STTN!

What a wonderful day!  After Alistair's wonky sleep schedule for the past number of weeks, he slept from 7pm-6am!  He hasn't been sleeping through the night since before Christmas, so here's hoping he's getting back into a better routine.  His cold is mostly over - just a little cough - so I have a much happier baby.

When will you leave, RSV(P)??

Things have not been going well in the B household as of late.  It all started sometime last week, as far as I can remember, when a naive little mommy thought her baby's sudden fussiness must be the emergence of separation anxiety.  After all, he had just turned 6 months old, and that was the official starting date for "separation anxiety," according to "The Books."  Said books suggested playing peek-a-boo was the perfect cure for this new affliction.  If only a simple game could have improved my week!

The first sign that Alistair's fussiness had a deeper cause emerged along with two new pointy teeth.  He had cut his first two bottom teeth at four and a half months of age, so I had been expected more teeth before too long.  I had assumed the top two would be the next to follow (or maybe, even crazier, the two teeth on either side of his new bottoms ones).  Nope, as a nurse at our pediatrician's office informed me "children establish their own teething patterns," and it seems like mine is going for the fangy/vampiric look.  I'm not sure if they're the top lateral incisors or the cuspids, but they strike fear into me as a nursing mother.

Last time Alistair cut teeth, he was very, very upset!  The only thing that brought him comfort was being carried around for hours on end while I sang the Elephant Song again and again.  So I assumed I now had an explanation for my son's cranky fussiness.

But then, he started coughing and got a runny nose.  Again, I made an assumption based upon "The Books."  Maybe it was just caused by his new teeth!  Or maybe... it was too dry, or maybe he had a squash allergy...  But the coughing became too strong and was followed by wheezing, and we hauled him off to the pediatrician's office.  Our diagnosis was RSV, or, Respiratory Syncytial Virus, which we were told, he must have picked up at his last wellness visit, exactly a week before. 

So for the last week, I've been trying to take care of a sick fussy baby, while my hubby tries to slog through the most difficult week of the semester (other than finals), writing a memo.  Neither of us have been getting enough sleep or time to unwind.  This would be *the* worst baby week I've had for a long time, except-!

I have an awesome, awesome family.  Before Alistair came down with all his sickies, I realized that I was never going to keep the house clean unless I could do housework while carrying him around with me.  I had a couple of carriers, but I could only use them to strap him to the front of my body, and my little 18 pound chunk of happiness is just too large and in my way for me to even get my hands into the sink anymore when I carry him like that.  So I asked my sisters/other mommy about any back carriers they would recommend, and not only were they all super helpful, but one of my sisters mailed me an ErgoBaby!!  

Since the Ergo my entered my house on Tuesday, my kitchen has magically been scrubbed from top to bottom (even the red stains on my kitchenaid from a certain red velvet cake are finally gone), the bathrooms cleaned, the baby's room meticulously organized, and the piles of laundry almost completely sorted and washed.  To sum it up, hubby declared yesterday in awe "The Ergo was invented by God."

 

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to all our family and friends!

Alistair and I are having a quiet day at home together, with hubby at school for most of the day.  Well, I say quiet. but it's more squeaky than anything.  Alistair has recently discovered how to make a whole range of high pitch squeaks and squeals that make him sound more like a budgie than a baby.  He had his six month vaccinations yesterday, so I'm quiet happy to have chirps rather than screams.  We've now made it to 17 pounds 10 ounces, from an initial birth weight of 7 pounds 5 ounces.  At  this rate I should take monthly measurements of my biceps as well, as my little man still likes to be carried everywhere.

We took him to Sears to have his picture taken a couple of days ago.  I had several coupons for a free photo session and free 10x13 (and then I got another free 10x13 online with a code!).  We ended up only paying a small amount to have some wallet sized photos made up, and got several nice poses.  Alistair was very photogenic, smiling like crazy, and laughing at the flash from the camera.  The one thing he wouldn't do was sit still!  He wouldn't sit up, he wouldn't stay on his tummy, he just wanted to wriggle on his back and play with his feet.  Here are a few shots taken of him in the few seconds he stayed put.

Solids

Due to Alistair's reflux issues, our pedi recommended that we start rice cereal at 4 months.  Since he was already having cereal earlier, we moved on to regular solids at 5 months.  His first food was avocado, which I heard was one of those fruits babies either love or hate.  Alistair absolutely loved it (he seems to love anything shoveled into his mouth, he even cries sometimes to have *more* of his medication); his only problem was that he couldn't stand the whole, spoonful, pause, another spoonful business.  He wanted the spoon *in* his mouth, with a constant stream of food flowing in.  So, while he would coo for the first bite, he would quickly throw a tantrum at having the spoon taken out of his mouth.

With some love and patience, he's gradually gotten better, and realizes that the spoon *will* come back - but he just looks so darn cute when he eats that he makes up for his fussiness.

Changes

For the first few months of Alistair's life, I was a little surprised.  I knew babies didn't do much, but I thought you were supposed to do more *educational* things, right from the start.  But he was this little lump of cuddly baby that just ate and slept and needed diaper changes.  Since then, he has very slowly changed, and every little milestone along the way has seemed earth shattering.  The first smile (sure made getting up for hours in the middle of the night easier, knowing this little being could do something other than scream), the first laugh, the first time he held something.  But the developments, while wonderful, have seemed rather slow.

That is, until now.  A few weeks ago, a very wonderful friend of the family gave us an exersaucer.  Alistair loved to stand, but unless Grandma accommodated him by killing her back and bending over as he baby stepped around the house, he didn't spend that much time on his feet.  So, a toy that helped him stand for as long as he wanted seemed amazing.  In fact, he liked it so much that he went from the needy baby who had gone 5 months always needing to be held and cuddled (seriously, he would stay in his swing for 30 minutes in the morning, and then that was *it,* he had to be held and bounced all day), to the baby that could spend an hour playing in his exersaucer.  And then as he figured out that all the things laid out in front of him were *toys,* he really wanted to play with them, or any toys at all, and within a couple of days he became a barely held, let-me-lay-on-the-floor-and-play baby.  Within two days, he started rolling around (he had never rolled from his back onto his stomach before) and sitting up to play.

The Exersaucer

Sitting up.

And just happy!

A New Blog

Having a baby is the most amazing thing that ever happened to me - growing this little tiny human being inside of me, and then seeing him for the first time, watching him grow, and sharing in all of his firsts... Babies are awesome - but as the topic of status updates, they can be incredibly annoying.  That's (mostly why) I decided to start this blog, so that I can write about all my special baby moments to my heart's content, without clogging other people status updates.  And if anyone happens to wander over to pachyderm land, it's their choice to be inundated with baby-ness.

So for starters - why is this pachyderm land?  Lots of people choose to decorate their children's areas, or the children themselves, with monkeys, hippos, whales...etc.  My son likes elephants.  Or at least, he likes to hear about elephants for hours on end.  When he started teething at four and a half months, he was inconsolable.  He cried and cried unless he was walked around and held and cuddled - and even then he was still upset.  What ultimately brought him comfort was being held and sung to at the same time.  I chose a song that could be infinitely repeated: "One elephant went out to play, upon a spider's web one day, he had such enormous fun, that he called for another elephant to come... Two elephants..."  I would sing about elephants into the twenties and beyond, and Alistair would calm down, and sometimes fall asleep.  Since then, the elephant song has been a huge source of comfort to him.  We sing it in the car, in the grocery store, before bed...  The elephants follow us everywhere.  Including, onto this blog.

Anyway, if you're into baby firsts and cute pictures, check back on this blog.  If not, you've been warned.