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Friday, April 29, 2011

We've made it to the other side.

Knock on wood, but I think we've made it over the hump of Wonder Week 26.  Plus both bottom teeth are in.  Finn is napping again even though he's trying to drop the third nap at 6 months.  Nights are back to normal.  For the past couple nights he's been drinking one ounce less than the previous night at his 4am feeding, so I'm hoping he's weaning himself from it.

He can sit for a few seconds by himself now, and has pulled back upright after picking up a toy quite a few times recently.  We'll keep working on it and I bet he'll be sitting all by himself very soon!  Still waiting for the back to tummy roll, but he gets 75% of his body over.  If only that pesky arm wasn't in the way.....

Now that both bottom teeth are in we've started cereal up again.  No more shrieking as soon as the spoon touches him mouth.  Since he's never been a big eater, so far eating about an hour after the previous bottle works the best.  I know they're supposed to get the bottle first since it's still the main source of nutrition, but this boy has better things to do than eat so that's not going to happen.  I feel like we spend most of the day eating even though he's dropped down to 5 bottles a day (and one of those is at 4am).

I'm so glad to have my happy baby back!

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Wonder Week 26

We're coming up on Wonder Week 26 and my happy baby has morphed back into Mr. Cranky.  He gets bored so easily and it's hard not to think that I'm just not doing enough.  Luckily he absolutely loves walks, so we do that every day that the weather is nice.  We've been to Colonial Williamsburg twice to walk around because there's so much to look at.

I found a lot of information about the Wonder Weeks in this blog:  http://blogginaboutbabies.wordpress.com/2009/04/14/wonder-week-26/#comment-420

Basically Finn is learning about relationships right now.  He definitely understands that objects out of reach must be reached for, and will contort himself to grab anything.  Actually, all he wants to do right now is "get things."  We spend most of the day sitting on the floor while he reaches for anything and everything.  He can pick up small objects and pass them from hand to hand, but has trouble pulling himself back up to a sitting position.  I think we're still several weeks away from sitting independently, but his fine motor control is amazing.   Separation anxiety hasn't set in yet, but I think he's beginning to understand that when I leave the room I'm nearby and he just can't see me.  He knows if he looks up in the stroller he can see me in the clear window in the top of the canopy, so he realizes I'm behind him.

We're also back to waking up at the 30 minute mark during naps, and I really hope this goes away.  We had several weeks where he took multiple one hour naps a day without waking up at 30 minutes, but for the past several days I've been able to set my watch by him again.  So far nap extensions are still working.  Basically there is no other option than at least an hour in the crib three times a day!

We started rice cereal on Saturday, and he really enjoyed it the first day.  Now it just makes him scream, so I'm not sure if I should keep trying or wait a couple weeks and try again.  I switched to oatmeal thinking maybe it was the taste, but same result.  I'm not sure if it's the spoon, or the taste, or the consistency that makes him so mad.  He may just not be ready yet. 

It's supposed to be almost 90 degrees today, so we'll be spending a lot of time outside.  I definitely have an outside lover!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

The rundown.

I think I need to really start this blog up again.  I feel so overwhelmed sometimes that I think getting things "on paper" might help a bit.  Here's a brief rundown of where things have been and where we are now.

We went through the 3 month growth spurt which morphed into the 4 month wakeful + Wonder Week 19 from mid-February to mid-March.  Oh my, rough times.  Never have I thought I actually might die of exhaustion.  He did not want to sleep at night, he did not want to nap, he did not want to eat.  We took him to the pediatrician who suspects he might have a mild case of reflux and suggested we try Zantac.  The eating got better on it's own so didn't give it to him.  More on that to come.

I'd read horror stories of the dreaded 4 month wakeful lasting for 2 months for some people, but luckily for us it was over as quickly as it started about 3 weeks later.  Right around the 4 month mark Finn suddenly became a happy baby.  Colic was over and there was much rejoicing!  I finally felt like I had a handle on things.  Thanks to Dr. Ferber I broke the swinging for naps habitat and Finn started taking 3 regular naps a day in his crib.  And they were for more than 30 minutes at a time!  It took about a week of very gentle Ferberizing and we managed to beat the 30 minute intruder.  Seriously, I still feel like I deserve a trophy for this.

Fast forward to 5-5.5 months and the crankiness sets back in.  He doesn't want to eat at all and something seems off.  Just when I'm about to call the pediatrician again, I notice a tooth!  Of course Finn cannot be one of those babies who wakes up with teeth none worse for the wear.  Teething is hell for him.  I'll nominate myself for the Bad Mother Award, but I went ahead and gave him ibuprofen since it works better for teething.  It's not supposed to be given until 6 months, but I figured 2 weeks won't make much of a difference.  He didn't have any negative reactions to it and only needed it once during the day for two days.  Thank you Jesus that teething didn't affect night sleep for us.

So we've made it through one tooth, I think the other is days away from cutting the gum, and we are quickly approaching Wonder Week 26.  Again, he started to get upset while eating so we're sticking with the Zantac for awhile.  Eating has gotten much better, so it's either the result of the tooth being through or he actually does have reflux (I'm not convinced of this because his only symptom is not wanting to eat which frankly I think bores him).

He just woke up from a nap, so I'll expand on Wonder Week 26 a bit later.  Lord help me through this one!