I spy with my little eye something that starts with T

As in...Declan's getting teeth!

He's been grumpy and fussy for a month now. It started with the 4 month wakefuls, and then just kept going. He'd be grumpy, even though he was sleeping through the night again (mostly). I kept feeling his gums for teeth for the past 2 weeks, but nothing. Apparently, I didn't get my teeth until I was 10 months old, so I thought he wouldn't get his for a long time.

Saturday, I took him out, and the book store owner said he's teething, look how he's chewing on his fingers. I didn't tell her that he'd been chewing and sucking like that since he was 2 months old. But Saturday night, I was feeling his gums, and by golly, there were two little white nubbins poking up through his gums.

I really hope they come in quickly and he gets in a good mood. I forget what it's like to have a baby that's happy. I'm gonna miss my toothless baby though. I love that big toothless grin.

More random pictures

Peek A Boo!


Big Foot, Little Foot...


Big Hand, Little Hand...


"Let me take the picture, Mommy!"

All About Avocado

For the last week, Declan's been regressing on his solid food. He just hasn't wanted any. I thought finally, maybe it's because of the texture. He liked the avocado we started with, so I thought I'd try that again.

I got a nice ripe one today at the store and mashed it up. At first, he wanted nothing to do with it when I offered it on a spoon. He cried and turned away. So I gave him some more bottle, then let him play with the avocado. He got his hands in the bowl and squished it around. After a few minutes of that, I put some on a spoon and let him grab that and wave it around. Finally, a baby's habit of putting everything they grab in their mouth paid off. He would grab the spoon of avocado and push it into his mouth. He ended up eating about half of what I made, maybe a little less. He wore the rest of it.

Wanna see?

What a night...

We thought we were in for a normal night last night, but Declan had other plans.

It started off normal. Bottle and solid food practice at 6 pm. Tonight it was green beans (see earlier post about the food processor). The green beans went over better than the applesauce did (is he my kid?), but I think more of it went onto his lap than into his stomach. Maybe he just needs something that's smooth. The avocado went over a lot better than either the apple sauce or the green beans.

Then he had a sponge bath to get all the green beans off. He even managed to get green beans in the folds of his neck. How?! There's probably green beans wedged in his ears, too.

He absolutely LOVES getting a sponge bath, though. I lay him out on a couple of waterproof pads, strip him down and wash him all over with a washcloth and warm water. He giggles every time I wash his fingers and his chest/tummy. Then he gets tummy time while I rub lotion onto his backside. Ever since he had a bad run-in with diaper rash, he's been getting extra tummy time and lotion, and it seems to help. No more diaper rash.

Then a little more play time, and by 7:15, he's fussy and it's time for his bedtime bottle. This kid is always so predictable. I give him his bottle while rocking him in a dark room, and by the time he finishes 6 oz, he's pretty much asleep. I rock him a bit more and put him down, and he's out for the night. The past few days have been wonderful like that.

But apparently, Declan can't do the same thing for more than a few days. I thought I might have trouble when I put him down and he woke up as soon as I laid him in the crib. I gave him his paci, turned on the baby monitor and left. He slept for about an hour, while I iced the zucchini brownies I'd made earlier. Declan woke up crying, but I snuck in, gave him his paci, and he fell asleep again. so far, so good.

Daniel and settled down to eat brownies and watch Project Runway. We got about 15 minutes in, and Declan woke up again. This time, he cried and started screaming and having a little melt-down. It was bad enough I picked him up to rock him and soothe him. Daniel heated up some formula for him, and he guzzled another 3 oz, but he refused to go back to sleep. As soon as I put him down, he woke up, and if I walked out of view, he cried. I stayed at his crib for 30 minutes, but he never calmed down.

Finally, I picked him up and carried him to our bed. I laid down with him, and he was immediately asleep. So we left him there, and Daniel slept on the couch that night. I was worried I'd suffocate the baby, and I kept waking up and checking to make sure he was still breathing. I'd move his hand or stroke his cheek until he moved. In spite of my bothering him, Declan slept from 9:30 til 5 am. Amazingly, so did I, aside from my occasional bedchecks on the baby. I think I barely moved all night, because I was worried about rolling on him or smothering his airways. But he was fine, and it was kind of nice to snuggle my little one all night long.

Still, I hope this doesn't become a habit. Our bed isn't big enough for three.

Random pictures

"I'm sorry, I can't hear you. I'm busy shoving applesauce in my ear."


"I'm gonna get you, little fishie!"


"Mom loves putting me in cute outfits with matching hats, but I'm not so sure this is the right look for me. I'm more of a onesie baby."

I discovered Declan hates the food processor

I was making green beans for him to try tonight. I steamed them, then put them in the food processor to puree them (as much as possible). He was in the other room in his exersaucer. I heard him cry out a little bit, and Daniel was in with him. I asked, is the noise scaring him? Then Declan lets out this enormous, loud wail and scream.

Daniel said it was hilarious. That Declan had to wind up to it. His face turned red, he took a couple of deep breaths, then he waved his hands in the air and stomped his feet on the exersaucer bottom and screamed as loud as he could.

Poor guy had tears running down his face. So I took him and cuddled a bit, then I put him in his crib and turned on his mobile. Gave him his lovey to hold and a pacifier to suck, and within 60 seconds, he was calm. In another minute or two, he was laughing and kicking. All was forgotten.

Argh, no internet

Verizon was out from noon yesterday until late this morning. Very annoying. It's not until something like this happens that I realize how very much I rely on the information on the internet.

Want to post pictures and video...Can't.
Want to look up the weather...Can't.
Want to find a movie time....Can't.
Want to find out why there's no internet...Can't.
Need to Google for a couple of images...Can't.
Need to check my email...Can't.

I really rely very heavily on the information cloud out on the internet.

Moving on to Applesauce

And back again. I made applesauce tonight. It was so easy. Just cut up a couple of apples, steamed them for 5-10 minutes, then ran them through the food mill. He was hungry and it was still hot, so I put a small amount in the freezer for a couple of minutes while he started on his bottle.

I gave him his first bite of applesauce and he looked affronted. :) Sort of like.."Hey, that's not my rice cereal. What the heck is this?" And he kept sticking his hand in his mouth with the applesauce, so I think more of it went on his hand and bib than actually into his stomach. We only got through about half a tablespoon of applesauce, and he got too upset with it to keep eating it. So we made a half batch of rice cereal and fed him that, hoping it would help him sleep through the night.

I will say, my baby is such a good boy about going to sleep. We've got our night time ritual now. He eats around 5-6, gets a bath immediately afterward, since he's covered in food. Then we play for an hour or so. As soon as he shows signs of tiredness or fussiness, he gets tucked into his swaddle cloth with his arms out and gets his bedtime bottle. By the time he finishes that, he's pretty much asleep. I rock him a little more, then set him in his crib, and with any luck, he'll sleep through til morning. This morning, he slept all the way until 6 am!

Happy Birthday To Us

It was Daniel's and my birthday recently. It was a very strange birthday. We didn't actually get each other any presents, because we were both too busy dealing with Declan. Daniel said I didn't have any hobbies now besides the baby, and he's right. I got Daniel a Grill Daddy, (as seen on tv...oooh, ahhh). Heh.

But Declan gave us such a rough time this weekend. He went 2 days without napping at all, and he was still waking up in the middle of the night hungry. I know he's a big boy and he's supposed to be able to sleep through the night now, but he was hungry enough to eat a full bottle in the middle of the night. It's not like he's snacking and just wanting attention.

Yesterday, he was so tired, and he was fighting going to sleep with every ounce of his being. It was funny and sad and frustrating to see him yawning so much, but when we put him down, he'd be wide awake and want to play. He'd also cry if he lost sight of either of us. He wanted to be upright all the time, and hated being on his playmat. All in all, it was a long, rough weekend.

Today was much better though. He slept the night through (was the rice cereal last night the reason?) and he napped twice today. I was able to make chocolate brioche, then chocolate brownies to take to work tomorrow. I even got the second set of curtains hung up in his room and did a load of laundry. I feel rather productive today.

Moving on - Rice Cereal

Can't say the rice cereal was a raging success. The first night, he didn't really care for it. Tonight, he liked it a little better, and ate about 3/4 of the tablespoon I mixed up. He was wearing most of it...


And this morning, he held his own bottle for the first time.


I couldn't resist peeking around the corner to see him sleeping in his swing today.


And the last one for today...he was in a good mood in his kick 'n play bouncer, and he just laughs like crazy when you put your foot on his chest and wiggle it around.

Starting Solids - Avocado Time

So lately, Declan's been in a growth spurt. He won't sleep the night through anymore because he wakes up hungry in the middle of the night. He's eating almost 40 ounces of formula a day and he's more than doubled his birth weight. So I decided to try him on solid foods tonight.

His first food is avocado. I had bought a nice ripe one to go with my eggs, but it got badly bruised on the way home. So I mashed it up and mixed a little bit with some formula to make it nice and runny, then it was dinner time for Declan.

We started off with an appetizer of a couple ounces of formula before we tried the avocado. I had a spoon, but we had more success if I dipped a bit on my finger and put it in his mouth. He's used to sucking on my finger, so it wasn't as strange as the spoon.


At first, he was rather nonplused. He just sat there and didn't do much. He didn't push it out, but he didn't move it around in his mouth either. Eventually, he kind of wiggled his tongue and I think he swallowed some. I kept it up, dipping a little bit on my finger and putting it in his mouth. After 3-4 times, he seemed restless, so we went back to the bottle, but I think he was confused, because there was still avocado in his mouth, so he wasn't sucking very much on the bottle.

We went back and forth a few times.

"Mom, I'm not sure what this is, and I'm not sure I like it."


and...

"You can put it on my lips, but you can't make me open my mouth."


I bought a couple more avocados. He'll get those for the next four more days until we try something new. Maybe I'll try green beans.

4 Month Old Pictures

I'm a week late putting these up. I've just been busy around the house and hadn't gotten to publishing these.

Here's the one with him in his 4 month sticker shirt.


This was the first time we put him in his high chair. He seems happy enough about it.


"Mom, enough with the stupid things on my head already!"


And here Declan's all ready to go for his evening walk.


And finally...Houston...We have toes!!

We have a tripod sitter

Granted, he only managed to stay that way for about 3 seconds, but he did support himself.

Starting Solids

Declan's pedi gave us the go-ahead to start him on solids if we want to. I keep vacillating on the issue. On the one hand, waiting until 6 months makes it less likely he'll develop allergies, and it's just plain easier to feed him a bottle right now. It's easy, it's quick, and it's relatively mess-free.

On the other hand, he's more than doubled his birth weight, he can sit upright in his high chair, and he's eating 40 ounces of formula a day for the last 2 days. He's either in a growth spurt, or he's big enough he needs to start on some solids. I figure I'll give it another 2-4 days, and if he's still eating 40 ounces, I'll start him on some rice or avocado.

I think it'll be fun, and I'm excited to cook for him and try new things. I just know that after the initial fun, it'll be lots more work in prepping meals for him, because I don't want to use commercially prepared baby foods very much. I want to make most of his meals. And of course, having the camera near by to capture his expressions.

I do refuse to put cereal in his bottles, especially at night. Everything I've read says that giving them cereal in a bottle to help sleep is a myth, and you want the baby to associate solid foods with a spoon.

Busy weekend

Saturday, we made a trek to Ikea. We talked about getting a new bookcase for the computer area to store office supplies in, but I also wanted to get some baby stuff, and we just didn't have the budget for both. So I got all the baby stuff I wanted: another set of curtains to match the first pair, a play rug, a pillow that matches the decor of the nursery, some matching stickers, and Daniel got the little guy a wooden block toy. It's the kind with different colored wooden beads strung on colored, bent wires. Daniel was so bummed after putting it together when he read that the recommended age was 18+ months. But we put it next to Declan anyway, and he immediately started batting at the blocks. He likes looking and batting at it, so we count it as a score!

And we even got to eat meatballs for lunch. Yummy. And I successfully resisted the urge to eat the cookies and different candies there.

Sunday I got a lot done, and even more undone. We bought door latches for the cabinets, to start baby proofing the kitchen. However, the cordless screwdriver's battery charger stopped working, and for some reason, my corded screwdriver wouldn't drill the pilot holes into the cabinet doors. Are they made of metal or something? So I have drills all over one of my countertops until I get this sorted out.

Then I wanted to work on my rainbarrel, but once again, I didn't have the right tools. Without a battery, I can't use the jigsaw attachment on my cordless drill. I didn't find any curtain rods that I wanted at Ikea, so I can't hang up the curtains I got, and they didn't have the one set of curtains I did want there, to hang on the existing curtain rod. If that's confusing, don't worry. It happened because we changed where the baby's room was going to be. I did get the stickers up on the wall, but overnight, a couple of them fell off.

I hung some cute pictures on the wall, over the stickers, but now Daniel wants to rehang the door to that bedroom, so that we can close it off when the baby is sleeping and do stuff that makes more noise, like cook in the kitchen. I'm somewhat opposed though, because I like having that open wall space, and the baby needs to learn to sleep through daytime household activity. Plus at night, we keep it quiet, so it's not like the door will really help.

I have a list of stuff I need to get from Walmart and/or Home Depot, and I was going to stop on my way home. I even drove the truck into work today so I could stop. But guess what? I forgot my wallet at home. No cash, no credit cards. Guess I'm not going to do that. On top of that, the soda machine ate half my coins when I wanted a drink at lunch time. Maybe I'll just take off an hour early or so.

I also made more wheat bread from the no-knead recipe I found. I like it a lot. Very moist, very dense, but not brick-like, like a lot of whole-wheat breads I've made. Seriously thinking about ordering the book.

Declan's Four Month Doctor Visit

Overall, our little guy is doing just fine. He weighed 18 pounds 6 oz and was 24.5 inches long. I must have mis-measured him at 3 months. His weight is at the 95th percentile, length is 70th percentile and head measurement at 50th percentile. The doctor was very pleased at his consistency. He's been at those percentiles each time he's gone in, so she says he's doing very good.

She also said that he had very good fine motor control for his age. He was reaching for and grabbing his toys while we were there. No sign of wanting to roll over yet, but that will come in the next 2 months. He likes sitting up, another good sign, and he's vocalizing well. Plus he learned to do raspberries this past weekend, and he said 'baa', which is a new sound for him. Maybe because we say "ba ba" for his bottles every time he gets fed.

The down side is that he has eczema on his arm, chest and bottom. His cradle cap was caused by eczema, and the fact that he has a lot of ear wax is another symptom. Weird.

The pedi said we could start rice cereal anytime we wanted to in the next 2 months. He has excellent head control, so I just want to wait a little longer until he seems to grasp the idea of eating from watching us. We now sit him at his high chair for dinner with us every evening.

I think he's getting the 4-month wakefuls, as some other mothers put it. He was sleeping through the night for the last week or more, and doing so well. Then the last 2 nights, he's been up at 2 wanting to play or eat or something. Last night he devolved into a full blown screaming temper tantrum at 4 am, and neither Daniel nor I had any clue why.

Ugh, I hope this doesn't continue for long.