closing the door on 2008

This is one of Elias's favorite activities lately, usually while I'm getting ready in the bathroom (which is adjacent to the kitchen of our apartment, which used to be the first floor of a very large, single-family house, hence the odd layout):



Yep, that was about as exciting as it got around here, this New Year's Eve. We were supposed to head to my brother and his family's place to ring in 2009 together but decided to stay put and watch the half a dozen or so inches of snow fall throughout the day instead.

So what are our New Year's resolutions? I recently heard someone on NPR talking about how, realistically speaking, you should only have one resolution. That's one approach. Or, you can have several and odds are you'll be successful in at least one area by the end of the year. I usually have a whole list of things I'd like to work on. I'm not sure what Elias wants from the next twelve months, but I'll venture a few guesses. For starters, it'd be great if he stopped spitting up...completely (a full update from the spit-up factory shortly, I promise). Mobility. I bet he'd be down with a little more of that. A few more teeth would be nice, minus the growing pains of course. He resolves to learn baby sign language to tide him over 'til his vocabulary begins to develop. And sleeping. I'm sure sleep would be on his list. You know, the twelve hours of uninterrupted night sleep, plus a couple of solid one to two hour long naps each day. Whatdya say, kid? How 'bout we work on that tonight and get 2009 off to a great start?

Happy New Year!

baby's first Christmas: video footage

Here's that video I promised of Elias opening one of his first Christmas gifts...



...with a little - okay, a lot - of help from Dad.

By the way, if you want a recap of the past six months, you can check out the animated slide-show Neal recently put together.

baby's first Christmas

Let's back up actually, and share a few pics from Christmas eve. It was a quiet holiday around here, just the three of us, but being our first as a family (and our first at home, with our very own tree and all), it was a nice opportunity to start a few family traditions. As a little girl, I remember getting pizza on Christmas eve, being allowed to open one present - always, coincidentally, new pajamas - getting into our new pajamas, hopping in the car, and driving around whatever town we lived in at the time to check out the lights and decorations. I keep meaning to ask my Dad if the pizza memory was an annual tradition or a one-year blip that has stuck out in my mind. Either way, ordering pizza on Christmas eve is officially a Grigsby family tradition. After that we let Elias open one gift.


Pajamas! Who'd have guessed?! Since it gets dark here by about 4:30 these days, we were able to drive around and check out the lights well before Elias's bedtime. Even so, he fell asleep within minutes of beginning our Christmas eve journey (that 5 o'clock nap might explain some of the difficulty we had getting him to bed that night...), missing most of the light show.


Neal and I had planned on watching A Christmas Story after Elias went to bed, but that didn't exactly happen, as explained here. Instead, we crashed as soon as Elias was finally out for the night, visions of uninterrupted sleep dancing in our heads. The next morning began with business as usual.


Yep, that's the tree, in the nursery, where the crib used to be. On a sidenote, when Elias outgrew his pack 'n' play bassinet around the three-month mark, we decided to disassemble and re-assemble his crib in our bedroom (dealing with the whole early breastfeeding weaning drama at the time, I wasn't ready to transition him to his own room as well). Turns out the room we picked for the nursery, previously the catch-all room/office/studio/spare bedroom, is just about the worst room possible for trying to get a kid that fights sleep to take naps and go to bed at a reasonable hour, what with the constant noise from the neighbors walking up and down the stairs, accessing their entry to the basement, clomping around upstairs, etc. Our room is much quieter and now that we're ready for Elias to be sleeping in his own room, we're thinking of switching the rooms altogether. Anyway, that daunting project is for another post, but that's why there was space in the nursery for the tree. We confine the cats to the living room at night (that's another long story) and we were worried we'd wake up to find the tree toppled, ornaments broken, water everywhere. In hindsight, I think it would've been fine in the living room; the cats don't seem all that interested in the tree. But at the time, I couldn't stand the thought of having to deal with the potential mess that might have been left by a couple of curious kitties.

Anyway, where were we? Ah yes, baby's first Christmas morning. Not surprisingly, Elias didn't seem to know what to make of all the gifts and the wrapping paper and the constant picture-taking. He did seem very alert and curious about what was going on but the whole opening presents thing was a little tricky for him.


We started with a few stocking stuffers. This stocking is actually more of a place-holder until the day we find the perfect stocking for Elias. Santa left him some stacking cups and some Method Baby body lotion in his stocking. How did Santa know that Mom just loves that new Method Baby rice milk and mallow bubble bath??


From the stocking we moved on to the gifts under the tree, helping Elias open the first few himself. As the hunger started to set in and Elias's optimal morning nap time drew near, we sped up the process a bit for him, opening a generous helping of clothes and toys from Santa, family, and friends.


I think we were more excited to play with his new toys than he was initially. Top picks include a little green rattle that he can actually hold onto, a Leap Frog Spin & Sing Alphabet Zoo that he loves to spin over and over, not giving the "narrator" much chance of calling out the animal name or sound that corresponds to the letter on the wheel, and the stacking cups that Santa left in his stocking. He enjoys banging a couple of those together and Neal is convinced he was practicing the motion in a semi-sleepy state this morning when he changed his diaper at the earlier than usual wake-up call of 5:45 a.m. Clearly, Elias was eager to pick up where we left off yesterday.

The rest of the day was much like a weekend day, with a lot of calls to and from family, Neal and I alternating time with Elias, trying out his new toys. We had an early dinner of ham, mac 'n' cheese, red potatoes, green beans (with turkey bacon - that's a twist on a Grigsby family tradition), freshly baked rolls, and a little white wine that left both of us feeling sleepier than usual for the rest of the day. The weather was pretty mild (a welcome break after last weekend's endless snow) so we ventured out for a walk around the neighborhood before beginning our usual evening routine.

Not bad for our first Christmas together. As much as I enjoyed our trips to California the past few years, making three or four stops in a week, week and a half tops, I have to admit that part of me was really looking forward to staying home this year, now that we've started our family. Babble's Bad Parent blog had a timely post recently on just this very topic. And yet as the holiday approached, I felt a little sad that it would just be the three of us. I guess in a perfect world, we'd live within driving distance of all our family and close friends, so that we could enjoy Christmas morning together and then spend the afternoon and evening with the extended brood. But as things stand, I have to say, it was pretty nice to stay in our pj's for most of the day, eat what and when we wanted, and enjoy an unedited commentary on the gifts we opened. Just kidding.

I have a few videos I'll post later. In the meantime, I hope you had a wonderful holiday and have very little to do today, this "bridge" between Christmas and the weekend...

the three days of Christmas: day three

Merry Christmas! I'll have a full report within the next few days but I wanted to complete Elias's recent wardrobe countdown, brief as it was, to the big day. Here he is in a festive button-down shirt and sweater vest that again, isn't overtly holiday related but seems destined for Christmas dinner with its little train on the front.


The matching cuorduroy pants were too small. That's why we paired the shirt/vest duo with sweatpants. Nothing else matched and frankly, we usually lounge around in sweatpants most days. Why should Christmas be any different?

Also, notice that scrape on his nose? That was the mysterious grand finale to a brutal evening. I'm still not totally sure what caused it all but Elias was unusually difficult to "soothe to sleep" last night, waking up several times between 7:30 and about 10 or so, when it became clear that he wasn't just fighting sleep. We tried a little Orajel on his gums, some gas drops, swaddling, un-swaddling, pacifiers, teethers...Nothing seemed to do the trick. Our only guess is that perhaps the carrots he tried for the first time earlier in the day weren't sitting so well. Anyway, at some point as I tried to get him into a comfortable position I noticed blood on his nose. In the darkened room it looked like his nose was bleeding so I of course freaked out, ran him into the kitchen and put him on the table (just turning on the light in the bedroom didn't occur to me). After I wiped the blood away I could see it was just a scrape on his nose but even so, he was not a happy baby. I'm not sure if he scratched himself or if I accidentally scraped his nose with my nail; either way, I felt awful. Poor little guy. His first boo-boo, and on Christmas eve! After the bleeding stopped I gave him a bottle and that finally did the trick. He slept the next eight hours or so pretty soundly.

Fortunately, this evening wasn't a repeat performance, but who knows what the night has in store for us! He's keeping us on our toes, as always.

More Christmas shenanigans to follow...

the three days of Christmas: day two

Here's Elias in his only officially Christmas-themed outfit.


Here he is contemplating - but not actually wearing - the matching hat, complete with little reindeer horns.


He's not wearing the hat because he doesn't particularly like wearing hats and I didn't feel like torturing him any more than absolutely necessary, and also because his head is just too big.

And finally, here's a detail of the matching socks:


Speaking of socks, we recently discovered that taking Elias's socks off while he's sitting up makes him giggle:



Anyway, it's funny because I'm not a huge fan of any of these outfits (three in total, the grand finale arriving via this blog tomorrow...my Christmas gift to you, if you will :)). I think it's the velour that kills it for me. But when I put them on Elias, I think he's just adorable in them! It's a mom thing, isn't it?

That reminds me that when I did my mid-year baby gear review a couple of weeks ago, I failed to mention anything about clothing. The first few months I honestly could have cared less what I put him in, which was odd because I thought dressing a baby would be one of the things I most enjoyed about the latest addition to our family. But lately I find that I'm getting a little pickier about what I put him in. For basics, I like Carter's well enough. Their clothes seem to fit pretty well and hold up nicely. I bought a few things at an Osh Kosh B'Gosh outlet at the 3 month mark and within a couple of weeks, the stitching around the snaps was starting to fray. Old Navy makes some cute stuff but I've had mixed results as far as quality; a onesie I bought early on would get kind of baggy shortly after I put Elias in it. But more recently I bought a few things in the 6 to 12 month range and they've been holding up just fine. I like the odd owl/reindeer/robot creature featured on a number of their baby and toddler clothes at the moment. Cute but not overly cutesy. A friend turned me on to Speesees. They're a bit pricey but the kid's gotta have a few hip outfits, right? And I'm hoping the stuff I've been gifted and bought in the 6 to 12 month range he won't grow out of quite as quickly as the first six months of his life. In general, the brands I don't like are the pricier ones sold at discount stores, like Vitamins Baby. They make some cute stuff, I guess, but they have such an odd fit. I've noticed a lot of baby clothes seem to be made to fit short, squat babies. Elias has many a onesie that's too short but that could accommodate a few more inches in the waist.

One more thing. I recently heard someone say that there's a short window of time in which you can dress your baby in animal ears. I'm not sure what sort of window she had in mind, but I beg to differ. I think animal ears are fair game well into the toddler years.

the three days of Christmas: day one

Elias doesn't have as many outfits to celebrate Christmas as he had for Halloween (and not a single turkey related get-up for Thanksgiving!). In fact, he only has one outfit that's undeniably holiday related, plus a couple others that seem festive and seasonal and I'm pretty sure the giver intended them to be worn right around now. So here goes day one of our short countdown to the 25th:





See, it's really not Christmas-y at all, is it? But it's got a little red here and there and it's made of velour and it comes with a hat so why not?

'Til tomorrow...

6 months

Already?! Really?! Get out! At his check-up on Thursday, Elias weighed in at 18 pounds 13 ounces, 28 inches long, with a noggin' measuring 45 centimeters. Let's take a 360 degree tour, shall we?

Legs extended:


Legs released:


Rolling over:


Sitting:


Trying to figure out how he can get that guitar in his mouth:


And back on the floor, tummy side down:


I thought it'd be fun, now that Elias is halfway to the pivotal one-year mark, to do a little then and now comparison. First, in the bath, including his first full dunk at about two weeks old, and sitting on the "infant" side last weekend:


And in the bouncy seat that Elias is quickly outgrowing, at about a month old and at almost six months:


The sixth month of Elias's life has sure been a busy one. Elias celebrated his first Thanksgiving, gave rice cereal a try - kinda blah, frankly - and, by the end of the month, sampled sweet potatoes and bananas - both a hit - started rolling over and sitting up, unassisted, slept, on occasion, sans swaddle, acquired two teeth, and celebrated the holiday season by helping to decorate his first Christmas tree and sitting for a photo with the fat man himself. We parentals even enjoyed a few firsts of our own, including the occasional workout and several feature-length films, sending back our first few Netflix DVDs since the boy's birth.

Sleep continues to be a challenge, but keeping it all in perspective, I still think he's a pretty good sleeper compared to other babies his age. The last few nights he's added back in a night feeding but on a positive note, has fallen back asleep really easily after gulping down an entire bottle. I'd much rather wake up to feed him and put him right back to bed over the handful of more mysterious wake-up calls he'd been giving us the few weeks before. He's been crankier than usual, I think partly because of teething and partly out of frustration that he isn't perhaps as mobile as he'd like to be. I keep reminding him that "frustration is a necessary part of learning" (that's a quote from one of the many baby books I've read over the past six months) but it doesn't seem to help much. And ultimately, I'm not buying into the myth that things get any easier at six months, just like everyone told us they would at six weeks, and then again at three months (what they didn't tell me is that things would fall apart about a month later). Because now that we're at the six month mark, everyone keeps talking about how at one year all of this will be a blur. Nope, we're just going to keep chugging along, rolling with each milestone, setback, and new challenge that lies ahead...

more holiday cheer

Here's the video I mentioned in my previous post:



Around 25 seconds in, after Neal helps him place the ornament on the tree, he reacts with a shimmy. We can only guess that he didn't particularly care for the bristly feel of the tree on his hand. He continues to shake it off a bit after touching the tree but I think he's getting used to it.


Also, I completely forgot to mention that I took Elias to visit "Santa" on Monday. I wasn't sure how he'd react, but I figured he'd be down with it. He isn't displaying any stranger anxiety yet; on the contrary he's usually quite the charmer when we're out and about. He was even resting his head on Santa's beard when he wasn't smiling for the camera. People are telling me next year's likely to be a different story. I can't think that far ahead. We like to take things one day at a time around here. So for 2008, sitting on Santa's lap was a success. I wonder what Elias asked for...

all I want for Christmas

It's been quite a week around here! Elias has been busy sitting, rolling over, and doing various what I'm assuming are pre-crawling maneuvers. For a few days early last week it seemed like he was doing something new every day but since then it's almost as if he doesn't know what to do next. As soon as he's placed on the floor, whether it's in a sitting position or on his back, he immediately rolls to his tummy. Occasionally he's rolled back onto his back, unassisted, and occasionally he'll do other stuff while in that position, such as resting his head on the floor (I know that may not sound like much but resting his cheek against things is new), lifting his butt into the air, and even creeping a bit with some resistance provided by myself or by Neal. But usually he gets cranky after a few minutes in that position. If I roll him back or sit him up, he's back on his tummy within a few seconds. It's like he's got a magnet in his belly, attracting him to the floor.

He's also been busy working on his two lower front teeth! I could feel the sharp edges of the first one - bottom front right - on Thursday morning and then yesterday noticed its partner on the left. Not surprisingly, Elias has kicked his crankiness up a notch over the past few days. It seems like with every developmental milestone you read about how some babies will react with extra fussiness, less sleep, poor eating habits, etc., and how some babies will act like nothing's bothering them. We can pretty much always count on Elias falling on the former part of that spectrum. Not wanting to give him infant Tylenol over and over again we gave Orajel a try and it seems to have done the trick. Anyway, I'm hoping we can blame at least some of Elias's recent sleep issues on teething.

Speaking of which, things haven't changed too much on the sleep front although I guess they have improved ever so slightly since my last few posts, especially with teething taken into consideration. We've been getting Elias to bed a tad later - around 8 each evening - but he seems to wake up less frequently than if we get him to bed around 7:15/7:30. Most nights he wakes up about every four hours and if we're lucky falls back to sleep with just a little bit of rocking and shushing. I'm not sure what's waking him up because he doesn't seem hungry (occasionally I've offered him a bottle and he half-heartedly drinks two or three ounces before beginning to blow bubbles back into the bottle). We're still swaddling him - either fully but lightly or with one or both arms out. It depends on how the day's gone, how cranky he's been, how sleepy he seems and how patient (or impatient) I'm feeling. Either way, he's been working his way up the mattress each night until his head is crammed against the top corner post and he wakes up wailing. I added a breathable bumper to the crib bedding but it doesn't seem to help all that much. One benefit of the bumper, however, since Elias is still in our room (more on that in a later post), is that I can't see him. So I'm still hearing every noise and movement he makes, but I'm not opening my eyes to get a look at him as well, which seems to be helping me sleep a bit better. We're going to work on the swaddle situation and getting this kid into his own room after the holidays. Stay tuned...

Otherwise, we've been getting ready for our first Christmas together. This is the first year we're staying home for the holidays so we decided to get a tree this past weekend while Grandma Joanne was visiting. I dressed Elias up in his festive bunting for the tree selection.


Hmm, how do you carry a baby in a carseat and a Christmas tree into the house?


Checking out the tree with Mom:


Checking out the tree with Dad:


Checking out his reflection in a big, green ornament:


And it just wouldn't be Christmas without a little waiting in line at the post office:


If only everyone else in line were as cheerful.

Anyway, apparently the feel of the tree gives Elias the heebie jeebies. I have a video I'll post shortly. I should probably take advantage of this rare nap to cross a few more things off my holiday to-do list...

one baby in the bed

As promised, here's a short video of Elias rolling from his back onto his tummy unassisted by me (other than a little vocal coaching...Sorry for the audio - my voice tends to get really shrill when I'm cheering him on for some reason...):



Earlier today, after rolling over as in the above video, he then rolled from his tummy back onto his back. It all happened so quickly, I'm not quite sure how he did it or what prompted it. I think it might have come as a surprise to him as well because he didn't seem to have a clue as to how to do it again after that.

As for sleep, last night was a little brutal. Elias slept great in the sleepsack until about 11:30, when he woke up crying and inconsolable for about 15-20 minutes before I gave in and offered him a bottle. That put him to sleep but he woke up the second I began to lower him into his crib. He doesn't even wait until his body touches the mattress anymore. After two or three tries, still in the sleepsack, I managed to get him back to sleep until about 3:30, when he again woke up crying. Neal took that shift and spent about an hour getting him back to sleep. But after only 15 minutes or so he was awake again. At that point I gave in and fully swaddled him and he slept until about 7:30 (although Neal tells me he heard him stirring as early as 6:30).

Wow, back to the bottle and swaddle in one night. So much for making progress. I've been fully swaddling him for naps today, too, and he actually slept for about an hour and a half this morning, his longest nap in weeks. So now I'm not sure what to do. Put off the inevitable awhile longer in exchange for some much needed rest? Wait until we send him to daycare (not likely until summer or fall of next year) and let them handle it? Devote a few restless weeks after the holidays but before the semester begins to resume the efforts? He's been pretty reflux-y the past few days as well so I vacillate between wanting to nip this sleep thing in the bud and remembering that his digestive issues are likely playing a part in all this. Anyway, he's fully swaddled at the moment so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a relatively good night.

snow, sweet potatoes, and sleep

Boston's first snow of winter 08-09 was also, of course, Elias's first.


It wasn't much of a snow event - a half inch, if that, of slushy white stuff that had melted by the afternoon, but it looked lovely on the trees when we woke up this morning. Neal took him outside all bundled up. He didn't seem terribly impressed.


Otherwise, it's been a busy week for Elias. After taking a break from solids for a few days, I offered him a little sweet potato alongside his rice cereal and he seems to be enjoying that combo and getting the whole eating from a spoon thing down.


Okay, so much of it still ends up on his chin but we're making progress. It hasn't really helped with the spit-up yet. On the contrary, what we have instead is sweet potato stained spit-up, but that might be because we've been finishing off our modest tablespoon or so of rice cereal and half-jar or so of sweet potatoes with a few ounces of formula. I think I'll try to time the cereal/veggie meal deal between bottles and see if that helps.

We're also making, dare I say it, slow, slow progress in the land of swaddling and sleep. Last weekend or early last week - I forget now when it was exactly - Elias kept waking up every 20 to 30 minutes, screaming at the top of his lungs after we'd put him to bed for the night. When I went in to get him back to sleep he seemed so agitated by his confinement. So after a few attempts at getting him back to sleep fully swaddled, I re-swaddled him rather lightly, with one arm free, and didn't hear another peep...I want to say for the rest of the night, but he may have woken up once to eat. It's amazing how quickly you forget the details. Which is why I'm writing about this now. I'm not going to wait until he's falling asleep, unswaddled, on his own, in his crib, in his own room like a perfect little angel because I'll likely have forgotten how we got to that point by then.

Anyway, there've been a few naps in the sleepsack, even, but for the most part, that's as far as we've gotten in terms of breaking him (or us) of his swaddle habit. He seems to want to roll on his side when both arms are free, which is fine, except he wakes up crying after a couple of hours when he rolls onto his back. Last night, for example, he started out in the swaddle but with both arms free. He woke up three or four times between 7:30 and 11:30, at which point I re-swaddled him with one arm in. He slept pretty soundly from then until about 5 a.m., when I heard him stir a bit but he fell back to sleep until about 6.

In addition to working on the swaddle situation, I began to actively try to eliminate the night feeding(s). I don't mind feeding him in the middle of the night if he's truly hungry but when he wasn't taking much of the first couple of bottles of the day I felt confident in decreasing the amount of formula I was giving him at night. In addition, I think purely out of exhaustion, I started waiting a bit before I'd get up and go to his crib when he stirred or whimpered, and to my surprise, he actually settled himself down and fell back asleep after a couple of nights of this. I'm not sure if it's a coincidence or perhaps as a result of all this but Elias has slept through the night (and by "through the night" I mean much like how last night played out, with some minor maintenance, sometimes just once, some nights every few hours...this is still major progress as far as I'm concerned) the past few nights, from about 7:30 in the evening until about 6:30 in the morning. And then this weekend, both yesterday morning and today, he woke up at 6 and then fell back asleep within an hour of having his diaper changed and being fed, sleeping until about 8:30 yesterday morning and until almost 9 this morning. Is that his morning nap? Should we try to get him to bed even earlier (currently around 7:30, but it varies greatly)? Since it happened on the weekend we slept in with him so it'll be interesting to see what happens tomorrow morning.

Maybe he's catching up on sleep now that he's finally figured out how to roll over on his own (that's the theory behind the Wonder Weeks). I'll post video to that effect shortly. For now, I should probably catch up on a little shut-eye myself. We put Elias to bed in the sleepsack this evening so we'll see how the night goes...

baby gear mid-year review

So now that we're nearly halfway to the one year mark that concludes, as a friend recently put it, baby boot camp, I wanted to take some time to reflect on all the stuff we've accumulated as accessories to this new life with Elias. Turns out babies need very little those first few weeks. Not surprisingly there are some things I thought we just had to have that we've barely used and likewise, other items we found ourselves running to Babies 'R' Us to stock up on every few days early on. In no particular order, then, here are my reviews:

Thinking we'd kill two birds with one stone and avoid buying an expensive but relatively short-lived bassinet sort of bed, we had Elias sleep in the bassinet attachment that came with our pack 'n' play, something we've since used while traveling. If I had to do it over again, I might still get a pack 'n' play for travel but I definitely wouldn't use the bassinet attachment for anything other than the occasional nap. The mattress consists of four separate panels that wrap around the pack 'n' play structure to create a compact, carrying case. This construction does not lend itself to properly supporting the weight of a quickly growing baby boy. Despite advertising a weight limit of 15 pounds, it began to sag shortly after Elias hit the ten pound mark, if I remember correctly. I'd either start the baby straight away in their crib or bite the bullet and get a bassinet or something similarly cozy, like a bedside co-sleeper.

Ah, the car seat. I'm happy with the Graco SafeSeat overall, but I kind of wish we'd gone with the lighter, more compact SnugRide. I believe we went with the SafeSeat because it can accommodate a few more pounds, eliminating the need to buy a convertible car seat (i.e. one that's rear-facing until the first birthday, after which point, so long as your baby's hit the 20 pound mark, you can flip it to the forward-facing position). But even very early on, the SafeSeat mit baby has been heavy and awkward. Schlepping that thing to and from the car (which, even parked on the street right outside our apartment, feels like a hike), and trying to get it in the base in the backseat of the car, parked as it is on a hill, provides quite the workout. When I see parents carrying their little ones in the SnugRide they don't seem nearly as uncomfortable and clumsy as I feel toting Elias around (then again, maybe they're in better shape?). On the other hand, at the rate Elias is gaining weight, he may very well surpass the weight limit of the SnugRide before he celebrates his first birthday. Either way, I'd imagine we'll probably transition to a convertible car seat in the next few months.

Speaking of car seats, how about that Snap 'n' Go frame? As I noted at the end of the five month update, we recently purchased a full-size stroller, which, had we had it in the beginning, we could have used in lieu of the Snap 'n' Go frame. I like the idea of the frame, but had I known we'd end up buying a stroller that could be used in a similar fashion, I think I would have skipped this step, saving us about fifty to sixty bucks or so. Then I could have put that money toward the JJ Cole BundleMe car seat/stroller liner, a must-have, in my opinion, for colder weather. Another $40 I'd like to spend, with a long cold stretch ahead, is on the Baby Bjorn carrier cover. As I'll get to below, when it's you and the baby all day, it's nice to have as many options as possible, and these sorts of liners and layers make continuing the daily (or so) walks a little more manageable even into the winter months.

Everybody told me most babies either like to bounce or swing, but that you don't necessarily need to offer both options. We received one of each as gifts and the bouncy seat (Fisher Price Ocean Wonders Aquarium Bouncer) was invaluable those first couple of months, allowing Neal and I to eat the occasional meal together as Elias enjoyed the show. Some of his best first smiles were aimed at the spinning starfish and "kissing fishes," as we call them. The swing, on the other hand, has never seen much action. We have the Graco Tango in the Tongo infant swing, and maybe it's the type of swing itself (we got the swing so early that by the time Elias was born and trying it out for the first time, it was too late to return it), but Elias went from hating it, to falling asleep in it a couple of times, to seeming pretty lukewarm about the whole swinging thing. He generally dislikes being strapped in to anything so that by the time we get him in the five-point harness, he's had enough. I'd skip the swing next time around until after the baby was born and then I'd probably take the baby along to the store to try a few on. And in general, he'd much rather hang out on his playmat, the Tiny Love Gymini Super Deluxe Lights and Music Play Mat. There was a period from 3 to 4 months or so where he seemed suddenly uninterested in it, preferring floor time on a simple blanket with a variety of toys and things strewn about, but now that he's sitting unassisted pretty well, he seems to enjoy the new perspective.


And even before Elias could sit up, as soon as he was demonstrating good head control, we ran out and bought him a jumperoo - not the kind that hangs from a doorframe but the kind that hangs from a free standing structure from bungy cords, almost like a jumperoo/exersaucer hybrid. We have the Fisher Price Rainforest jumperoo, which Elias just loves. Someone early on warned about putting the baby who prefers to be upright in a jumperoo or exersaucer too early for fear they'll protest any and all floor or tummy time and skip crawling altogether. But rest assured, Elias still loves hanging out on the floor, especially now that he can roll over.

The Bumbo baby sitter was an item I was eager to get once Elias was demonstrating good head control. As my mom's group facilitator so accurately put it, the day can be pretty long with an infant, so it's nice to have options. I have mixed feelings about the Bumbo, I have to say. There are times when I look at it and question its advertised versatility, but in the end I'm glad I got it...used. You can find a couple of these things on Craigslist at any given time, it seems, for about half the cost of a new one, and all you need to do is give it a good once over with a Clorox wipe. Something I probably should have passed on was the tummy time mat. I went with the cheapo Infantino version, but still, the tummy time mat is little more than a glorified blanket and miniature Boppy pillow. Again, this was an impulse buy when I was looking to expand my options for keeping an increasingly wakeful Elias occupied throughout the day.

Speaking of the Boppy pillow, this thing was utterly useless to us in the early weeks of breastfeeding. Until Elias was about two months old, I used instead, and highly recommend, the Brest Friend pillow, which offers a lot more support. Once Elias got bigger and better at nursing, the Boppy worked just fine, but if you're having logistics issues with breastfeeding, I recommend an upgrade. I still use the Boppy pillow while bottle-feeding and occasionally plop him down in the center and let him perfect those nose dives and face plants with a little extra cushion.

And on the topic of feeding (and food that doesn't necessarily stay down), if you have a spitter on your hands, forget the shoulder burp cloths and stock up on cloth diapers, at a minimum, or re-purpose, as we did, a few of those receiving blankets you received as shower gifts. We have a set of so called receiving blankets that I can only see using as blankets for preemies, they're so small. They work well as heavy duty burp cloths and you can get a little extra life out of them by folding and re-folding them. But hopefully (should any of my pregnant friends be reading this) the token shoulder burp cloths will do the trick for the usual baby spit up.

If, however, you find yourself with a spitty baby, you'll often hear the recommendation to keep your baby upright for about 20 to 30 minutes after each feeding (tedious during the waking hours, let me tell you, let alone at 3 o'clock in the morning). Various baby carriers can help with this task. We have the Infantino front carrier, the Baby Bjorn Original Carrier, the Moby Wrap, and the Maya Wrap. The Infantino carrier was a thoughtful gift from my Dad, so no offense if you read this, but for whatever reason Elias screams whenever I've tried to put him in it. So after he hit the magical eight pound mark, we upgraded to the Baby Bjorn, which he seems to enjoy, especially after we were able to put him in it facing forward. In the interim, as I blogged about here, we tried out the Moby Wrap. I love the Moby Wrap and highly recommend it in the early weeks if you have a fussy baby that you'd like to "wear" (try out the Newborn Hug and Kangaroo holds), but I have to admit the Baby Bjorn is a lot easier to use if upright and forward-facing is what I want. The Moby Wrap does offer more carrying options and supposedly, you can carry your baby in it until they hit 35 pounds (although hopefully they can walk by then), but it is a little complicated to operate. Although it appears less complex, I find the Maya wrap, a recent hand-me-down from a friend, downright mind-boggling. Just when I think I've finally got it on right, shoulder piece situated just so, fabric threaded through the rings, baby positioned kangaroo style or on my hip, I can't seem to take up the slack without getting things all twisted. Elias is also not quite big enough for the hip hold so I think I'll give it a rest and try again in a couple of months.

As for the little stuff, Elias loves his "froggy friend" - a Cuddly Teether Blanket by Infantino that I purchased kind of randomly but which has since become his car seat "lovey". I've been trying to use the Little Taggies blanket as a sleep lovey, putting it on his lap while I give him a bottle. It doesn't seem to be helping with sleep yet but he does enjoy things with tags suddenly. It's true - babies really do "love to rub 'em." Among his various toys, rattles, teethers, and stuffed animals, the Sassy Circle Rattle has been a big hit, especially when Elias wanted, but couldn't quite figure out how to get anything and everything in his mouth. When his hand-eye coordination was shaky he could still manage to get a good grip on either side of the ring and chomp on the ball in the middle.

I think that's good for a mid-year report. I'm sure I'll have more opinions on other products and things in the months to come.

everything I need to know

I learned from my cousin Adriana.

thankful

Elias's first Thanksgiving was enjoyed with his Uncle Brian, Aunt Marty, and cousins Alejandro and Adriana (plus Mom and Dad, of course). He actually slept during most of dinner, giving us a chance to enjoy the spread my sister-in-law prepared (we took care of the Cheesecake Factory pumpkin cheesecake that we bought at Costco...that's my kind of cooking!).


By the time he was awake, I think everyone else had migrated to the living room. Hey, where'd everyone go?


Anyway, we have a lot to be thankful for this year. Our family, our health, our jobs (okay, Neal's job mostly), earlier bedtimes, half-hour television shows, loyal blog followers, etc. I hope you're enjoying a wonderful holiday weekend!

babies are a little like cats

I've had so many blog posts rattling around in my head the past few days, one of which I even got around to starting this afternoon. But I had a funny experience today that prompted me to consider the occasional muddling of my human and feline dependents. When I was pregnant I would have dreams about my unborn baby that would inevitably end with the baby turning into one of our two cats (usually Xander) by the end of the dream. One such dream involved breastfeeding. Creepy. Need I write more?

Fortunately nothing like what transpired in that dream has happened in reality, but I have been known to mix up their names, both given, so to speak, and various nicknames and terms of endearment. Like the cats, Elias doesn't particularly like it when I clip his fingernails. I came across a cat toy on the kitchen floor the other day and my first instinct was to throw it in the bucket of Elias's various rattles and teethers. And then there are the obvious similarities in the basic care and feeding of another creature.

Which leads me to what happened today. I was telling Neal about how I discovered that Target carries Earth's Best cereal, at a better price than Babies 'R' Us. I added, however, that they only seemed to carry cereal, no "wet food." What I was referring to, of course, were the corresponding jars of baby food, pureed root vegetables and the like. Like dry food (or "crunchies" as we call them around here) and canned, wet food for cats, babies, it turns out, have similar options when it comes to introducing solids. Hopefully that slip is as far as the confusion goes and I won't accidentally, after a long night, say, warm up a little Fancy Feast for the boy.

5 months

Boing!


Here's Elias striking his monthly pose alongside the Guitar Hero guitar at five months and two days. I'm not sure what his length is these days but I was able to weigh him on Friday and he's packed on a couple of pounds since his four month photo, putting him right around the 18 pound mark. Check out the wrist band of fat threatening to take over his hand:


Since the four month mark, which feels like yesterday, we continue to struggle with a few things I thought would be easier or that he'd have outgrown by now. In fact, when I took him to see our pediatrician on Friday for what turned out to be his first minor cold, she mentioned something about how charming but challenging he's been which both validated and kind of depressed me. On the one hand, it's nice to know that I'm not going totally crazy (okay, I'm exaggerating a little) over the usual baby stuff, that Elias does seem to be chugging along according to his very own textbook (for example, the spit up situation typically improving right around the four month mark which, sadly, didn't exactly happen). But on the other hand, the thought of all these other new parents out there with fat, easy-going five month old cherubs does make me, I have to admit, a tad envious. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade him for the world (and yes, I realize things could be a lot worse). He's truly the apple of my eye and I love him to pieces, but there are days when it's hard to see any light at the end of this spitty, sleep-deprived, occasionally teary-eyed tunnel.

Otherwise, Elias has been busy working on the drive to be upright and mobile. He's now able to sit unassisted for short periods of time. I wouldn't put him in the front of a shopping cart just yet, but I can plop him down on the floor or on my lap and he'll practice good trunk control for awhile, protective arms encircling him and at the ready to catch him should he decide to throw himself back or attempt a forward nose dive. These movements seem to have a purpose but I'm pretty confident it would not end well if I were to let his body continue in its trajectory toward, usually, the floor. Sometimes it seems like he wants to go from sitting to his tummy, cushioned by his face, of course. He's rolled from his back to his tummy on his own a couple of times but usually still needs a little help getting the legs up and over. Once on his tummy he pivots, "swims", and even creeps a bit if you provide his feet with something to push off of. It helps if a favorite stuffed animal or toy is placed just out of reach, tempting his continuing desire to put everything in his mouth. His hand-eye coordination seems to have improved since the four month mark but he still seems occasionally frustrated if he can't get something in his mouth, usually the book I just happen to be reading to him at the time. I try to let him explore the board books however he'd like, but I have to say, the rigid, controlling part of me sometimes really wishes he would just look at the pictures while I read him a story.

After a couple of weeks of research and a few test spins, we decided on a stroller (we've been using the "snap 'n' go" frame with our car seat up to this point). With so many options out there I was really torn about what to get. Before Elias was born I had visions of myself going out for regular runs with a jogging stroller. But I don't really jog all that regularly anymore and it'll be around or below freezing here in the Boston area for the next six months (give or - hopefully - take). Plus, I find it incredibly annoying that the front wheels on most jogging strollers are permanently locked. That doesn't sound terribly convenient and they're as big, if not bigger, than a full-size stroller. After I crossed that option off the list, I became torn between getting a lightweight stroller and a slightly more substantial umbrella stroller, wondering if we really needed anything more than that. We tried out a Maclaren at Babies 'R' Us but $200 seemed like too much to spend on a glorified umbrella stroller that we can get as a supplement for $20-70 somewhere down the road. Then Neal sent me a link to the Inglesina Zippy, which, at well over $300, seemed a little extravagant but got good reviews. The sleek style started to really grow on me. And it's not like it's as expensive as a Bugaboo. In the end, though, as we usually do, we went with the equally well rated but slightly more practical option of the Graco Quattro Tour Sport. Which is hilarious, actually, because one thing I definitely didn't want when I was pregnant was a travel system, i.e. a full size stroller that you can plop the car seat onto for the first few months. The stroller we got is essentially the "sport" version of the Graco travel system and, although it doesn't exactly correspond to our car seat (our car seat is "French Roast" while our stroller is "Soho", but both are green and brown), matches pretty well. I'm still glad we have the "snap 'n' go" frame, however, because the full-size stroller takes up most of our trunk. It'll be good to have a slightly more compact option for traveling, trips to Costco, etc. So far I'm happy with our decision. Here's the lad in the stroller sans car seat for his first spin facing out onto the world.


For some reason, he seems to get a kick out of the feel of the BundleMe lining I recently added to the winter gear, which keeps him warm and toasty in his car seat or stroller. I'm convinced that it's thanks solely to the recent addition of the BundleMe that Elias is suddenly able to fall asleep, and occasionally stay asleep once we get to where we're going, in his car seat. Maybe he was just cold all these months and that's why he's been a "challenging" baby? Maybe the BundleMe will turn him into "a whole new baby". More on the endless quest to that effect in another post. I'm also crafting a post in my mind dedicated to all the things I'd do differently, all the products I'd think twice about the next time around, as well as a few things I wouldn't change after five interesting months with a new baby. Maybe that'll be ready for the six month update.

okay, now what?

Why do all the message boards, when prompted for advice about how to wean your baby from swaddling in order to fall asleep, rarely give advice to this effect but instead usually question the person posting as to why they feel the need to wean and/or offer all sorts of ways you can make swaddling even more effective, such as double swaddling, using duct tape to secure the swaddle (yeah, really), getting crafty and making your own swaddle when your baby's outgrown even the larger blankets, etc.? It's not like they asked about weaning from breastfeeding to formula and you feel you should throw in your two cents about why breast is best just in case they're still on the fence. I mean, honestly, people must feel so strongly about anything related to how they raised their children and end up offering an agenda over genuine advice. And when people do offer advice, it's inevitably incredibly vague...Because no one remembers the details of what they did for any given challenge during the entire first year of their child's life! They just remember that somehow, their child went from only falling asleep wrapped up tight like a burrito to falling asleep on their own, unwrapped, in their crib, in their own room, like perfect little angels.

Anyway, clearly we're in the process of trying to figure out how to undo everything we did those first few months (thanks a lot, Dr. Karp), now that the shushing, swinging, and swaddling have lost their optimal effectiveness and yet still seem annoyingly and tediously necessary. If anyone has actual advice to share we'd be ever so grateful. As Elaine lamented about the sex scenes in The English Patient in the Seinfeld episode of the same title, "I mean, please! Gimme something I can use!"

rice cereal is hilarious

Here's a little video footage of our first attempt at feeding a little rice cereal to Elias.



I'm not in any big rush to start solids and thought we'd wait until the six-month mark but he really seems curious about what we're eating and drinking lately and anecdotally, at least, a little rice cereal seems to stay in the tummy better than an all liquid diet. When you've been dealing with a spitty baby for nearly five months, the words "reduce spit-up" sound downright heavenly. Anyway, he seemed pretty entertained by this first attempt and tonight, during round two, ate about a teaspoon of the stuff mixed with about an ounce or so of formula.

And some other video fun...First up, this bit I captured when I ran in with the camera after Elias sat unassisted for the first time. What I managed to capture shortly after was a little on the wobbly side, but he's definitely getting the hang of this whole sitting thing.



And later today, Neal managed to squeeze a little workout in while he was watching Elias.



Then Elias worked his lower body muscles by performing the can can.



Sort of.

In other news, mama (yes, I routinely refer to myself in the third person these days) is just barely getting over bronchitis. Yep, that's right. The kind of cold that sucks when you're without child, let alone when you have this whole other person to take care of. Fortunately, the sickly feelings seemed to peak on Friday, with the weekend right around the corner and Neal available to help out in a big way. Even so, I could really use a day off.

cookies for your next baby shower?

I'm not sure if making cookies with these would be clever or creepy.

tidbits

Elias's latest activity:


Elias's latest facial expression:


When the hands are otherwise occupied, there's always the upper lip to chomp on.

Does jumping in the jumperoo count as "upright time"?

feed the baby or nobody sleeps

Here we are approaching the five month mark and I still haven't caught this blog up on all that's been going since Elias's four month anniversary. The past few weeks have been so hectic, I'm not sure where to begin. I tend to avoid blogging when things aren't going as well as I'd like them to, but then I hesitate to blog when something really positive happens for fear of jinxing it. But then, what else is there to blog about? Say what you will about babies, but dull they most definitely are not.

So I'll give you the good news and the bad news. How 'bout we start with the bad news, or rather, the developments I haven't been necessarily eager to report. In short, Elias is now on formula, super-hypoallergenic Neocate to be exact. After a couple of weeks of vacillating between (and trying out) various formulas and always going back to breastfeeding, without much success on either front, we finally managed to get Elias to take a bottle. After a particularly spitty weekend and still more blood in his stool, we decided to wean the boy. As upsetting as it was to abandon breastfeeding eight months earlier than I'd originally hoped, I finally felt making the switch to formula was the right thing to do. And I'd just barely met my revised goal of continuing to breastfeed until sometime between four and six months. So ends the chapter on breastfeeding. I'm glad I stuck it out as long as I did and if it weren't for the poopy diaper situation, I think I would've kept at it a bit longer.

How did we get Elias to drink the stinky formula, you ask? I'm kind of hesitant to admit it, but basically, we flavor the stuff a little like you might flavor strong coffee. After reading this book, I ran the author's suggestion of adding vanilla and/or sweetener by our pediatrician and got the green light to proceed as long as it was temporary. We're down to a drop of vanilla and one packet of Splenda per batch of three or four bottles. I recently tried a few bottles of Neocate straight up and it went better than those early attempts, but there were several ounces of formula left when he spit out the nipple. Sheesh, after all this feeding craziness, prescription meds, gas drops, etc., the occasional chicken nugget in years to come isn't looking so bad.

Anyway, the switch seems to have finally cleared up his poo, which is great, but the spit up has increased a bit, I think because the formula hangs out in his tummy a lot longer than breastmilk did so there's more opportunity for it to travel north. He also seems to be teething, though, which is compounding a lot of our existing issues, I'm convinced. There's more saliva floating around, he's likely a little extra cranky, and it can't be helping with the changes in his feeding routine.

I feel like I could go on since the last couple of weeks have been jampacked with downright craziness, but it's getting late and mama's getting tired. The good news is that sleep does seem to be slowly but surely getting better again. Elias has been pretty consistently taking a morning nap that lasts about an hour and a half or two. The afternoons are still hit or miss, but even one nap a day is a huge improvement from a month ago. And over the past couple of weeks we've been mostly successful at getting him to bed before or right around 8:30. He's still waking up once or twice and at random times, but last night he slept straight from about 8 p.m. until about 6:30 this morning. I know blogging about it after just one night is seriously tempting fate, but whatever. I certainly wouldn't go calling it permanent even if it had been happening for weeks because if I've learned anything over the past four months and three weeks, it's that things change, for better or worse.

catching up

Things have been a little crazy around here lately what with the ongoing feeding challenges, a reflux flare-up, and some serious teething. This evening was particularly trying and I always find myself looking at recent photos of Elias after we've had a rough stretch. I'll get around to blogging about the past week or so when I have more time and energy, but for now I'll just catch up on some photos.

Here's our "little monster" napping peacefully (and unusually) in his car seat on the way to go apple picking a couple of weekends ago.


Note the Zutano hat, the only one that fits his head right now (and it's size 6-12 months!), underneath his fuzzy bear-eared hooded coat. I love baby hats with ears (as if babies aren't cute enough).


En francais! See what I mean about hats not fitting. I believe this is how it sat on his head after taking him out of his car seat.


And finally, new baby legs!

the five days of Halloween: day five

Okay, here it is, folks. Elias as Harold.




As in, Harold and the Purple Crayon.


The costume wasn't as easy to put together as it might seem. Finding a solid pair of footed pj's is tough, but we eventually lucked out at Land's End. Even though Elias is well within the 3 to 6 month range, these are a bit roomy. As for the purple crayon, in the end we went with the obvious choice (a purple crayon...one of those large crayons), but he only held the crayon for the photo op as it took about three seconds to find its way into his mouth.

Anyway, I love this story, about a boy who uses a purple crayon to draw various things as he goes for a moonlit walk one night and eventually tries to get back home to his room and his bed. You can watch the 1969 animated version here.


Happy Halloween!