Week 34

Nathan has a third tooth! It's his top second to the front right tooth. It's been a few rough nights, so I suspected that he was teething. It is by no means over yet, but now I know that there's a reason for these weird sleep nights.

He's been going down to sleep on his own, usually without tears. But for the past week or so, he's been waking up 30-40 minutes after he goes down and will cry and cry until I go up and pat him to sleep. On the worst night, he continued this pattern 3 times. I can still feel swollen gums on the left side, so I know that this phase isn't over yet. Hopefully that tooth will emerge soon and we can all sleep better.

I feel like this week Nathan has hit a major cognitive milestone. He is now able to elicit a repeated response from me. He now knows that he can convey "more" or "again" to me to get me to repeat an action over and over and over and over again. Some of his favorite things are for me to blow in his face, blow in his tummy, jiggle my lips back and forth with my fingers, or fake gobble on anything that he puts into my mouth.

Another cool thing that happened this week happened one morning when Steve went up to get the just waken Nathan as I lazily laid around in bed. As Nathan was playing on his activity mat, I called out to him and there was no response, Steve said that he just looked around for me. I then called out to him in Chinese, using his nickname and he responded back!

As each week passes, this little guy is becoming more and more human. It's so cool to see him learn new thing things every day. I am so lucky to be able to stay at home to witness these things as they occur.

Nathan is also lunging forward more often. Sometimes he will even push up with his arms and get onto his hands and knees. No rocking yet, but I have a feeling that by the time I make my next post, we will have a rocker. Check out the Nathan Bug that I made him so that he can play with his toys nearby while I cook in the kitchen. He really likes it.

We've been to the pool 3-4 times this week. Nathan's really enjoying splashing around in the water. He really likes to ride around in the little tube that I got him. He had a few friends over today for a swim party.

We also took Nathan to see a movie. The Alamo Drafthouse by our house does this baby day every Tuesday where they turn down the sound and turn up the lights a bit for the babies. Overall it was a good experience. Nathan was very engaged by all of the bright lights and loud sound at first, but after about 10 minutes, I think he got a bit overstimulated. He did get a bit fussy, but all it took was a bit of nursing and took a short nap. After he woke up, he was pretty good and if he got a bit restless, I just took him and stood against the wall as I rocked or swung him in my arms. There were so many babies there. I think the youngest one couldn't have been more than a month old. Can you guess what movie we saw?

Steve is on a month long sabbatical and it's been really nice having some extra help. I was able to go shopping for a few hours on my own and I am really liking not having to change so many diapers. I'm looking forward to spending time with my two guys.

Week 33 and My First Mother's Day.

Twenty some years ago, when I first started to understand the concept of holidays, I probably presented my mom with a card. And on that card would be with my mom's portrait, really scribbles, but to me, it would've been unmistakably, my mom. As the years progressed, the presents would be crafts projects from school, an occasional ash tray, for my non-smoking mom, some tacky beaded jewelry. When I started to earn some money, the presents started to become store bought: cosmetics, perfume, lotion. Occasionally, I would still give her a hand made card. Some years, we would even take her out to eat. And then when I moved away, Mother's day was celebrated in the form of a store bought card that said something along the lines of what a great mother she has been and how she has been there for me all these years. Each year, it's the same. One day out of the year, I show mom how much I love her. But that day wasn't really that special...  it could be mother's day every day of the year.

But this year, Mother's day was a bit different.

I've been a mom for less than a year and I am just starting to understand how much work goes into being a mom. I can see why there is a special day set aside (one of the few holidays that is celebrated on the same day almost world-wide) to celebrate moms.  We have Presidents' Day to celebrate the sacrifice and leadership of past presidents. We celebrate Memorial Day to commemorate those who have sacrificed their lives for our country. Mr. Luther King sacrificed his whole life to fight for a cause that has improved what it means to be human. So, it would be natural to have a Mother's Day to celebrate the mom's who have sacrificed so much to raise us.

While I thought this Mother's day was going to be all about me, I found myself really focusing on my own mother, really appreciating her, and seeing her as a strong, independent woman, who raised us, mostly on her own - and I think she did a pretty good job. All this I once took for granted. But now I know.

So we visited my mom for Mother's day. She really enjoyed spending time with Nathan and kind of accidentally taught him how to blow raspberries. I joke about how she's teaching my son bad habits, but it's super cute and I'm glad that she taught him that skill. You never know when blowing raspberries will come in handy.

While we were in Plano, we also decided to go visit a park. The weather was beautiful and I just wanted to be outside. Living in Texas, you try to enjoy "cool" days when you can. My sister, Monica came along and we hiked a very easy paved path at a nature preserve. We had stopped by sonic to get some milkshakes and were enjoying them on the walk with guilt as runners and other exercisers passed us, slightly out of breath. Again, the weather was beautiful. Here are two of my favorite shots from that day. 

Besides blowing silly raspberries, Nathan is starting to make "b" sounds. He has become a very vigorous jumper on his bouncy seat. It's really funny to watch him blow raspberries, as he's shrieking, as he's jumping. He's also started to lunge forward whenever he has the chance. Perhaps this is the beginning of crawling. I'll keep my fingers crossed, hoping that this crawling milestone will come a bit later. 

The car ride up to Dallas was pretty terrible. We were thinking that if we left around his bedtime, he would sleep the whole trip. Were we so wrong! The return trip was better. We left right before his last nap of the day. He napped the first hour of the trip and was pretty happy playing with me in the back for the rest of the trip. He slept well in his pack and play at my mom's. But when he got back home, he has not been going down easily. Hopefully this will improve soon. 

New foods this week: Curried lentils, steak, pork with 5 spice powder, blueberries, melon. He likes all of these except for the melon. 

Week 32

Things have been pretty steady at the Havlir house. Nathan is happier and less cranky now that he is getting more sleep at night. I am happier and less cranky now that I'm getting more sleep at night too. No major milestones this week, but it seems like he is flailing his arms a lot more. Sometimes he gets so excited with his arms that he topples backwards. It's kind of cute, really. Oh, and I may have heard a few "d" sounds coming out of his mouth. It's faint, but I think that they are here.

Since the weather has been soooo nice, I've taken lots of opportunities to go outside to do stuff. We did yard work this weekend and Nathan was very interested in the lawn mower. At first I was very cautious since he was once scared by the food processor and the vacuum, but he looked cautious at first and then relaxed as he followed me as I traversed our lawn, back and forth, back and forth. We went on our weekly walk and today, we went on a hike through the greenbelt. Nathan even went to his first flea market in Wimberly. He was a good baby and EVERYONE kept commenting on his cute floppy hat.

We also have introduced bubbles. The first day, he just watched them as they floated away or popped against his skin, but on the second day, he actually tried to grab and pop the bubbles.

So on the solid foods front, he's doing pretty well. It seems like he likes some foods some days and not on the other. Luckily he will eat anything if it's mixed with yogurt. I finally made him some saag paneer (minus the paneer) and some curried lentils. He liked them pretty well. But he definitely still loves his sweet potato. Nathan's also starting to those two teeth that he has to use. One day he looked very interested in what we were having. I gave him a little cube of zucchini, he ate it and opened his mouth up for more. Since then, we've tried giving him little pieces of what we are eating (as long as it isn't salty). Sometimes he likes it, sometimes he will spit it out.

 

Yes, in the picture above, our son is playing with dog food. One day, I was feeding him some chunky avocado and  I noticed that he was trying to pick the pieces that had fallen on his tray up with his fingers. The problem is that every time he picked up something, instead of putting it into his mouth, he would drop it on the floor. I tried giving him some cereal and he did the same thing. Our dog Teddy, was having a blast! But too much human food makes a little doggie sick. So, to promote his pincer grasp skill, we allowed him to practice with Teddy's dry food. I guess it was a bit of a mean joke to Teddy because at first he was really excited about all the food that was being dropped, but once he realized it was his dry food, he snorted and walked away. 

We are pretty excited about our trip to San Francisco that is coming up soon. I think there will be times where it will be challenging traveling with a baby, but I guess that's what's going to make it more of an adventure, right? 

Oh, pool pictures! Here you go. 

   

Thanks for reading! Bye!

Finally, a schedule I can work with!

For documentation purposes, I would like to mark this momentous time period of when I am finally happy with Nathan's sleep schedule. He is sleeping for 11 hours at night, waking up only once to feed for no more than 30 minutes. During the day, he usually takes 3 naps ranging from 30 minutes to 90 minutes. Here's our daily schedule.

6:30 - 7:30 Nathan wakes up between these times every morning.
            20 minutes of nursing. Then diaper change, and get ready for the day.
8:15   We head out to the gym. I work out for an hour and Nathan stays in the kids center.

9:45  Head home. Nathan takes his first nap around this time. When he wakes up, he will be hungry and
              ready for the second nursing session of the day.

12:00 Solids for lunch which consists of 1 oz of meat/veggie/rice mixture, 1 oz of fruit, 1 oz of yogurt.

12:30 - 1:00 Usually a short nap.
       After this nap, he will nurse for the 3rd session.

3:00 -  4:30 Another nap window.
      Short nursing session #4.

5:30 Solids for dinner. Usually 1 oz meat/veggie/rice, 1 oz sweet potato/veggie, 1 oz fruit. Each mixed with a  
        little bit of yogurt.

6:45 Bath time

7:00 Nursing session #5,

7:20 Read a bedtime book, sing lullaby while swaddling baby.

7:30 In crib, usually asleep.

During the night he will wake up once. Usually at 12:30, or 3:30. Nurse for 30 minutes while half asleep and then I put him back into his crib.


I guess I am mostly following the EASY method. (Eat, Activity, Sleep, You time). With about 2 -3 hours in between naps. I found that the late afternoon nap really helps him stay happy until his bedtime at 7:30. In the past, he took one nap in the afternoon and was staying awake for about 5 hours before bedtime. By the time he was to be put down, he was waaaay over-tired and it was hard for him to fall asleep on his own.  Now, I put him down, awake, sometimes he whimpers a few minutes, wiggle around to find a comfy sleep position and then slowly drift into sleep.

Finally, I am getting the rest that I need.

Week 31: 7 Months and a few days.

It's funny how much more emotional I am with a baby around. The tone of my day is pretty much dictated by the quality of sleep I got the night before. Last week, when Nathan was waking up a billion times a night, I decided hat we were not going to have another child. But on a night, like last night, where he slept from 7:30 to 6:30 am, waking only once, I woke up wanting another child, like right now. So, I guess we have some good news on the sleeping situation.

Two Bottom Teeth

Nathan officially became an omnivore this week. We had just gotten a new grill and have been grilling every night. One night this week, after we grilled some chicken. I took some left over chicken, blended it with some chicken broth, added some rice cereal to make a chicken and rice slurry. I was a bit skeptical about how Nathan would like this non-sweet food, but he loved it. In fact he has not been so enthusiastic about eating since he first tried sweet potatoes. I also made a batch of green beans; but, that's a different story.

As far as major milestones, there's still no crawling going on. However, he is starting to lunge forward from the sitting position. He's still a bit cautious when he's sitting on the floor and has a toy that's just a bit out of reach in front of him, but if I'm laying down in front of him, he does not hesitate to lunge forward to "crawl on top of my body. He's also starting to bang things and he goes to town on ripping things apart. It's a bit scary to see the intense facial expressions as he's trying to rip a piece of bubble wrap.

The weather is starting to get warm enough to warrant a visit to the pool. (Although a freak cold front will come tomorrow and bring down the temps to the 60's burrr.) We are pretty much ready. I got a pair of swim diapers and a swim shirt. We may hit the pool up today after his nap.

I am so in love with this little guy.

Watching the TV as I set up the Wii to weigh him: 16 pounds