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!