Friday, November 27, 2009

Thirty-Four Weeks

Today Nick is thirty-four weeks old! Nick is so mobile now, we really have to be careful :) He is not quite crawling yet, still army-crawling, but he's getting quicker and quicker!

Last weekend was relaxing before the big event - Nick's first Thanksgiving! Saturday Jeff went to The Game with Chris, and I stayed home with Nick. We watched some of the game, we napped, we played - it was a nice, relaxing day for us. Sunday we all went to Costco to do some shopping for Thanksgiving. It seems like Nick likes shopping - he is a big-time people watcher, just like me! We bought a turkey that *might* weigh more than Nick - we're not sure because Nick hasn't been weighed since early October. The turkey was 18.91 pounds, and last time we weighed Nick, he was 17 lbs 10 oz.

Monday was back to work and daycare, but for a very short week. Monday, once again, Nick did not eat very well at daycare, so I decided to try a different eating schedule to see if it would help. I bought some 8 oz bottles on Tuesday and sent 3 six ounce bottles on Wednesday, for Nick to eat every three hours. It seemed to be a little better for him. Wednesday night Aunt Krystyn arrived, but not until long after Nick was asleep.

Thursday was Thanksgiving! Nick's first Thanksgiving and our first Thanksgiving in the new house. Nick and I woke Aunt Krystyn up. We came downstairs and made cinnamon rolls while Nick played in the kitchen. After he went down for his first nap, I made the stuffing and put the turkey in the oven. Grammie and Grandpa and Uncle Jim and Rachel came over around 1 or so. Everyone played with Nick, chatted and snacked until dinner was ready. Nick woke up from his second nap just in time to enjoy dinner with everyone. We put him in his high chair at the head of the table and he dined on turkey, green beans and sweet potatoes. It was his first real serving of protein and he seemed to enjoy it, stuffing his mouth as full as he could :) After dinner we all played with Nick for a little while until it was time for bed. Hopefully it was a satisfying first Thanksgiving for him :)

Today we mostly hung out at home. During Nick's first nap Krystyn and I ran out to Carter's and bought him some of the most adorable clothes in 12 months. We also bought him a cute bib that says "My Auntie is the Best." We put up Nick's first Christmas tree, and were careful to hang all the ornaments on the upper 2/3 of the tree, so Nick can't reach them. He's never playing alone in the room where we put the tree anyway, so we're not too concerned about it, but better safe than sorry! After Nick was asleep Krystyn and I ran out to Old Navy. I literally had to be pulled from the children's section! I bought Nick some more fleece pants in the next size up, a new fleece snowsuit-type thing (this one has built in foldover mittens - yay!) and two adorable onesies. One says "wild about mom" and the other says "I make my mommy smile." How could I resist??

Tomorrow we are going to visit Santa at Somerset, and Great Grandma Pingle, and Grandma Juarez's grave. Sunday Aunt Krystyn is leaving and we are hanging out at home, recuperating from such an exciting week and getting ready for December! This week we don't have anything exciting going on, but Saturday Nick and Jeff will be alone for a few hours while I go to a retreat for the Law Alumni Association.

I am starting to get a little concerned about Nick's eating habits changing. Solids are only supposed to be experimental at his age - he is still supposed to get his nutrition from my milk - but when I send solids to daycare, he hardly drinks his bottles, and sometimes outright refuses them, and he's not nursing more at home either. This doesn't happen on the weekends when he's nursing instead of being bottle-fed. Is this Nick asserting his independence already, because he self-feeds but doesn't feed himself his bottles? I don't know, but until we figure it out, I'm not sending solids to daycare on a daily basis.

Nick's daycare caregiver told me he'll probably be moved to infant B in January, because he's mobile. It's so exciting to see him learning and growing and changing, but at the same time it's sad because it's happening so fast, and he's our first baby! We're enjoying every moment with him, every new experience and every new skill.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Friday, November 20, 2009

Thirty-Three Weeks

Today Nick is thirty-three weeks old! He is getting to be such a big boy - and by that I mean old, not huge :) He now has six teeth - two on the bottom, four on top. He's got a mean bite too, but we still let him put our fingers in his mouth. What can we say - we're indulgent first-time parents ;)

Last weekend we had fun. Saturday we watched some of the UM v Wisconsin game, but gave up and met Grammie and Grandpa up at the park in our subdivision. Nick had so much fun swinging by himself in the bucket swing, going down the slide with dad, playing in the grass and then going for a short walk in the stroller. Sunday Nick and I met his friend Emily and her mom at the outlets in Howell. What a great outlet center! They have every baby outlet imaginable - Carter's, Osh Kosh, Baby Gap, Children's Place, Gymboree . . .I didn't go crazy but I easily could have! Nick sat in a public high chair while I ate lunch. I gave him a little of my grilled chicken to try. He napped in the stroller and finished up his nap in the car on the way home.

Monday it was back to daycare and work for us. Tuesday and Wednesday I picked Nick up from daycare because Jeff was having work done on his car again. It's pretty tough for me to pick him up, because as soon as he sees me he wants to nurse, so he gets pretty fussy when I just put him in the car. Luckily we don't live very far from daycare. Thursday was pajama day, so Nick wore his UM pajamas to daycare. It was so cute to see all the kids - and caregivers! - in their pajamas.

This week Nick decided he'd rather eat his solids than drink his milk. Two days he refused two bottles, and the other two days he ate very little of two bottles, while drinking all of two other bottles. So today I didn't send any solids to see if his milk consumption went back to normal - and it did! I am not sure what to do. I might just let him eat solids on the weekend for now and just send bottles to daycare. He seems to like the solids - but maybe a little too much? Milk should be his main source of nutrition for his first year - so not drinking his milk in favor of eating more solids is just not acceptable yet. And since I'm not there, I don't know exactly what is going on. What I do know is on the weekend he nurses a lot and eats a little bit of solids. But nursing and bottles aren't the same to babies, so it might be different at daycare.

Tomorrow Jeff is going to The Game, and I'll spend a nice day at home with Nick. Nick is so active lately, I feel bad taking him anywhere if he won't be able to be active. The park was nice, a kids' play area would be nice - but I don't want to take him anywhere if he'd be confined to a stroller mostly. He did ok last weekend at the outlets, but I want that to be the exception, not the rule. He can really get around, and loves to play with toys. It's so cute to watch! Sunday we don't have any plans.

This week is exciting - Nick's first Thanksgiving! Aunt Krystyn and Uncle Zack will get here Thursday morning. We're hosting Thanksgiving at our house, so sometime after noon Grammie, Grandpa, Uncle Jim and his girlfriend Rachel will come over for dinner. Nick gets to eat with us :) so we'll eat whenever he wakes up from his second nap - sometime between 3 and 5. Friday Nick might spend some time with dad and Uncle Zack while Aunt Krystyn and I hit up a few Black Friday sales, then we're all going to put up the Christmas tree together - Nick's first Christmas tree! Saturday we are going to try to take Nick to see Santa at Somerset - it's by appointment only, so I don't know if it's too late to get in or what. Then Saturday night or Sunday Aunt Krystyn and Uncle Zack are leaving :( We are SO EXCITED for Krystyn and Zack to see Nick - they just saw him two months ago, well, almost three I guess, but he is a totally different baby and we just know they're going to have so much fun!

Friday, November 13, 2009

Thirty-Two Weeks

Today Nick is thirty-two weeks old! He is continuing on his baby-led weaning, self-feeding adventure. This week Nick tried green beans and asparagus for the first time. Fresh green beans are really the perfect food for BLW - easy to steam and the perfect size for baby fists!

Last weekend we had a relaxing weekend at home for the most part. Saturday we hung out at home and watched the UM game. After the game, Nick's Grammie and Grandpa stopped by with Great Uncle Pete and Great Aunt Peri. Sunday we went to Costco, bought a few things and enjoyed a pizza lunch, then went to Buy Buy Baby. Nick fell asleep in the car on the way home, but didn't go back to sleep once we arrived. Definitely the biggest downfall of switching to the convertible already - no way to bring him in the house without waking him up. Jeff decided to rake the backyard, so Nick and I went outside to play in the grass and leaf piles. Nick wasn't really sure what to think until we started lightly throwing leaves on him - then he started to have fun!

Monday it was back to work and daycare. This week Nick's daycare had a book fair. It was all set up on Monday but his caregivers didn't know how I could buy books. This week Nick went to sleep pretty early every day - usually by 6:30. I think it must be daylight's saving time. He's up at 5:30 am now too, instead of his usual 6-6:30. I finally bought books on Thursday - I just picked out what I wanted and left them on the desk for the daycare owner to total up for me. So we didn't pay for them until today - I bought three for Nick and one for his classroom.

Tonight Jeff went to the UM v MSU hockey game with his parents and brother, so they stopped by before the game with pizza and to hang out with Nick. Nick stayed awake for them. He was very active, doing his army crawl and playing with toys. It was a little tough to get him to sleep after all the excitement but it's always fun to see him interacting with his grandparents!

Tomorrow we're going shopping with Nick's friend Emily and Emily's mom. We're hitting up the outlets in Howell - there's a Carter's, Children's Place and Baby Gap outlet there! Sunday we don't have any plans. This week we don't have anything going on either, except Wednesday Nick and dad are on their own because I have an LAA meeting.

We're getting so excited for Thanksgiving. Krystyn and Zack will be here, so we've decided to put the tree up with them the day after Thanksgiving and take them with Nick to see Santa. It will be such a fun family weekend :) Our first Thanksgiving with Nick!

Friday, November 6, 2009

Thirty-One Weeks!

Today Nick is thirty-one weeks old! He is cutting two top teeth - his left front tooth and the next one over. He is drooling and chewing like crazy! He is also enjoying some solid food now - he's tried banana, apple, broccoli, snap peas, mango, pears and sweet potato. So far the pears were the only miss!

Last weekend was Halloween. During the day we went and had some pictures taken by Mod4. After the session, we took Nick to visit Great Grandma Pingle and Aunt Jeanne. They thought he was adorable in his monkey costume! Then we went home, and Nick enjoyed a long nap. Lisa and Donnie and Nick's friend Emily came over to help pass out candy and hang out. Well, we did not need any help - we did not have one single trick-or-treater! We all agreed to take Nick and Emily to Zoo Boo at the Detroit Zoo next year instead - what a disappointing evening. Nick's Grammie and Grandpa live in our same subdivision and they had at least 30-40 kids!

Sunday was daylight's saving time. Nick did not abide by the extra hour of sleep, however! We were up at 5. This threw off his whole day - he took good long naps but at odd times. Jeff and I decided to take Nick to Ikea for something fun to do and to get out of the house. Also, we wanted to check out cribs - we've been talking about getting him a crib, but we still aren't ready to do the nursery, so we thought about getting an inexpensive crib from Ikea for now, until we do a nursery for him. He loves being in busy places like Ikea, with so much to see! We decided to eat at the Ikea restaurant. We put Nick in one of their high chairs and I fed him some of my steamed vegetables - broccoli and snap peas. We gave him a carrot but he wasn't interested in that. We bought him some plastic plates and cups - open-topped cups - both to play with and to help start teaching him to eat from a plate and drink from a normal cup. The cribs at Ikea were too low to sidecar to our bed, so we decided to go to Buy Buy Baby and look at their cribs. After I nursed Nick in their comfy nursing room, we went to the back to check out their crib selection. We decided on the Status Furniture 400 Richmond Stages 4 in 1 crib in espresso. It will be here in about 12 weeks - sometime in January.

Monday it was back to work and daycare. Tuesday Nick turned 7 months old! We sent mango to daycare with him - and he loved it! We also sent a new sippy cup with Nick - a two handled cup by Nuby. It has a silicone sippy top that is more like a bottle nipple than a traditional sippy cup. Wednesday we sent some pears and those were not a hit. Thursday we sent sweet potatoes and he enjoyed those immensely! Today we sent banana, which he's had and enjoyed before. This week we didn't have very much playtime at home - Nick hasn't been napping well at daycare, too many exciting things to do, so he's been going to sleep around 6:30 at home - just enough time to nurse him and listen to some adorable babbling!

This weekend we have no specific plans, which is nice! We are trying to give Nick plenty of tummy time right now, because he is so close to crawling - we want to give him every chance to keep trying! He loves his new jumperoo too, which is a good way for him to build strong legs for walking in a few months. I am going to cook some asparagus for him, and maybe some squash.

Nothing is happening this week. Hopefully Nick's teeth pop through so he can get some relief until the next ones start coming in. He might be having a growth spurt too - he seems to be sleeping a lot, and deeply. We can't wait to see the pictures we had taken last weekend!!

We are feeding Nick using a process called baby led weaning. We are not giving him purees or cereals. We are giving him finger foods only - we give him fruits and vegetables in match stick pieces that he can feed himself. We can hand him the food but we aren't supposed to put it in his mouth. He has shown us that he is ready for food by picking up the pieces and feeding himself. He isn't digesting the food yet but that's not unusual - he might not digest anything for a few months. We are very excited to share Thanksgiving dinner with him - I'll be careful to set aside a portion of each food before we add any fat to it for Nick. We've already talked about how to set up the dining room - we are going to put our kitchen table at the end of the dining room table so everyone can sit together, with Nick in his high chair at the head of the table!