Solids!

Z has joined the wonderful world of solid foods! We decided (through help from kellymom and a couple of books we've been reading) to wait until exactly 6 months and start with bananas. So, Saturday was the day. He had a great half birthday. He took 2 great naps. Then we took him for a walk and came home to our VERY ripe banana, mashed it up and got to it. He did really well. I really don't know how much he actually got, but it was a good start. On the menu for the coming weeks, more bananas, sweet potatoes, apple sauce and avocados. Eventually, we will mix in some rice cereal. Between Hungry Monkey, Feeding the Whole Family with Whole Foods, and Top 100 Baby Purees, I think we are going to have plenty of guidance for this process (yeah, I went a little nuts on Amazon).

Here he is ready for some food! It took us far too much time and effort to set this thing up.

The grub, a very ripe banana and a little bit of breastmilk. His mouth is watering at this point. 

Not sure what to think about this

Oh, the drama

The verdict: delicious

Posing with his first food on his face

On Sunday, I actually fed him in his infant carrier at Books-A-Million, and he ate whole serving which was 1/3 of a banana! Then, we headed to Superior Grill, where I topped him off, and we had a great dinner! One day Z is going to love fajitas!

6 Months!

Z is 6 months old today! We are so excited and thankful to have reached this big milestone with our happy healthy baby.

To commemorate the last half year, here is a count of some of the important (and not-so-important) things that have been happening in his life.

First time he slept through the night: 2 months
Last time he woke up screaming multiple times at night: Last Sunday
Hairs lost: thousands, between him and me, maybe more
Colds: 2
Dinners at Superior Grill: 10
Successful dinners at Superior Grill: 7
Pounds gained by Z: 10
Increase in power bill due to fears of Z getting too cold at night: 50%

He's a good size 3 in diapers, nurses in the morning and evening and gets 5.5 oz. bottles of breastmilk during the day, for a total of 4 1/2 to 5 feedings a day. We are trying solids today (a separate post to follow). We have somewhat established a bedtime routine which we try to start at 6:30. It begins with his bath, then we put on pj's, get one last feeding, read him a book, then we sing him his favorite songs (by no means, can either of us sing, but he doesn't seem to mind). We zip him up in his sleep sack and off to sleep he goes. Most of the time we put him down on one end of the crib and he wakes up on the other. Lately, it has been taking 20 minutes or so for him to give up and fall asleep, and he's almost always up before 7 in the morning. As for naps, every time we get a good nap thing going, something seems to throw it off, like daylight savings time. So I'm not going to comment on that.

He now, as of about 2 weeks ago, can roll both ways and does frequently. He can make his way halfway across the room before you even realize what he's doing. He's close to sitting up, but not quite there. I still have to support him a little.
He lights up when you sing Itsy Bitsy Spider, seems to be very ticklish, and smiles sometimes when you cough or sneeze, which is a little strange.
Z is very sensitive to loud noises, especially when he's a little tired, eating, or in the bath. If you laugh suddenly or drop something, it startles him then he starts crying immediately. Not sure if this is a personality thing showing up or maybe that he's gotten used to peace and quiet. He'll have to get over that soon, because we are some loud people!
I couldn't get as many smiles for this photo session, but these are the faces he makes more often anyway, so enjoy!

Progress

I time-traveled the other night back to Z's early days when he would scream and scream for no reason. I have to admit, I don't miss those days... He didn't nap well for whatever reason, and he was pretty calm when I got home around 5, but by 5:30 or so, he was in rare form. I mean screaming when you hold him, screaming when you put him down. Unlike the early days, no amount of white noise or bouncing would calm him down. After I tried (unsuccessfully) to put him down for a nap, thinking he was just way overtired, I gave him some tylenol and took him to the bath to try and chill him out. That worked, thank God, until I got him out, and so I turned to my final weapon and fed him. Although he had just eaten less than 2 hours prior, he went to town. Perhaps it was teething or some kind of freak growth spurt, but whatever it was, I would appreciate if we didn't go through it again.

One good thing came out of it though, he was so tired that we put him down without the swaddle, and he didn't make a peep the whole night. Those of you who have been faithfully following know that we have been struggling with getting him to sleep without being swaddled. We have all been tightly bound to the kiddopotamus swaddleme velcro swaddle blanket since he was about 2 weeks old. It was our savior on many occasions, but now, it's time to cut the cord or the velcro or whatver. It's time to get over it. So, Happiest Baby on the Block suggests starting with leaving one arm out, as illustrated here. Note, this picture was taken about a month ago, so to say this has been a process is an understatement.

After a few unsuccessful naps and admittedly a lack of commitment on our part, we went back to the swaddle. Then I read online that some people had success transitioning out of the swaddle by using the sleep sack, which I would describe as a sleeping bag meets a snuggie. So, we have now had 3 nights in a row of uninterrupted sleep in the sleep sack. That is progress! Here he is in his sleep sack bright-eyed at 7 a.m.

Totally unrelated, but doesn't he look like a big boy in this picture?

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day all! Sadly, I do not have any St. Patty's Day attire for Z or anything green for that matter, bad mommy. Maybe I can remedy that situation with a quick trip to TJ Maxx... We are excited that Nana and Tata are in town this week taking care of Z and us!  They have been spending the day with him and cooking for us at night. A big thanks to them!

In Z news, the time change kinda messed up his schedule, but the past 2 nights, he has slept from 7 to 7 (and taken good naps during the day, too), which is really good for him. He usually likes to wake us up around 6 (especially on the weekends). He has started actually bouncing in his exersaucer. He used to just sit there and stare at the gadgets, but now he jumps, sometimes on just one foot. The bababa thing seems to have gone as quickly as it came. He now just likes to make spit bubbles and noises, especially when he's happy. He is still toothless, which is fine by me because it can't get a cavity if it's still under the gum! Speaking of cavities here are a couple of pictures from Thursday when he spent half a day with me at work. It was a little hectic, but all in all a success and a joy to have him with me!

BaBa

Z has now mastered the ba-ba-ba sound. Interestingly, "Baba" is "dad" in Arabic and what Nick wants Z to call him. Now, I remain to believe that these two facts are unrelated, because clearly Z is going to say Mama before he says Baba, but I digress. He seems to do it when he's a little irritated, and until this point, he has not let us capture it on video (he stops the minute he sees the phone in his face).

Enough talking, here's the video.  For some reason, blogger won't let me upload video, but here is a link (I hope it works).
 
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/rBtq12i3hAYsPr9ZK3APkw?feat=directlink

Work and The Weekend

Apparently, the cost of taking a half-day during the week is that you end up going into the office on your weekend. I know for most people, Friday is not yet the weekend, but for me, it is. I had a patient that needed something done, and it could not wait until Monday. So, I had to pack up Z and head down to the office Friday afternoon. Everything went well with the patient, and Z was awesome! He endured some heavy 280 traffic and hung out right outside the operatory while my assistant and I worked. Then, we headed back out into the traffic, and since he was napping, I decided to visit hubby at work. We had a great time there, and Z loved meeting all the new people as well as seeing some old friends. Then, we headed home. We were pushing it on his feeding time, and the traffic was absolutely unbearable because there was a fire downtown that had crippled the whole area. Z started getting a little fussy, but who could blame him? It was rough. We got a lot accomplished though, and I broke out of my comfort zone a little by taking him out and doing so much with him (I'm normally pretty wimpy about taking him places because I've been burned too many times). So, on Friday, he got to see both of us in action. I only got a picture of him at Nick's work, though.

On Saturday, we were so excited to go to the chili cook-off. We were going to leave as soon as Z awoke from his long morning nap... Of course, because of our plans, the long morning nap was 50 minutes... Oh well, so we went anyway. After some discussion, I decided it would probably be best if I wore Z in the Moby Wrap. I had been experimenting with the lotus hold which allows him to face outward since he likes to look around more these days. Here's a picture of us in Whole Foods.

 

Besides, there were so many people, strollers, children, dogs, you name it, running around that I needed him to be close in to me. So, he looked around, got some sun, took it all in, and then when I felt like he had had enough, I turned him back towards me, tucked him, and he went right to sleep. I mean, within seconds! After the chili, we walked over to Edgewood Creamery and had ice cream. It was an awesome day, and we were all pooped when we got home. Here we are with our friend M and her mom.  We both had the same idea, avoid strollers at all costs!

  

Sunday was pretty uneventful. We took Z for a long walk, rented The Hurt Locker, had some pizza, and stayed up to watch The Oscars (most of it anyway). Z was exhausted by 7 (his new bedtime), so he slept all night without making a peep (which I am NOT taking for granted). Now, we have another work week and another fun weekend ahead with our sweet baby!

Mom Half-Day

Work has been a little on the slower side lately, so I decided to take a half-day off yesterday. I couldn't wait to get home to my little boo, but the weather was gross, and I guess we were both feeling it. I guess he was excited to see me too, because he would hardly let me leave the room without fussing. The boy wanted some attention and he wanted it now! Z really likes his exersaucer and playmat. Lately, they have become the go-to items to occupy his attention. Yesterday, he wanted the real thing! I guess this is a new phase where he is beginning to understand that fussing gets results... On a brighter note, he napped well, but I couldn't fall asleep during what would be his longer nap, so I took a nap during what ended up being his shorter nap, long story short, I was reminded why I don't like taking naps anymore because if you can't awaken on your own time, you feel worse than you did before the nap. Anyway, I guess this is all to say that we are entering a new phase where he could get spoiled if we aren't careful. But really, so we answer his calls. He just wants a little love. Is that too much to ask?

I'm actually quite satisfied with this phase because he's not super mobile yet, and he still likes (but doesn't demand) to be held, particularly right after he eats, and really he's just so darn cuddly. He checks absolutely everything out and loves to touch our faces and sometimes puts his hands in our mouths. One little quirky thing I have discovered about him is that he does not like to eat with a lot of commotion around. He needs relative silence. If something interrupts him, he looks up at me like, "um, excuse me, can't you see I'm eating here?" I don't know where that one came from, but it is a little expression of his ever-forming personality. 

In other news, while we have tried to introduce some basic bath toys, Z only seems interested in his "God-given" bath toy. I guess it starts early. I won't go into detail, and needless to say I do not have pictures or video. While it may be notable that it has officially begun at a mere 5 months of age, I fully realize that this habit will never end. It will more likely only get worse.