the news who breastfeed anywhere. Thankfully unlike the people on the news no one said anything to me. I find this funny in a way because I am a very modest person and a very non confrontational person. I tend to go with the flow, keep the peace, and not do anything extra to draw attention to myself. Before having Eirik my friend and I had an in depth conversation about breastfeeding in public and I always said "oh, i'd probably find somewhere quiet to go".

I know I posted about the first time I nursed in public. A terrifying experience! But with my parents visiting and us being on the go so much I quickly got used to it. However even so I still always tried to find a quiet area to feed him. If there was a nursing room I would use it or sometimes I would simply wait until I got to the car. Eirik has never been one for the covers and honestly neither have I. I have one sitting on a shelf that has never been used... not once.

Then last weekend I was in Barns and Noble with my husband. I was walking around with Eirik and he was fussing... I knew he was hungry but honestly there is no where in Barns and Nobel thats out of the way. They used to have big chairs in quiet places but since people used the bookstore as a library they centralized all the chairs... right next to a window and the checkout area.

I thought about it for about 5 minutes. Do I go back to the car or do I simply sit down and feed him in the big comfy chairs? I went back and forth in my head before finally realizing I was being stupid and sat down and fed him. And nothing happened. No one flinched. I don't think most people even realized what I was doing in all honesty. They probably thought I was just cuddling with my child.

I am always paranoid when I feed Eirik in public that people can see what I am doing and I'm flashing people left and right. But as this picture shows thats not the case.



And to think, all this time i've been nervous and paranoid for nothing!

The Payoff

I am frequently asked when I go out with Eirik if he's my first. My response is yes which is quickly followed by some sort of comment about "is it harder then you imagined?" People are always shocked when I respond No. I had no grand illusions of parenthood being easy. I never dreamed that it would be a walk in the park. I anticipated sleepless nights, uncontrollable crying, and moments of sheer frustration. When I decided I wanted to have a baby I knew all of these things would occur. They happen to every parent no matter how wonderful their child is. You can have the baby that sleeps through the night from day one and is an "easy baby" and still have days where you want to pull your hair out. I never had any sort of romanticized visions about having a baby.

But while there are moments of sheer frustration they are followed by moments that make it all worth while. Nothing can compare with the first real smile... when they look at you and give you a huge grin with those wide innocent eyes. When you hold them as they sleep and they nuzzle their head in closer to you. Their tiny hands gripping yours so tightly. The uncontrollable laughter as you blow raspberries on their stomach. These are the moments that make you forget all the frustrations of the day.

Tonight I had one of those moments. I came home from work and walked in the door to find Eirik sitting on the floor. As soon as I came in, as usual, he got a huge grin on his face. Today however he crawled as fast as he could over towards me, grabbed my pants, and pulled himself up to a standing position waiting for me to pick him up.

That is the payoff that makes it all worth while.

Food Updates!

So we're still sticking with the baby led solids and I have to say I am sort of getting in a rut! I've been scouring other baby led solid websites for ideas on new foods to give Eirik. He still doesn't have the pincher grasp and gets easily frustrated when he can't get his food! It doesn't help we do dinner when he's already a little grumpy. Starting tomorrow we are going to start giving him lunch and dinner!

In new food adventures we've tried cauliflower, tofu, and chicken. The tofu he ate a bit of both times, but quickly decided against it. Not that I can blame him too much... i'm not a huge fan of tofu either! The cauliflower fell apart in his hands and he got frustrated with it... so we'll have to try that one again. Chicken was a hit, but i didn't cook it soft enough so he sucked on it more then he actually ate it! Oh, he also tried some butternut squash mash! That he enjoyed. He even fed himself using a spoon! Well ... mostly. He did get excited and started to wave his spoon around and globs of squash went flying around as well. The dangers of baby led solids!!

From 0 to 60!

Holy crap babies master this crawling thing quick! Just days ago I could put Eirik down and he would stay there... now the second he hits the floor he's all over the place! Needless to say this weekend has been spent rushing around moving objects out of his way and doing a serious round of baby proofing. Things I didn't think he could reach I suddenly found myself pushing out of his grasp! Its not just the crawling, its the standing too! He wants to pull up and stand on EVERYTHING. Of course this standing means he can reach things that I assumed he couldn't!

For example... he can now play the piano!



Other then that we've actually had a very busy weekend! Yesterday we went to Ikea where I saw tons of items I wanted to purchase but didn't need. I often forget how much I love Ikea until I go there! Sometimes I wish I could get my house remade into an Ikea house... organization and all! The models are so amazingly organized... i want my house like that! Today Eirik and I went shopping. I had lots of coupons and we have an outlet mall near us so off we went. Of course silly me didn't check the opening time and I showed up almost an hour early! Eirik and I power walked around the mall twice (its a mile around) and then got some starbucks while waiting for the stores to open. I got some much needed winter clothing (none of my pre pregnancy shirts fit still thanks to my larger chest size) and Eirik got an adorable hat.




I've rambled on enough for today. Tomorrow I have a food update! But i'll leave you with an amusing story, pictures included. This afternoon I was playing with Eirik and brushing his hair. He decided he wanted to hold the brush AKA eat it:



When he realized it wasn't tasty he decided to try adn play with it. The face he made whenever he touched the bristles was hysterical!



I was laughing so hard at him he ended up laughing too.

Not me singing...

but a video none the less! Enjoy! =)

No video yet...

But here are some cute photos! Due to some technical issues... aka, i can't get the video to shink to a decent size and keep the sound intact, the much requested video of me singing twinkle twinkle little star will be delayed. So, until then, enjoy these cute photos!

First up, Eirik and Daddy



Next we have him generally being cute



and lastly I was trying to get a nicer posed picture for a christmas card so i dressed him up in a nice sweater and put him on the couch against a black backdrop only to realize that now it looked like he had no legs! We'll have to have a redo session...



I promise the video of me singing will appear!

My Favorite Things at 7 months!

So I haven't done one of these in a few months now... and while Eirik still loves some of the same things there are some new additions!

1. Fisher Price Bat and Wobble Penguin - this is STILL a favorite! He LOVES it. In fact he loves it so much sometimes I get the annoying little musical ditty stuck in my head. Now hes big enough that he tries to body slam it to the floor... its quite amusing to watch!

2. Fisher Price Baby's First Blocks - I picked these up at Target about a month ago because they were on sale and Eirik didn't have many older toys. They were an INSANT hit! At first all he did was take the lid off and play with it... then he started to dump the blocks, and now he enjoys taking each block out one by one! They mostly get gnawed on at this point, but it keeps him entertained for a LONG time!

3. The cats. He LOVES the cats. Thankfully they seem to like him too!

4. Goodnight Moon and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. These two books are his favorite!!

5. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star - whenever i sing it he gets the biggest grin. If you're lucky maybe i'll post the video of me singing to him later. =)

6. Drinking from my water glass. We're still working on sippy's and straw cups but he still absolutely LOVES drinking water from a glass.

7. Broccoli. This is a hands down favorite food. He also at the moment enjoys banana, baby mum mum, toast with hummus, and squash.

I think my child is a borg...

Okay, I am aware that the title to this post is odd and many of you may not even get the reference. To start with I am a sci fi/fantasy geek and when I was younger I watched a LOT of star trek. I wouldn't say I was a Trekkie by any means, but I know more then the average person. Anyway... there are a species called the borg and what makes them hard to defeat is that they can adapt so that they are immune to your weapons. How does this relate to Eirik? He can adapt to whatever sleep technique and then ignore it!

So I have to say we haven't been too great about the whole sleeping schedule simply because hes had a cold and its hard to start something like that when he's sick. But whenever we find some trick that seems to help him get to sleep for naps and night time it seems that the method works for 2, maybe 3 days before it doesn't work anymore. Its as if Eirik knows we're trying to put him to sleep and goes "AH HA! NO!".

First rocking him worked. I would hold him on my chest upright and pat his back and rock him. Then that stopped working so I would hold him in the cradle hold and rock him. Then THAT stopped working so we're now bouncing and swaying while I stand. This is only in the past two weeks... the list of other things that used to help him fall asleep but don't is long... for a while I could lay down with him and he'd fall asleep. That didn't last long... then we went back to swaddling. That worked the longest out of them all but before too long that as well stopped working. I tried just sitting still and patting his back and doing rhythmic sushing... yea.... that doesn't work either anymore. I've tried the whole "put them in the crib drowsy" thing and that has NEVER worked. Even when he was 2 months old the second I put him down he would be wide eyed and trying to play.

I told him I was going to trade him in for one of those babies that sleeps. He smiled at me. He's lucky he's so darn cute sometimes...

Crawling and Pulling Up!

As I said in my 7 month post, Eirik was on the verge of crawling and pulling up. Well, he has now accomplished both!

For so long now hes been doing this sit scott crawl... and while it was mobility it wasn't really what I would call crawling. Well, this evening he actually crawled... arms and legs were moving! He still sits a lot but I have to admit he is fully mobile now. let the babyproofing begin!

He also finally figured out how to pull up on the furniture! Not only that he took a tentative step which means cruising is going to be starting soon!!

I'm not ready for him to grow up!!

Another Favorite Food!

So we have discovered a new favorite food... Hummus!! I was inspired by other baby led solid blogs and thought "hummus on toast, why not?". I have to add here I LOVE hummus. I could eat it with a spoon! My husband however HATES hummus with a passion. After I eat it he always makes a comment of some sort! While I know hummus is easy to make I typically buy mine because I don't have a good food processor to make it with. The hummus in the house at the moment is trader joes. I actually looked through all their various flavors (they have a LOT of hummus!) to find the one with the least extra stuff in it. Well, it was a hit!



We've done it twice more... and now he just licks the hummus off the toast as opposed to eating the toast! Its really amusing to watch. My husband of course just rolled his eyes when I said I was giving him hummus. The fact he enjoys hummus has also motivated me to make foods with seasoning and give it to him!

In other food news I think we have hit sort of a wall with solids. he likes food, but dinner is rough because he's tired and grumpy and gets frustrated with his food. I think I am going to start having my husband offer him food for lunch as well. I know he doesn't need the food right now for nutrition (I actually saw a chart somewhere on how much nutrition babies need from solids before 1 year... its not a lot!) but I want him to get more used to eating food. So, next week we're going to do lunch and dinner every day! Right now he only gets lunch and dinner on the weekends.

Eirik and the cats

About half way through my pregnancy I started to freak out about having cats. I LOVE my cats... they are more then just pets to me. My husband always makes comments about how Caligula is my baby (he was my first cat!) and how I spoil the cats.

Freakout number one was sleeping arrangements. I've always had the cats in my room and yet here I was reading about how cats and babies shouldn't sleep in the same room together. How was this going to work? I ordered a tent to go over the cosleeper... but that didn't last because I kept freaking out it was going to collapse (can we say new mommy nerves??) so instead the cats were kicked out of the bedroom. I spent 2 nights listening to them paw at the door before one night my husband put them in the basement. I cried and told him to let them out and we'd just see what happened. (new mommy hormones + no sleep caused this reaction!). Imagine my delight to find the cats... ignored Eirik! They didn't go anywhere near the cosleeper. No, they were quite content to sleep at the foot of the bed. They did however think the cosleeper was their new bed when Eirik wasn't in it. I got in the habbit of tossing a pillow in to prevent cats from sleeping there. In fact his sheets got changed more because of cat fluff then because he made them dirty.

In fact at first the cats stayed as far away from Eirik as possible. Slowly most of them came around (Sebastian is still not sure of him) and while they didn't want to be with him they simply watched him from afar and ignored him. This worked great at first but now Eirik has reached the more mobile stage... bring on fear number two. Claws.

Yes, all my cats have their claws. I have by no means encouraged biting or scratching but... they're cats! If they get wound up or upset then they are going to react. I've always been super careful about Eirik's interaction with the cats.. making sure that he doesn't tug on their fur or pull their tails. However I have to say I am very surprised about how gentle my cats are with him! Even on the few occasions where Eirik has gotten a fistful of fur they haven't scratched or bitten. In fact my one cat loves to come and rub up against Eirik while I nurse him at night.

I have to say I am very releaved that so far the cats have been accepting of him. My one cat Caligula has actually mellowed out a LOT since Eirik was born. He is no where near as nippy as he used to be and is much more cuddly and wanting to be held and hugged.

Cats and babies can get along!





Note: No cats or babies were harmed in the taking of the photos. One cat did end up with drool on it and Eirik ingested some cat fluff.

Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween!!

First we have Eirik in his "its halloween" outfit.



And here he is dressed up in his costume!





The costume part only stayed on for about 5 minutes. He is having a rough day thanks to his cold/teething combo!

A Change Of Plans...

I had a fun filled fall weekend planed for today and tomorrow! Today my husband and I were going to get up early so we could go pick apples and get a pumpkin then today I was also going to carve said pumpkin. Tomorrow I was planning on taking Eirik to a trick or treating at a church with my friend. I was so excited for Eirik to have his first halloween! Sure, he isn't really going to apprechiate the pumpkin or the trick or treating this year... but still!

Then yesterday Eirik woke up with a runny nose which by bedtime had progressed to full out snuffles and a baby who couldn't breath... which meant last night the only place he would sleep was on me. And guess who woke up congested and stuffy this morning? If you guessed me you'd be right! Needless to say all plans have been canceled and instead I am trying my best to stay hydrated and keep this cold on the mild side... if you remember I had the cold from hell about a month and a half ago which TOTALLY knocked me out.

So tomorrow will be a low key first halloween for Eirik. I am going to get a pumpkin from a stand down the road and carve it... and then we'll take pictures of Eirik with said pumpkin... and if I am feeling up for it we'll possibly head to the mall... but in all likelyhood i'll be going to bed early instead!

But, as promised, a few recent pictures of the little man!



I'm cute and I know it!



Acorn Squash is YUMMY!



I'm not too sure about toast however...

7 Months!!

Holy Cow... 7 months?! I blinked and the past month went by! Honestly it seems like just yesterday I was saying how he was 6 months old. That first birthday is just getting sooner and sooner! But, i'm not going to think about that!

It seems like right now we are on the cusp of a bunch of new skills... he's just not quite there yet. Hes mastered sitting up from his stomach and currently that's his preferred method of moving around the floor. However I think we are VERY close to crawling and pulling up and cruising! He LOVES to stand and hold on to things and is trying to cruise when he does... but he's just not quite there yet. I am thankful for this however because it means I can still put him down on the floor and know he's not going to move! This phase is sadly almost over however... my future holds babygates and door locks!

The older he gets the more his little personality comes through. Its just so interesting to watch him grow in this aspect! He really is a happy little guy... he smiles and laughs and honestly is not that fussy! He goes with the flow most of the time. He's VERY inquisitive... if he hears a noise or sees something he has to find out what it is. He is also really eager to do things and gets frustrated when he wants to do something but can't yet (IE stand!). While he's a happy baby he's not super friendly at first... he's very leery of new people, especially men. There are of course exceptions to this rule... he absolutely loves my friends cousin!

As I said in an earlier post we officially have tooth number one and I think tooth number two isn't far behind. We've had major drooling going on again and I can feel it RIGHT there!

Food is going okay... its very hit or miss. He'll taste things but if its too difficult to get to his mouth he just gives up on it. I try and offer him solids at least once a day and on the weekend I usually offer it 3 times. Currently broccoli is his all time favorite food... tonight he devoured 2 large pieces! We are also making progress with sippy cups and straw cups. He does better with the straw cup but hes starting to get the idea  behind the sippy. He still loves my glass though!

Sadly this post will not contain new pictures because my husband borrowed my camera tonight ... however I promise tomorrow new pictures will come! And then Sunday we will debut his new halloween costume! I know you're all dying to see that. =)

Operation Get More Sleep!!

This week begins operation get more sleep! As I mentioned before we are going to try the no cry sleep solution. I know a lot of people are big fans of the cry it out methods (or variations of it) but it is something that I just can't do. So after reading the book and logging Eirik's sleep i've determined a few things that are going to change.

1. Consistent routine naps. He needs 3 naps a day. He actually has fallen into a routine... a 9am, a 12pm, and a 3:30pm. Of course all these times are +/- about 30 minutes. So, the plan is that we're going to make sure he goes down for naps at these times every day ... when possible.

2. Create a more calming bedtime routine. I have started to incorporate reading one book to him at night... I think i may up that to maybe 2 or 3 just to give him some "quite" time between bath and nursing.

3. Do something to separate nights from naps. My idea here is to play soothing music at night for him. We have a baby sleep cd which is on my Ipod so I'm going to start playing that softly on a loop at night... he will hopefully associate the music with night and sleep. Thats the plan......

4. Get him a lovey. I tried this already a bit with his favorite dog blanket but unfortunately it rattles and that just wakes him up makes him want to play. So I have ordered 2 identical lovey blankets for him (best advice given to me was to get two and rotate them so if one gets lost you have a backup!). Fingers crossed he takes to the blanket!

5. Work on getting him to not associate nursing with sleep. This is hard... I've noticed that a lot of times when he wakes up the only thing that will get him back to sleep is me... and it really only takes a second. I can pop him on and within a minute hes out again. The book goes into detail about how to do this but the general concept is to remove him before he's fully asleep and then put him back on when he starts to wake up too much and ultimately he'll learn to fall asleep without it.

6. Get a better sleeping arrangement. Still no clue on what we're doing with that... I'm really starting to lean towards moving his crib into our room... but every time i say thats what i'm going to do I change my mind!

So this is our initial plan of attack! Will it help at all? well, in 3 weeks or so we'll log his sleep again and see if something has changed!

We Have A Tooth!

FINALLY! That's all I can say. I knew they were close... I could feel them right along his gums and I have just been waiting and waiting for one of them to pop through! I have to admit here however I have no idea which tooth it is! Why? He REFUSES to let me in his mouth! How do I know there is a tooth you ask? Well, tonight when I was letting him drink out of my water glass I heard that noise that only a tooth on glass makes... that tap tap tap! He let me in his mouth briefly and i'm 99% sure its a bottom one... I guess when it becomes more visible i'll know for sure which tooth it is!

More Fun With Food... and other random updates!

So I have a confession to make here... while I was posting about how awesome baby led solids were I was mentally freaking out. Eirik wasn't really showing ANY interest in eating! I would put food on his plate and he'd pick it up and put it in his mouth a bit, but generally he just gave me a look like "you want me to do what?". I had read however that this was perfectly normal to start with and that it may take time for your child to start eating. It seemed like day after day I would offer him food and he'd just simply show NO interest in picking it up and trying it. That is until about 2 days ago. Yes, I put the food down on his tray and instantly he went for it and shoved it in his mouth. It was a pear... and he actually ATE some! I saw food being chewed! last night we had an amazing repeat with the broccoli. He LOVED it. He was sucking and gnawing on that piece for about 5 minutes! And tonight we did banana. First I tried cutting the banana in halves and giving it to him that way but it was just too slippery for him to hold so then i just used the peel of the banana and let him gnaw on the top... and we had more actual eating occur!! He wasn't OVERLY thrilled with banana so I gave him a piece of my broccoli which again was devoured. I think we officially have a favorite food... broccoli!



A picture of him eating his banana... note you can actually see food in his mouth!!

In other news we are going to have to lower Eirik's crib mattress this weekend because his new favorite thing to do is this...



Yes now the second I put him in his crib awake thats what he does. This afternoon I tried to put him down for a nap and I left him in his crib awake. Well, it was really quiet so I thought he had gone to sleep. No, he was standing!

So that is whats going on with my little man! Oh they grow up so quickly...

Tomorrow I am going to make my sleep plan for the next 3 weeks so i'll update on that tomorrow!

Sleep Log Night 3

Last night was a really good night of sleep for us! His day naps were a bit screwy as my husband had to take him an hour away to visit his dad so he really only got short catnaps in the car. He did get an awesome 2 hour nap yesterday afternoon however!

6:30 - bath
6:45 - 7:30, read, nursed, rocked, patted back, fell asleep
8 - 8:05 - woke up, rocked back to sleep
11:25 - 11:30 - woke, nursed back to sleep
2 - 2:05 - woke, nursed back to sleep
3:35 - 3:40 - woke, nursed back to sleep
5:45 - 6:00 -  nursed
Not sure quite when he went back to sleep as I got up and gave him to my husband... probably about 6:15.

So that means lat night was only 5 wake ups with his longest stretch being 3 1/2 hours! =) Yes, thats a GREAT night for us.

Now we get to the fun part of trying to change things to help him sleep better... Fingers crossed we find something that works fairly quickly!

A relaxing afternoon

Today I got to spend the afternoon with my little man. This morning my friend who babysits Eirik in the afternoon told me her son was sick with a fever. As we really had no one else to watch him I decided that instead of having my husband cancel his lessons I would just leave work a little early to get home. It was a lighter day for me today thankfully. So instead of having to make a long trek to pick up my exhausted baby the plan was to spend the afternoon playing with him! Well, instead he took a 2 hour nap! He definitely needed the nap and I got some much needed down time as well. He woke up refreshed and happy just in time for some dinner. Even bedtime tonight didn't seem quite as bad. Sure it still took about 45 minutes but compared to the 2 hour marathon we've had some nights it wasn't so bad.

And now a few random pictures. Here is he standing holding on to the coffee table. He can't pull himself up yet but he wants to stand so badly. He LOVES to stand and hold on to things. Note my feet in the picture as I am sitting right behind him. While he loves standing he hasn't quite figured out that when he lets go he falls!



He also had a ton of fun playing with blocks! He is more interested in the container then the blocks most of the time though.



Of course my cat thinks its a great new toy for him!



Guess they'll have to learn how to share!

Sleep Log Night 2

Just to show you guys sometimes I DO get some sleep here is last nights sleep log!

6:30 - bath
6:45 - nurse
7:00 - sleep
7:30 - 7:35 - woke up, husband rocked him back to sleeo
8:25 - 8:30 - woke up, husband rocked hm back to sleep
9:40 - 9:45 - woke up, husband rocked hm back to sleep
10:40 - 10:45 - woke up, nursed
12:20 - 12:30 - woke up, nursed
3:30 - 3:50 - WIDE awake, long nursing sesson
6:50 - I can hear him awake... I THINK hes been awake for about 10 m inutes... so we'll say up for the day about 6:45.

Now I am 99% sure there was a wake up between 12:30 and 3:30... i just forgot to write it down... but I think it was somewhere around 2 he woke up. I THINK. So it was either 6 or 7 wake ups, most of which ocured in the first chunk of sleep.

I was off baby duty last night... i crawled into bed early and was passed out at 9. Of course when he cried I woke up, but since my husband put him back to sleep all I had to do was roll over. Still tired today, but MUCH more refreshed!

Sleep Log... Night 1...

So in preparation to make some gentle sleep changes (as the book says) we are supposed to log Eirik's sleep for 3 nights. This is so we get an idea of where we are now and so after trying some different methods to get him to sleep better we can evaluate where we are in about 2 weeks. So here ladies and gentleman is a typical day and night in our house...

6am - wake up
9:15 - 9:40 morning nap
12:15 - 2:20 - afternoon nap
5:10 - 5:40 - evening nap
6:20 - bath time
6:40 - 8:15 - Nurse, rock, cuddle, pat back, place in crib awake, wait 5 minutes till he starts fussing, go in, pat back, rock, gentle shushing, put in crib awake... repeat until he falls asleep.
9:50 - 10 - first wake up. nursed back to sleep
12:05 - 12:10 - second wake up, nursed back to sleep
1:05 - 1:10 - third wake up, nursed back to sleep
2:00 - 2:05 - fourth wake up, nursed back to sleep
2:45 - 2:50 - fifth wake up, nursed back to sleep
3:15 - 3:20 - sixth wake up, nursed back to sleep
4:20 - 4:30 - seventh wake up. nursed back to sleep
5:50 - 5:55 - eighth wake up, nursed back to sleep

he has possibly been awake since about 6:15 unless my husband got him back to sleep... not sure yet...

So, in other words, he is waking up 8 times a night and the longest stretch of sleep was 2 hours. I have to add here I went to bed after the 9:50 feeding.

So, there you have it! That's actually pretty typical... sometimes we probably do a few less... but i'd say that this has been his pattern for quite a while now. I have been trying other methods to get him back to sleep but nothing works... he gets absolutely hysterical if i don't nurse him. And I don't grab him the second he makes a noise... no, i give him a few moments to fall back asleep because sometimes I know he's just getting comfortable. No, these wake ups are actual "I'm really awake" wake ups. Two more days of logging sleep and then we make some changes. I'm really hoping something works soon because this sleep deprivation is really starting to wear on me!

Why I Chose Baby Led Solids!

So Lara asked an excellent question yesterday... why the heck am I doing baby led solids! While I talked about how cool it was I never talked about why I decided to do it!

Let me rewind a bit. As long as I have known I wanted to have kids I knew I would make babyfood. While I don't remember my mom making my baby food I do remember her making my brothers. I specifically remember I would love helping her feed him simply because he was such a picky eater I ended up getting most of his food! As a teenager I actually tried babyfood a few times and thought it tasted well... disgusting. I remember playing this game "guess the babyfood". Its kind of sad when you can't figure out what the food is!

Fast forward to a few months ago. I started to hear people talk about "baby led solids" or "baby led weaning" or something saying they were "just doing table food". I thought they were INSANE. I mean, giving your 6 month old a whole chunk of avocado?? Wouldn't they choke? How could they eat that without teeth?!

And then I consulted google. Ahh google... as a side tangent here did you notice how over time browsing the web has become simply to google? So many times i'll say to someone "oh, i'll google it". Anyway...  back on track here. First thing I discovered was baby led solids was not easy to track down... I had a hard time finding websites that were dedicated to it! But finally I did come across quite a few blogs people had done showing their kids eating food! I found these to be more informative then the websites that just contained basic information and Dos and Don'ts. I could actually see pictures and videos of these infants eating REAL table food!

The more I thought about it and the more I looked the more I realized "I want to try this!" It made sense to me. No special preparation of the food for starters... no boiling and steaming and mushing and purees. No special dinners for the baby. No, he would eat what we ate... or at least something from our plates. It also made sense to me that this way a baby self feeds and learns how to regulate how much they eat. When you have a puree and spoon feed your baby you are controlling how much they eat and what the eat. With this method the baby controls what they eat. The last thing that totally made sense was texture... most "first" foods are such a thin watery consistency which is NOTHING like real food. This gets babies used to eating real food... with texture!

I was sold! I have to say it is a little nerve wrecking to watch your infant shove an entire hunk of avocado in their mouth and then start gagging as a chunk goes a bit to far backwards. But this is NORMAL. Gagging is good and just means that their reflexes are working correctly. But at the same times its such a delight to see Eirik shove something in his mouth and go "this has a taste!" and then shove it back in again. It also makes dinners more interactive and fun. Instead of us trying to spoon feed him we are eating ourselves and watching him eat... or attempt to!

Just be prepared for a mess!

More Food Fun!

So, as promised, another food fun picture!



Sadly the photo with avocado all over his face didn't turn out! boo!! =( I'm sure i'll have tons of messy face photos before too long!

Today Eirik enjoyed oatmeal! I made myself a bowl and he insisted on having some too. He kept opening his mouth for me to put more in! My husband was laughing at us. This evening I made sweet potato fries and gave him a few. I think he enjoyed them! Of course he kept eying up my plate and wanting what I was eating... even though it was the exact same thing he had!

I also am trying to get him to use a straw cup instead of a sippy cup. He really doesn't seem at all interested in a sippy cup. To say it was a huge success would be an overstatement... but he did however drink a little water! I know because he made a face afterward as if to say "whats this!?"



My little man is growing up way too quickly!

A Day To Remember...

Today, October 15th, is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Rememberance Day.

It is estimated that 15 - 20% of all pregnancies will end in a loss. This means that we all know someone who has been affected by this... even if we ourselves are not aware of it because that person may be suffering in silence.

Miscariage, stillbirth, and infant death are a very taboo topic today in society. It isn't usually until after one experiences one of these first hand that they hear others with a similar story. Every women has her own reason for not sharing her experiences... some find it to difficult to explain, some find themselves to grief stricken, and others may find that they are embarrassed... some probably don't talk about it because of the reactions and responses they receive.

Today I still grieve for the loss I suffered on March 18th, 2009. Today I will look at the photograph of that positive pregnancy test that still lingers on my hard drive and wonder just what that baby would have looked like. Would it have been a girl? Would she have blue eyes like me? Today I am hugging Eirik just a little tighter knowing what a miracle he truly is. Today I am reminded just how delicate and fragile life is.

Kitty!

Or something that sounds a lot like it. Yes, if I didn't know better I would SWEAR thats what Eirik says when he sees a cat. I know, hes to young to know what he's saying and understand... he says dadadadada all the time! But this one, kitty, is one he ONLY makes at the cats. I keep trying to reinforce things by saying "yes, thats the kitty cat" to him. It'll be interesting to see if his first real word is kitty or dada. My first word was meow so maybe it runs in the family!

In other Eirik news solids are going okay. We tried avacado. the first night he had no interest in it but he also had issues grasping it. The second night I left the skin on and he gnawed some avacado off the skin... last night was a similar event. The big issue however is we don't have a high chair so I am feeding him in his bumbo... and he HATES being in the bumbo with the tray attached. We are getting a high chair this weekend so I have a feeling solids will start going more smoothly then. I have great pictures of him with avacado over his face that need to be uploaded from the camera.

We're also working on a sippy cup. He still just wants to gnaw at the top part. What he does however LOVE is drinking from my glass! I'll hold it for him and let him lap at the water a bit. He does it and gets a HUGE grin on his face. Maybe we'll just skip the whole sippy cup thing and go straight to a straw and a regular cup!

I need a caffeine IV STAT!

Coffee... when I was younger I hated the taste of it... in college and my early 20s I only drank things like mochas where the flavoring added to the coffee made it so you could hardly taste the coffee at all! Slowly I began to drink plain old coffee but it was sporadic. Now? I get in to work and head to the lunch room to get myself a nice large mug of coffee... extra caffeine please!

Daytimes with Eirik are wonderful! Hes happy and so much fun! He has such a mellow go with the flow temperament... he's quite happy to just play with his feet! Even naps are pretty good now! Sometimes he'll fight them a bit but typically he goes down and stays down for about 1 - 2 hours. Nights however are a nightmare!

I stupidly and naively thought a few months ago I would be posting about how Eirik was sleeping through the night. He had started to do long stretches of 6 hours of sleep! PROGRESS! I saw myself sleeping again. Oh how the joke was on me. The hour long nighttime battles to get him to sleep followed by waking up every 2 hours or so... different strategies have been tried and none have worked. I have come to realize I am a human pacifier.

Yes, even though he has a pacifier at night nothing but me will do. I've relented and accepted that the best way to get him to fall asleep is for me to nurse him... even if this takes 30 minutes of me sitting switching from side to side. When he wakes at night I will try and give him the pacifier but no... he wants me.

I broke down this morning and purchased a copy of the no cry sleep solution... I just can't do cry it out. I know, some people swear by this method, but its to heartbreaking for me and I just can't let him cry like that.  I'll let you guys know how it works...

So until we figure out this sleeping thing keep the coffee coming!!!

International Babywearing Week!

I meant to post this earlier last week but... well... one thing after another happened and before I realized it the week was over! October 6th - 12th is International Babywearing Week! I personally think babywearing is AWESOME! Eirik loves it, and so do I! When Eirik was smaller I carried him around in a Mei Tai styled carrier and now hes bigger (and heavier!) I have been using my Ergo. They are both so compact and I can put them on just as quickly as one can put together a stroller! I find it a lot easier to wear him when I am out because I can move through isles and stores where sometimes a big stroller would get stuck! I also use it around the house if I need to do something and Eirik wants me to hold him. Its come in very useful at night when I have a grumpy and overtired baby!

Some Benefits Of Babywearing!

A lot of people were turned off on babywearing earlier this year due to the massive recall of bag slings. Like any other baby item, if not done correctly and safely could be dangerous! There are however MANY wonderful resources online! Babywearing International is a great resource! Here is a link to their safety page!

babywearing safety!

Interested in babywearing but not sure what you like or where to begin? Look online for a babywearing group! There are lots of meet up type groups that may even let you borrow carriers for short periods of time, just like a library! Also look for small businesses in the area that offer classes on babywearing. There is a woman locally to me in Baltimore who offers babywearing classes!

Not all babies like all types of carriers. Personally Eirik is very fond of upright and soft structured carriers like a mei tai and an ergo. I put him in a moby wrap a few times as an infant and he was not really happy. I also have a regular sling which I have used and again, not really happy. Thats why going out with your baby and trying different slings and carriers is such an awesome thing to do! So many people give up on wearing their baby because the baby hates the first type of carrier they try.

So, that is my little speech on babywearing. =) I LOVE it and so does my baby!

A Weekend of Firsts!

They say babies have weeks where all of a sudden things connect and they do EVERYTHING at once. This so far seems to have been one of those weeks!

I said Eirik had started going from sitting to stomach... well, now he does it all the time... and he goes back from stomach to sitting!! Its his version of crawling... he goes to his stomach, moves around, sits back up... repeat. I have a video clip of him doing it I have to upload. Then this evening when I put him in his crib while I got the bath stuff ready. I came back in to find him standing! Yes, he pulled himself up from sitting to standing! Yipes!! Time to lower the crib mattress!

We also started solids this weekend! We are doing baby led solids instead of the traditional path of puree. The big difference is you give them real table food right away instead of mushing everything up and spoon feeding them. If you want to find out more about baby led solids here are a few great websites and blogs!:

http://www.tribalbaby.org/babyLedEating.html
http://babyledweaning.blogware.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzzPTRUWMHI

Anywhoo... so yesterday I was eating oatmeal and Eirik was just eying it up. I shrugged and figured "What the heck, its just oatmeal!" so I put a little on my spoon and offered it to him. Wouldn't you know he opened his mouth wide and tried to get the spoon into his mouth! He gave me a look afterwards as if to say "this is what you people eat?!" but he still took a few more little tastes. Tonight however I gave him some brocoolli. Needless to say I think he got more on the table then in his mouth... but he was amused none the less. I don't think he actually ate much, but I know some got in there because he would make faces. Not a "eeww" face exactly more of a "this is new" face.



We also went and got some 6 month professional photos done today... but thats a long story so i'll save that update for tomorrow!

Baby Vs Cat... round 1!

Today we officially had round 1 of "baby vs cat". I think it was a draw. ;)



Caligula was begging for attention so he plonked himself down right in front of me... thus also putting him right in front of Eirik. Eirik wasted NO time in reaching forward and grabbing two large fistfuls of fur while I of course grabbed a photograph. I did however quickly remove Eirik's hands from the cat before he tugged too hard this causing said cat to get more feisty. He's pretty good about not using his claws or biting but he doesn't understand that Eirik doesn't understand no tugging on the fur... sooo..... yea. We are going to have to work on getting Eirik to understand gentle with the cats. Caligula almost got his tail chewed on as well, but I didn't have my camera ready for that moment. Eirik grabbed it and was trying to get it into his mouth. I of course was laughing at this... I don't think the cat found it very funny!