Happy 6 Month Birthday Little One! 2 shots to celebrate!

Nathan and His Friends

Nathan is officially 6 months old today. How quickly does the time fly. We went in for his 6 month check up and he's doing well. In fact, he's jumped up to the next growth trend line. Originally, he was trekking along the 3 percentile line, now he's up to the 15-20 percentile lines. Go, baby go!

He also received 2 shots. He took it like a pro. Within seconds after the shots, he stopped crying. This time I will try massaging the places where he received his shots to prevent any swelling or bruising. Last time he got a low grade fever after his shots. We'll see if he reacts to this round.

My, what big feet you have!

 Let's see, what happened this week? Well, Nathan went through a pretty major growth spurt. For about 3 days, he was super fussy and wanted to nurse every 2 hours or so. The 2 days following, he started to go longer during his daytime naps. I measured him on Friday and again on Monday...the boy had gained 0.7 pounds. Realistically, probably 0.5 pounds since the weather is colder and he was wearing a long sleeved footed onsie, as opposed to a short sleeved onsie. But still, that's a lot of growing.

Nathan has started to roll over from his back to his tummy with some coaxing. If I dangle a toy that he wants above him, and to his side, he will reach for it and eventually turn over. Although he will not turn over onto his tummy volunteeringly.

We have successfully added pears to the repertoire of solid foods. I've just about made food of every color for him.

I have made food, frozen them in the silicone trays and then stored them in bags. Here's what I've made:

Sweet potato + carrot and rice cereal

Pears

Peas

Blueberry + Pears

Purple sweet potato.

He's not a fan of bananas yet, but I didn't give him a super ripe one.

I have foods from every color of the rainbow, except for red. And now that I have the OK from the pediatrician to try meats and dairy, oh the fun I will have. But first, I need to make sure he's not allergic to anything. I think this will take some time. But I'm already starting to think up some great baby food recipes for him to try. Will he like Saag Paneer minus the paneer pieces?

I think I may hold off on meat for awhile, but I think I will cook some of his food in home made broth. Hopefully, it will pick up some of the meat flavor and nutrients. 

Sleep has become MUCH easier. I'm proud to say that he has consistently been put down awake without a peep or a cry for about a week. I think the key is to wait for him to show signs of tiredness, but not be overtired. I've been looking for fussiness, short attention span, and him rubbing his face against my shoulder when I hold him. If he shows these signs, I take him to his room, swaddle him while singing his bedtime lullaby, rock back and forth for about 4 breaths, and tell him "Time to sleep, good [night, afternoon, morning], and I love you." in English and Chinese, then put him down. I'll kiss him on the cheek, give him a gentle smile and walk away. Within a few minutes, the boy is asleep. This is working pretty well. I hope it stays this easy for awhile before it all changes on me.

Sleeping like a baby.

So, I'm starting to get these feelings of "I want another one." Not sure if this is normal, but it's just how I'm feeling. We are probably going to wait at least until he's about 18 months to conceive another one. This way they will be about 2 years apart.

Well, that's it for now. Until next week! 

Sleep Analysis

After reading through the relevant chapters of Richard Ferber's book, I decided to analyze Nathan's sleep patterns. I've been taking this data since the beginning of the year but I just looked at the data for the past month or so. So, as far as I can see, Nathan sleeps about 11 hours each night and needs about 12-14 hours of sleep total each day. 

Contrary to popular belief, Ferber's book is not all about how to have your baby cry it out. His information is based off of years of research and study, so I think I'm going to go by what he has to say. I think I'm pretty well read on the sleep theories. I've read the following books on baby sleep:

Here are a few things that I have found to work for Nathan contrary to what some of the books say.

• Sleep does not necessarily beget more sleep. If I tank Nathan up during the day with a long nap, he will not sleep as well at night. If he skips his naps during the day, he will tend to sleep longer at night...but will be difficult to put down, due to being overtired. 
• If he cries (like a real full out cry) for more than 15 minutes he's not ready for sleep.
• Dream feeds work.
• A consistent bedtime routine is so important. If I shorten it or skip it, he will not fall asleep as easily. 
• Wait for sleepy cues before putting him down. Don't go by the clock, although use the clock as a guideline. 
• 7:00 is not necessarily a good time to put Nathan down. He will wake up too early if I do. (Or have a tough time falling asleep in the first place)
• Swaddling at 6 months is still effective.
• If he falls asleep while nursing, I will still go through the routine. This will usually wake him up enough to be put down semi-awake. (Except during night feedings and the dream feed). 
• White noise worked to help Nathan learn how to fall asleep on his own.

If I come up with any more, I'll be sure to post them. What worked for Nathan may not work for another baby. I just thought I'd post what I've learned.

25 Week Old Sitting Duck, I Mean, Baby.

And Nathan can finally sit up on his own. During the past week, he was able to sit up for a few seconds, and then topple over. But this week, he has been able to sit up for a few minutes at a time. In the picture to the left, he's playing with his red bumpy ball. He's been rolling it around and picking it up to put into his mouth.

The world seems like it's a different place as he plays with his toys sitting up. He is so full of curiosity and his facial expressions have an I want to put you in my mouth feel about them.

The first few times he toppled over, he would start to cry. Not because he was hurt or anything, but mostly because of being startled. Nowadays, he just pauses a bit and rolls over (if he does a face plant onto the floor).



The weather is so nice. We've pretty much taken advantage of this pre-oak-allergy time to go explore the outdoors. Now that Nathan can sit up, he really likes to look around as we roll around in his stroller. If he's in the ergo carrier, his head is always flipping from right to left.

Check out his super cute floppy hat! I love it because it has the strap that prevents the wind from blowing it right off.

Nathan is doing so much better with eating too. By now we are feeding him about 3 Tablespoons of food (2 sweet potato/carrot and 1 applesauce) each day. He is swallowing the food on his own and when he wants more, he makes a "mmmm" sound while making a fussy face. We are trying to teach him the sign for more. I think peas are going to be the next food that we try.

Purple Sweet Potato

So for the past few days, we've been struggling with sleep. Now that he can flip over onto his back, he's been sleeping for shorter spans and has been crying himself to sleep. While on my walk on Tuesday, my sister in law suggested that I try swaddling him. So when I got home and it was time to put him down for a nap, I swaddled him and he fell right asleep. Come night time, I went through the bed time routine, included a swaddle, and he also went to sleep without a peep. So, I think we will swaddle for a while longer. It's been so long since we've swaddled him that when I did it, I noticed how much bigger he was. 

Also, kind of good news! Nathan kind of slept through the night. Monday night, he slept from 10:30 and woke up at 2:30. Since he woke up before 3:00, I went into his room and just patted him for a few seconds and left. 10 minutes later, he fell asleep. He woke up about 45 minutes later, but must have fallen asleep quickly because when I woke up again, I realized he was asleep. So I went back to sleep. Finally at 5:30, he wakes up. I go and nurse him and he goes back to sleep. So I guess he slept for about 7 hours without a feed.  

Tuesday night he slept from 10:30 to 4:30, which makes a solid 6 hour stretch of sleep. Awesome! I really hope this trend continues. 

I am really enjoying this mom role. I'm looking forward to all the challenges that this role will bring and can't wait to take them on. We're definitely having more kids.

Week 24

Help! I have no idea what happened to my Nathan when it's time for sleep. He used to be super great. When he stared to get the seven mile stare, I would sing a lullaby, hold him for 4 breaths, tell him sleep tight, put him down, a kiss on the cheek and walk out. Within 10 minutes, more like 5, he was asleep.

For the past few days, this has not been the case. He pretty much would just cry and cry and cry. We tried picking him up, playing quietly with him for a little bit trying again. We've even resorted to crying it out. I'm ashamed to say that it took him an hour and a half last night to fall asleep after crying for that whole time. I don't want to resort to crying it out, but if that means he goes to sleep, it may just have to.

Nap time has started to go kaputz too. He took an hour nap while I was shopping today. But when I tried to put him down for his afternoon nap, he just cried. I tried 3 times to put him back down starting from 2-4 in the afternoon. At this point it's 4:15 so I'm just going to wait for bedtime to put him down again.

Teething? Learning about object permanence? Learning to roll over on both sides? These are what I'm thinking. Not sure about teething because if it's painful, he would be fussy during the day, right? But he's a happy camper.

The "I just cried for 30 minutes before mommy picked me up" face.

Onto more positive things, Nathan is rolling over more. He used to just be able to roll over onto his left side. Now, he can roll both ways. He can also roll consistently from his back to his side. He is also able to sit up much better.

He is also starting to get the hang of jumping on the jumpy swing. As I'm typing this, he's jumping a little as he mostly spins in a circle. 

He seems to be very vocal in the afternoon. In the morning, he's pretty silent, but very smiley. 

I made my first batch of baby food yesterday. Sweet potato and a bit of carrot with a tiny bit of nutmeg. I froze them in these silicone trays that I got for brownies (which didn't work that well for making crusty edges) and popped them out to store in a zip baggie. I think this will work out very well for awhile. 

I'm kind of dreading tonight. I may try letting him cry it out one more night to see if he will go to sleep sooner on his own. I pray that he goes down with out lots of tears.

Update: It turns out we were putting him to bed too early. We moved bed time closer to pre daylight savings time and he went right to sleep without a peep. 

Let's see how he naps today.

I think from now on, if he cries or fusses for more than 15 minutes when going to sleep, I will just pick him up. if he's tired, he will go to sleep.  I firmly believe that for Nathan, crying it out is not necessary any more. He knows how to go to sleep on his own and during the times that he doesn't, he's just not tired, or something else is wrong. 

Just a few thoughts about being a mom.

As I was looking through old pictures of Nathan from when he was first born, I can't help but think about all of the "imperfections" that have corrected themselves over the past few months. For example, his eyes were a bit buggy, he had a super hairy back, his ear cartilage was smashed...little cosmetic things like that. It's cool to see how they just fixed themselves on their own. There simply has to be a God who has designed something so amazing in that 2 cells can become a little helpless person, and that little person will eventually transform into an adult.

Being a mom has taught me a lot about love. A part of me thinks that God created us to feel a love such as this so that we can come closer to understand his unconditional love for us.

Everyday, I see Nathan grow and learn to do new things. When I see that he can do something new, I am so proud of him. When I see him hurt, my heart simply drops and I just want to take his pain away.

Sometimes, I daydream about wearing dorky exploring cargo vests while going on adventures. I look forward to all the great memories that we will make together.

I talked to another mom the other day who actually did not enjoy staying at home with her kids when they were young. This was actually the 3rd person that I talked to who felt that way. I was a bit shocked, but who knows, maybe I'll become one of those moms once this honeymoon phase is over. I'm praying that it doesn't.

Pseudo Crawler

 No major milestones reached this week, but we still have a very happy baby. Nathan is trying to crawl as he is enjoying his tummy time sessions more and more. When I put him on his tummy, he sometimes seems to be reaching for something in front of him, while straining by pushing from his legs.

As you can see in the picture above, he is paying more attention to things around him, especially Teddy. He really likes to watch Teddy play fetch, and he giggles when Teddy barks on command. He's even reached out to grab onto Teddy's hair a few times. 

As far as solids go, we have not ventured further than sweet potatoes and avocados. He's eating about 1 teaspoon of food each session before he purses his lips shut.  I'm thinking about trying carrots next. 

Funny thing happened on our walk the other day...So we were walking with 3 other mommies and their babies when an older man was walking his dog, coming from the opposite direction. As he approached us, he suddenly grabbed his left breast and exclaimed, "I think my milk just came in." We paused and just broke out into laughter. It was hilarious. 

We have also officially gone one week without any car seat meltdowns. I'm beginning to think that he is getting used to the idea of riding in a car seat. This makes for much less stressful drives. 

Wonder Weeks Chart

I found this chart on-line through a post on a facebook group. I'm curious to see how close Nathan lines up to these trends. So far he is about 22 weeks and is generally very happy. I'm going to save it below for future reference.