One

Our sweet little baby boy turned one a week ago and he’s growing up everyday!

I’m so proud of him and the amazing kid that he is becoming.  He started daycare a few weeks ago and has been a champ when it comes to getting settled there.  He clings to me when I drop him off, but he’s happy as can be just minutes later.  He’s eating well and napping decently, which is all I can hope for right now.

At home, he’s become a bit of a mama’s boy, which I suppose is probably normal now that we’re separated all day long.  I’m not complaining, though!  My older son has always favoured his dad, so it’s nice to be someone’s first choice for now.

Eating

We’re still working on offering a variety of foods at home.  Bo is slowly losing interest in the purees, which is nice.  He accepts a larger range of textures now and shows interest in new things when placed on his tray.  He LOVED his birthday cupcakes.  Let me rephrase that, he LOVED the icing on his birthday cupcakes.  He licked them clean!

I’m still breastfeeding, but pretty much only twice or three times a day.  I feed him first thing in the morning and right before bed a night, with a quick feed right after daycare some evenings.

Sleep

The most amazing thing happened when Bo started going to daycare all day… sleep!  For the past couple of weeks, he has been sleeping 11-12 hours straight at night.  This is incredible.  For most of the last year, he woke at least twice per night, sometimes more.  My older son didn’t sleep through the night consistently until close to age two.  I know things can change with the drop of a hat, but my goodness, this is just dreamy.  I will take any bit of sleep I can get!

Development

There’s been lots of babbling going on around here.  My favourite, of course, is “mamamamama” but there is also a lot of “babababa” and “nanananana”.  No other real words, although he’s let out a few “uh ohs” and “wows” at appropriate times.  He’s finally showing interest in standing and will pull himself up using a couch or chair, but not too much in the way of cruising yet.  His crawling is very fast and effective (especially if he knows the fridge or dishwasher is open!) so he doesn’t have much incentive to walk right now.

He has six teeth with one more that looks close to breaking through.  His hair is pretty full and he’s even had a haircut (by daddy) already.  His big brother was still shiny-bald at age one, so this is new for us!

Personality

Bo is a sweetheart.  He’s easy-going and happy most of the time.  He’s not really a crier, but will whine a bit when he starts to get tired.

He is really starting to enjoy playing.  He actually pushed a car across the floor the other day and I heard him mumble, “vrrrooom!”  He is even happier when he’s playing with his favourite person in the world – his older brother.  There is nothing better than listening to my two boys laughing together.  It’s the best.

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One Year Stats

Height: 30.5″
Weight: 22lbs 13oz
Teeth: 6
Clothing size: Tops/onesies/sleepers-12 months, Pants-9 months
Sleeping: 11 hrs per night, plus two 1-1.5 hr naps per day
Eating: breastfeeding 2-3 times per day, plus breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner (including homo milk in cup)

Pain in the boob

The combination of full days at daycare and sleeping through the night (yes, you read that correctly!) are wreaking havoc on my breasts. I woke up this morning and nursed Bo, as usual. Then I realized something: my left boob still felt full. Dammit!  We’ve got a clog. 

The whole weaning process is definitely a pain. Neither of us is ready to wean completely, but since I go back to work in a week, we won’t be able to do more than about 3 nursing sessions per day (morning, after work/daycare and bedtime).  

I know this current clogged duct situation is kind of my own fault. Rather than attempt to drop the pre-nap feeds at home, I decided we’d go cold turkey when Bo started napping at daycare. I knew he’d be super-pissed at me if I tried to put him to bed without breastfeeding first so it would be easier on both of us if we kept doing it. At daycare, he went to sleep fine without nursing because I wasn’t there. 

And then the sleeping. I will not complain about this because it is amazing. For five weeknights this past week, Bo slept 11-12 hours straight. Yahoo for STTN!!  He woke once each night this weekend (we’re at the farm) so, of course, my boobs got confused again. 

Amazingly, as I typed this, my little barracuda just managed to clear the clog. During his morning nap, I applied a heating pad and massaged like crazy. Once he woke, with a little acrobatics and combo of football hold and our regular position, he seems to have emptied me out. Hallelujah!

I have a feeling I’m in for some more pain over the next couple of weeks as we complete our transition from stay at home mom to working mama. 

Eleven months

My baby is eleven months old today and what a busy month it’s been!  The biggest news this month was the start of daycare.  We’ve made it through week one without any major incidents.  He’s been relatively happy there, although there are still some hurdles to cross before he’s completely settled in (i.e. actually attempting to have him nap there!)  At least we still have time before I go back to work.

Personality

He’s definitely getting a bit more shy these days.  At his big brother’s birthday party last weekend, he was not really a fan of the people and the action.  When he was littler, he would smile and go to just about anyone.  Now, he wants to keep his parents close by.

At home, though, he’s all smiles and laughs.  He loves playing with his big brother (who he finds totally hilarious!)

Sleep

Daycare must be wearing him out because he’s slept through the night a few times this week.  Anywhere from 8-11 hours, which feels AMAZING.  Of course, after five days at the daycare centre, he sounds like he’s coming down with a cold, so there’s a good chance this stretch of good sleeping is about to come to an end.  Oh well, I’ll take what I can get.

Napping is still going very well and he consistently does two naps a day.  Morning nap happens around 9:30am and usually lasts 1.5 hours.  Afternoon nap moves around a bit more but he’ll often do another 1.5 hours in the afternoon.

Eating

Surprise, surprise, eating is still a challenge.  He was really into the smooth purees a couple of weeks ago and we were flying through them.  Now, he’ll eat a few bites and start shaking his head (no).  He loves crackers.  He enjoys pita with hummus.  But cooked vegetables?  Eggs?  Fish?  Chicken?  Forget it.  If I put bits of food on his tray, he touches it with his finger, makes a face and smushes it.  We continue to offer him a variety of foods but, for now, he’s still nursing quite a lot.

In preparation for daycare, we spent a lot of time this past month working on drinking from sippy cups.  We finally discovered that he enjoyed using the cup with a straw so we bought a bunch and he uses them for milk and water.  Ever the picky eater, it turns out he only likes warm milk, so we’ve learned to heat it up if we want him to actually drink it.

Development

He still isn’t cruising, but he’s finally pulling himself up to standing position more frequently.  He’s a super-fast crawler these days so we have to make sure to keep things out of reach if we don’t want him to get them (especially his brother’s toys!)  He continues to be obsessed with clapping and wants me to clap every time I sing (which turns out to be very often!)  As soon as I start singing, he comes over and grabs my hands, clapping them together for me.  Hilarious!

Ten months

My little one is now ten months old!  It feels like Bo spent much of the last month being sick (first a stomach virus, then a nasty cold) but when he wasn’t feeling miserable, he was busy mastering new skills.

Personality

It appears that Bo is becoming more attached to me as he gets older.  At the moment, I’m definitely his favourite person.  I’m ok with that for now (nothing makes me feel better than seeing him light up when I enter the room!) but he’ll need to get over his attachment soon so that I can return to work in a couple of months!

He’s really into clapping right now and especially enjoys when people clap for him.  If he starts to get whiny or fussy, sometimes all it takes is a round of spontaneous applause to cheer him up.  Then he starts clapping himself and forgets what he was whining about.

Sleep

%#$&!  It’s not going well.  All the recent illnesses have really wreaked havoc with our sleeping and I’m starting to feel pretty run down.  Last night, Bo woke up five times in the night and would only settle if I went in and nursed him.  (He doesn’t actually fall asleep nursing, but he eats hungrily and then allows me to put him back down awake).

I’ve tried letting him cry but then he starts coughing so hard that he gags and then gets really, really mad.  I really hope that he recovers completely from his cold soon so that we can try to get back into a decent sleep routine.  I’m just way too tired right now.

Eating

Being sick really messed up the whole eating solids routine too.  He went a few days where he refused to eat anything solid, but continued to nurse (thankfully).  He seems to have his appetite back, but we’re struggling a bit with textured foods.  It seems that he really likes his puree right now.  His current favourite is a pouch of organic turkey and vegetables.  He’s also digging the plain greek yogurt.

Development

The big news this month was that Bo finally started crawling!  At about 9.5 months it just clicked and off he went.  He’s quite the speedster now, which left us scrambling to make sure our gates were up and nothing dangerous was left lying around.  Life is definitely a bit more complicated now that he’s on the move, but it’s also pretty fun.

This morning he pulled himself up to standing for the first time.  He’s always been pretty wobbly and, until now, showed absolutely no desire to stand up (even if you held his hands).  Then, all of a sudden, he just did it like it was no big deal.

Bo celebrated his first Christmas this month.  While he didn’t care much about the presents, he sure loved all the cardboard and wrapping paper!

Nine months

Bo turned nine months old this past weekend.  It’s crazy to think that he’s been here (almost!) as long as he was cooking inside me!

Personality

He continues to be a sweet and happy little guy.  We have started to notice, though, that he’s getting a little more shy these days.  Where he used to smile openly at strangers in the grocery store, now he glances away or tries to shield his face when someone looks at him.  But, if you give it a bit of time, you can always win him over.

Sleep

Things were going really well in the sleep department (even one or two nights of 11 hours straight!) but then Bo caught a cold from his big brother.  Anyone with kiddies knows that a cold can mess up sleep, even long after the child is better.  A couple of nights ago, I was up every two hours with Bo, which is killer.  I’m hoping, praying, that we can back into a better routine of only one or two wakings per night.

He still naps pretty well – usually 1.5-2 hours, twice a day.  The key, I’ve discovered, is to stay the hell away from his room at the 45-minute mark.  That seems to be the end of his sleep cycle and time at which he’ll wake up if he hears a noise.  If we make it past that time, he’ll like do another 45 minutes-one hour.  Oh crap… just jinxed myself.  There he is, crying now…

…four hours later I was back on the couch to complete this update and then promptly lost the rest of the post.  Sometimes technology drives me crazy.  Oh well, the jist of it is that it seems that sleep is still a bit unpredictable around here.

Eating

Still chugging along.  He really enjoys purees of all kinds and opens his mouth freely to be fed (this is still quite amazing to me!).  His favourite seems to be spinach and rutabaga… weird.  He also loves cheese but hates yogurt.  He’s getting really good at picking up small bits of food with his fingers and feeding himself.

Development

Still no legitimate crawling, but he’s so, so close.  He gets up on his hands and knees, but then pushes himself backwards.  He gets down on his stomach and spins in all directions.  And, we’ve noticed this week that he can now get from his stomach back up into sitting.  He’s still very wobbly when he stands so he isn’t into cruising yet.

Of course, he probably hasn’t had much time to work on crawling because he’s been so busy teething!  This guy now has six teeth.  I’m sure this has something to do with the erratic sleep we’ve been dealing with.

Anyway, all that being said, he’s doing awesome and I love him to bits.

Eight months

Another month has passed and Bo seems more and more grown-up each day.

Personality

People comment all the time about how happy Bo is.  It’s quite amazing, really.  He’s just a really good-natured little man.

Now that he’s sitting up without any support, he’s even happier.  We have lots of fun playing together on the floor and I love when he laughs at me.  Of course, he laughs even harder at his brother and dad!  I have a feeling the three men in my life are really going to have fun together as the boys get older.

Bo’s getting chattier too!  He babbles and especially enjoys when you mimic his sounds.  Sometimes we end up laughing hysterically after having a “conversation” of babble.

Sleep

Napping is still going really well.  His morning nap is almost always 1.5 hours or a little longer.  The afternoon nap is often a bit shorter and depends a lot on what we’ve done in between naps and how long I’ve kept him awake (i.e. too long awake = shittier nap!)

Nighttime sleep is hit and miss.  Typically, Bo wakes twice per night to nurse.  If I’m lucky (or if I decide to dream feed) then I can squeeze in one of the feeds before I go to sleep.  Then, he sometimes only wakes one more time.  I know that I could sleep train him at this point and that he probably doesn’t actually need to wake to eat in the night, but, for the most part, it doesn’t bother me.  Sure, I’m tired.  But at least he eats quickly and goes back to sleep without any trouble.  So I don’t really mind the extra time and cuddles with him.  (Ask me if I feel the same way in a few months when I’m back at work!)

Eating

Better!!  So much better!  Finally, the kid actually opens his mouth when a spoon comes near it (sometimes) and meals aren’t nearly as stressful as they were with his older brother.

Aside from a variety of purees, this baby loves cheese (extra old cheddar, obviously), toast (dry and cut into strips), scrambled eggs and O cereal.  He’s tried rainbow trout (loved) and pork tenderloin (not as much).  He gags much less often now and is getting pretty good at putting things in his mouth himself.

Development

I’ve noticed that a lot of babies Bo’s age are crawling now.  He’s not crawling yet, but he pushes himself backwards or pivots around if you place him on his front.  He also manages to scoot forward when he’s sitting on his bum.

The biggest change this month was the appearance of his first two teeth!  The bottom front teeth popped through his gums earlier this week and they sure are sharp!  When he opens up his mouth and dives towards my nipple to nurse, I have a brief moment of fear.  Luckily, he’s only nipped at me once since the teeth arrived.

Bitten

Another milestone reached over here today.  This morning, Bo and I were playing on the floor.  He grabbed my hand and jammed it in his mouth – his usual way to ease his sore gums.  But this time, when he chomped down, I felt a prick!  His first tooth has officially arrived!  I guess that explains why he was up every two hours last night.

Although he didn’t sleep well and he’s been Drooly McSlobberton lately, he hasn’t been too grumpy about teething.  In fact, he continues to smile his great big grin, which is now extra-cute with that little bottom tooth popping out!

No, the teething really hasn’t been too bad.  But, you what isn’t too fun?  The time change.  I remember loving the “fall back” time change as a teenager and prior to having kids.  There was nothing better than an extra hour of sleep on the weekend.  However, it turns out that my kids never got that memo.  To them, the time change meant that there was an extra hour during the day instead.  Which meant that they were up earlier.  And that they stayed awake longer.  And that they were way more tired.  Yesterday AND today.  Let’s hope we can get back on track tonight…

I need to get some sleep

I’m exhausted today.  Bo has been waking multiple times a night to be fed for the past few days.  Then, last night, Littleman woke once, asking for water (we’re trying to wean him off water at bedtime in an attempt to get away from nighttime diapers.  He’s fully toilet trained during the day, but still gets pretty wet at night).  On top of all those wake-ups, D is getting over a cold and snored all night long.  Needless to say, I didn’t get much sleep last night.

This morning, I dragged myself out of bed and went for my final run before I attempt my first 5K race this weekend.  As soon as I returned, Bo was ready for his morning nap so I took him upstairs to settle him down.  As I was nursing him, I heard a text message arrive on my phone.  I checked it and it was from D, who was downstairs.  He had sent me this article: Why our breastfed babies and toddlers wake so frequently…

I read through the article and, let me just say, my husband is lucky that I was otherwise engaged.  Otherwise, he would have gotten an earful!

The article starts out talking about how “sleep deprivation is the cruelest form of torture.”  Yes, I agree.  It’s bad, really bad.  Then, though, it goes on to outline all the reasons why it’s good that babies wake up in the night to nurse.

I’m sure many, if not all, of the reasons are valid.  I’m sure my baby benefits from being breastfed on demand, even if it means I’m tired.  But, holy shit, I didn’t need to receive that info from my well-rested husband who snored his way through the night while I woke up multiple times with our kids!

Luckily, I stumbled across some excellent advice at the end of the article, which I quickly pointed out to him:

Leave the washing and dirty kitchen and go sleep when your child sleeps during the day, cancel your plans for the day and stay home to have a quiet day instead.  Delay returning to work for as long as possible.

Sounds good to me… I’ll get right on that!

Sleep begets sleep

There are a lot of sayings that people like to throw around when it comes to raising a baby.  Many are useless pieces of advice, but a few seem to have some truth to them.

Sleep begets sleep is one of the sayings that I’ve found to be true.

With both my boys, the more/better they napped during the day, the better they would sleep at night.  Sometimes people would suggest keeping the baby awake during the day to help him sleep longer at night.  I learned pretty early on, though, how inaccurate that was for my kids.  Sure, neither of them slept “through the night” consistently as babies, but keeping them awake during the day made the whole night even worse.

So, yes, it appears that sleep begets sleep.

At least until yesterday.

Yesterday, Bo had a 2.5 hour nap around midday and then another 45 minute late afternoon nap.  Fantastic, I thought.  I put him to bed at his usual time (7ish) and crossed my fingers for a good night.  Sadly, that wasn’t the case.  Every two hours, he squawked and fussed until I went into his room and fed him.  By morning, I was exhausted.

I know that babies are unpredictable and can change their schedules unexpectedly.  I just sure hope that it was a fluke and we can get on track for some decent sleep this weekend.  We’re spending the Canadian Thanksgiving holiday at the farm with lots of family and a well-rested mom and baby will be much happier!

Seven months

We just passed Bo’s seven month birthday and his development is really starting to blow my mind.  I’m starting to feel some anxiety about going back to work, but people keep reminding me that I still have a few months to go.  I know I say this every month, but time is flying by way too fast for my liking!

The kid is growing so fast and, at his last pediatrician appointment a couple of weeks ago he weighed almost 20lbs and was 27″ long.  His head size was in the 99th percentile, which makes him look even bigger than he is.  It also makes finding hats that fit him very difficult!  Too bad it’s getting cold and hat season is upon us!

Personality

I’ve started to notice that my happy little guy is getting fussier these days.  He still doesn’t cry very much and will smile for just about anybody.  But, when we’re home alone all day, I think he’s starting to get a bit bored.  He used to be happy to lie on his play mat or hang out in his exersaucer while I ran around and cleaned up/made dinner/folded laundry/etc.  Now, I can only get a few minutes at a time before he starts whining and wants a change of scenery.

He also seems to have realized that I can walk away and he gets pretty annoyed if I leave the room.  Luckily our house is pretty small (can’t believe I’m actually saying that my small house is a good thing!) so he can hang out in the living room and still see me when I’m in the kitchen.

The one thing that always makes Bo happy is his big brother.  Littleman can do no wrong in Bo’s eyes.  The two of them have so much fun together already and I can already imagine what life will be like around here once Bo gets a bit bigger.  Total chaos!

Sleep

Sleep is like a box of chocolates.  You never know what you’re going to get.

For example, last night, Bo did two 5-hr stretches of sleep, followed by an almost-2-hr stretch.  Pretty decent.  But on Saturday night, he woke every hour.  Ugh.

Naps, too, are kind of all over the place.  I know this is partially my fault.  He seems to want/need a decent morning nap, but some of our regular activities interfere with the nap timing and I end up having to wake him before he’s ready.  The afternoon nap(s) are all over the place but often seem to be better if he’s had a good morning nap.  All this means that I end up with an over tired, fussy baby on the days that we have morning activities.  Unfortunately, for my own sanity (and physical well-being), I’m not ready to give up our exercise class to allow for longer naps.

Eating

We’re still working on solids but it’s been slow going.  We’ve tried offering him some “finger foods” such as steamed veggies, shredded meat, soft fruits and pieces of turkey meatloaf.  Most made him gag and I don’t think he actually “ate” any of them.  We’ve also continued to feed him some purees, which have been somewhat more successful.  Keyword being “somewhat.”   I’ve made most of the purees myself, with the favourites being zucchini and butternut squash.

We’ve tried offering the bottle and/or sippy cup with formula every so often, just to see if he’s interested.  It certainly isn’t an effective way to feed him (he chews on it more than he drinks it) but it’s a good distraction if we’re out somewhere and he starts to get fussy.

Breastfeeding is still going well, although he gets distracted very easily so I have to take him into his room if I want to make sure he gets a good feed.  Otherwise he pulls off constantly to look around while I frantically try to stop my milk from spraying all over the place (which is somewhat awkward when I’m anywhere but home!)

Development

He’s sitting on his own!  In the past week, we had a huge breakthrough when it comes to sitting up and he rarely tips over anymore.  Being able to sit up on his own seems to make him much happier.

If we put him on the floor on his back, he pretty much always rolls onto his stomach.  He’s relatively content there for a while, then he gets annoyed and seems to have forgotten how to roll back over onto his back.  He sleeps on his side but if I put him in his crib and he doesn’t feel like sleeping, he rolls onto his stomach and then screams bloody murder until I come and get him.  I think he’s discovered that this is the best way to get my attention and he’s totally playing me.  I’m a sucker.