Andrew 5-6 months old
wow time sure is flying by. I keep meaning to get on here and type stuff in but I just can't seem to get a few minutes to do it.
Let's see some milestones...
10/5/09: Andrew gets bottom 2 teeth! Yeah!
10/8/09: Can make a V and TH sound
10/9/09: Drew army crawled about 12 inches to get his bottle
10/16/09: Babbling a lot, leaned how to make a smacking sound with lips and click tongue
10/17/09: Said Baaaaaaa Baaaaaaa, I thought there was a sheep in the living room. Also does the short BaBaBa
Around the 6th of October someone asked me how teething was, it was fine. Drew was super clingy but not at all what people complain about. I was under the impression that children teethe until teeth come in. I guess teething happens until the whole tooth is in. Drew has been pretty cranky about his mouth lately. But it's not like it interrupts his sleep...he still doesn't sleep. I've been giving him a frozen washcloth to chew on, he loves to chew on blankies so it's working well with the teething. I then decided that maybe he was cranky because he was hungry, so I fed him. Holy Moly, do not give your breastfed baby frozen toys and then feed them. Not only was his mouth cold but he had icy little fingers he was putting all over me too. I won't be doing that again! The feeding has been fine with the teeth, just once I had to pull him away and say No, of course that little bottom lip came out and he started to cry. He is very sensitive. I was reading a Dr. Seuss book the other day and doing the characters in different voices when I got to one character he started crying, guess it was too scary.
Sleep. I never imagined getting a baby to sleep would be the hardest part of parenthood. They sell cribs so I assumed you buy one and put your baby in it and it sleeps, at least for a little bit. Nope, wrong. Drew is still in my bed. I try every single night and he cries and cries and cries and it breaks my heart. Even when I get him to go to sleep in his own crib he's up less than an hour later crying. I've tried the cry it out and just check on him every 5 minutes or so and this goes on for 3 hours when I finally can't take it. There's no reason to let a baby be in distress for 3 hours. The minute I put him in bed with me he is sound asleep and only wakes every 4-5 hours to eat, which for a breastfed baby is normal. I would like my bed back but Drew is only little once and if he wants his mommy so be it, there is no research stating that the family bed creates clingy toddlers or adults, in fact there is a lot of research stating just the opposite, that it creates confident independent children, so whatever, it's not like Drew is going to be in high school and still wanting to cuddle with mommy, I'll enjoy this while I can.
Drew loves his jumper, he is a maniac in that thing. He's also starting to move, he army crawls, using just his arms, it's very cute but makes me realize I have to keep my house picked up better. He doesn't move the whole time I'm watching him then I walk to the kitchen, come back and he's got 10 things he shouldn't have. Drew has also started really enjoying bath time. He splashes the water and plays with the toys, I have to get him some more toys he only has 4 bath toys. He loves the laptops too. Daddy lets him bang on his and he goes crazy for it. That's one of the reasons I can't feed him and update my site like I used to, Drew is too nosey and won't eat if I am typing. He also likes the TV remote, they make a little kid play remote I'll have to get him because with my luck he'll be messing with the real remote and deprogram it or something.
10/19/09: Drew is so fun to listen to. He babbles a lot, until I pull out the camera then he's super quiet. Today he was babbling and it sounded like he said Dadadada, when I asked him what he said he became super quiet, yep he knows....you learn to say mamama first or you start sleeping alone :) I took a short video of him making his G sound, for Grammy :) The only time he makes the M sound for mommy is when his mouth hurts.
10/20/09: Drew had papaya tonight...loved it!! Maybe even more than mangos and so far that has been his favorite. He has tried a lot of food and he seems to like squash and peas the best of the veggies but he didn't care for green beans. He even liked broccoli more than green beans which is surprising to me. Of the fruits he likes mango and papaya the best and he will tolerate apples and pears but isn't sold on the peaches yet. He's a silly baby. Food time isn't about eating to him it's play time, he's a mess. I think he knows that mommy still provides all his nutrition and he doesn't really need to get the solid food in his belly.
10/23/09: I made a batch of homemade baby food for Andrew, very cost effective. It cost me about $3.00 for a butternut squash and it made almost 70oz of food, Gerber squash is $1.00 for 5oz. It's a no brainer. I also made sweet potatoes and have bananas and avocado, but you can't freeze those so I'll get through what I can before it goes bad. Drew gagged on his first bite of avocado but then I mixed it with the bananas (which the books said is a good combo) and he ate them all up. Today he ate a mushroom! Gary was making his spaghetti sauce and gave a mushroom to Drew to check out, he shoved it in his mouth and bit a piece off, I grabbed it out of his mouth, I was afraid he would choke on it, I put the mushroom in his mesh food bag and he ate it all up. I can't believe he liked it. I have a list of 63 items that babies should try before they are 1 and mushrooms are on the list. Drew has now tried 9 things on the list.
10/25/09: Drew started pre-crawling today. He's gets up on his knees and hands and rocks back and forth. It won't be long. He also said a naughty word today :) He is babbling up a storm and it sounded just like he said God Dammit, exactly like it, Gary even heard it. Naughty Naughty baby! He's making all kinds of sounds, Ba, Ga, Da, Ma, Va, Goo, Mum, Ca, and something that sounds an awful lot like kitty, he is big into the ki, ka sound right now. His favorites are Ka, Da, and Ba.
10/28/09:
Drew is way more fun during the day than I had imagined and way more work during the night! I don't know why he doesn't sleep without mommy. My pediatrician said breastfeeding creates clingy babies he wasn't kidding. I really tried the cry it out this week. It's not getting any better. Sunday he screamed at the top of his lungs for 40 mins until he fell asleep, the woke up about 70 mins later screaming. He screamed for 10-15 minutes and fell asleep, woke up about 45 mins later, screamed for 15 mins, fell asleep. Woke up about 30 mins later and screamed so I went and got him. It's ridiculous, I can't let him scream all night long. Monday I put him in his crib for nap he screamed for 20 mins and fell asleep until Ethan cried and woke up about 15 mins later, I couldn't get him back to sleep after that. Monday night he screamed for 30 minutes and fell asleep and was up 70 minutes later, cried for 20-25 minutes and fell asleep then was up about 30 minutes later. I put him in bed with me again. No one can sleep when he's screaming and Gary needs sleep to go to work. Tuesday I put him in his crib to nap at two different times and each time he fell asleep in under 15 minutes and each time it's like Ethan knew, he woke him up. Ugh. Tuesday night I rocked Drew to sleep and placed him in his crib, not a peep. He slept for an hour, then was up screaming for 25 mins. I finally just went and got him, Gary got annoyed with his crying. When I put him in bed with me he sleeps fine. Wednesday I tried to put him in his crib for a nap and he cried for 45 mins, I laid down in bed with him and he slept for 65 minutes. Ugh. I can't figure this sleep thing out. I would do the cry it out thing but it's getting worse not better. I'm just too much of a softy, it really breaks my heart. Drew is in there with tears running down his face screaming for his mommy. I'll figure something out, I just can't see how that's good for him, crying like that on and off all night and for as long as 45 minutes. That's just terrible. On days that I don't have Ethan I just nap with Drew, no big deal but when Ethan is awake it's hit or miss that I can get Drew down for a nap. Drew is also such a light sleeper a creaky stair can wake him up so when Ethan make any noise Drew is up for the rest of the day! Maybe the 2 weeks Ethan is off for his surgery I can take the time to rock Drew and get him used to going down for a nap in his room.
10/31/09: Happy 1st Halloween Drew! Drew is saying Mom/Mum now. He says it a lot when he wants me but I'm not sure if he really knows I'm mom. He says Mum mum, it's so cute. I guess I'm Canadian :) The sleep is still an issue but we're working on it, it's been a week and it is still taking 50 minutes to get him to sleep and he still wakes up many many many times. But he's the perfect baby during the day and I don't mind him sleeping with him, I love cuddling with him, I love that he cuddles with me. I can't believe my baby is almost 6 months old. I hope he is a cuddler when he's bigger too, I love him so much. On top of saying mum he's reaching for me when he wants me. It's so awesome, he wants me :) When someone else is holding me he leans for me and reaches his arms out and when I go in to get him from his crib he gets so excited and smiles and kicks and reaches his arms up. I feel so special :) I just can't believe how fast time is going by, I feel like I still have a newborn but I don't, I have a 6 month old. I might tell Angela I can't watch Ethan anymore, I want to do activities with Drew while he's little and I can't with the 2 of them, and I don't want to use up my weekends because that's when I get to see Gary. I want to take a water babies class and a my gym or gymboree class, I want to do the lap sit reads at the library and just enjoy my days with my baby, I can't believe how fast they are going by. By the time the school year is over I will have a baby that's 13 months old, that's not a little baby anymore, that's a walker!
11/3/09: Drew found his toes! When I change his diaper and pull his feet up he happily sticks a toe in his mouth, so cute! He is also talking up a storm. He says mama all the time now. We have had so much fun this week, this is why I wanted to be a stay at home mom. We went to lapsit at the library where we sang songs and read stories and to a gymboree class where we got to play and move around. It was great to hang out and do fun things with my baby. He had fun too I think. I wish money wasn't an object so I could do all these fun things with him, but these baby classes are so much money. Gymboree is $60 a month, just like an adult gym, but I had way more fun playing with Drew there than I would have at an adult gym. I don't think it's worth it in the summer but Chicago winters are long so it would be nice to do something from Nov. to Feb. when you can't go outside and play. Maybe I can get gift certificates for Christmas and my birthday and that would take care of the cold months.
Let's see some milestones...
10/5/09: Andrew gets bottom 2 teeth! Yeah!
10/8/09: Can make a V and TH sound
10/9/09: Drew army crawled about 12 inches to get his bottle
10/16/09: Babbling a lot, leaned how to make a smacking sound with lips and click tongue
10/17/09: Said Baaaaaaa Baaaaaaa, I thought there was a sheep in the living room. Also does the short BaBaBa
Around the 6th of October someone asked me how teething was, it was fine. Drew was super clingy but not at all what people complain about. I was under the impression that children teethe until teeth come in. I guess teething happens until the whole tooth is in. Drew has been pretty cranky about his mouth lately. But it's not like it interrupts his sleep...he still doesn't sleep. I've been giving him a frozen washcloth to chew on, he loves to chew on blankies so it's working well with the teething. I then decided that maybe he was cranky because he was hungry, so I fed him. Holy Moly, do not give your breastfed baby frozen toys and then feed them. Not only was his mouth cold but he had icy little fingers he was putting all over me too. I won't be doing that again! The feeding has been fine with the teeth, just once I had to pull him away and say No, of course that little bottom lip came out and he started to cry. He is very sensitive. I was reading a Dr. Seuss book the other day and doing the characters in different voices when I got to one character he started crying, guess it was too scary.
Sleep. I never imagined getting a baby to sleep would be the hardest part of parenthood. They sell cribs so I assumed you buy one and put your baby in it and it sleeps, at least for a little bit. Nope, wrong. Drew is still in my bed. I try every single night and he cries and cries and cries and it breaks my heart. Even when I get him to go to sleep in his own crib he's up less than an hour later crying. I've tried the cry it out and just check on him every 5 minutes or so and this goes on for 3 hours when I finally can't take it. There's no reason to let a baby be in distress for 3 hours. The minute I put him in bed with me he is sound asleep and only wakes every 4-5 hours to eat, which for a breastfed baby is normal. I would like my bed back but Drew is only little once and if he wants his mommy so be it, there is no research stating that the family bed creates clingy toddlers or adults, in fact there is a lot of research stating just the opposite, that it creates confident independent children, so whatever, it's not like Drew is going to be in high school and still wanting to cuddle with mommy, I'll enjoy this while I can.
Drew loves his jumper, he is a maniac in that thing. He's also starting to move, he army crawls, using just his arms, it's very cute but makes me realize I have to keep my house picked up better. He doesn't move the whole time I'm watching him then I walk to the kitchen, come back and he's got 10 things he shouldn't have. Drew has also started really enjoying bath time. He splashes the water and plays with the toys, I have to get him some more toys he only has 4 bath toys. He loves the laptops too. Daddy lets him bang on his and he goes crazy for it. That's one of the reasons I can't feed him and update my site like I used to, Drew is too nosey and won't eat if I am typing. He also likes the TV remote, they make a little kid play remote I'll have to get him because with my luck he'll be messing with the real remote and deprogram it or something.
10/19/09: Drew is so fun to listen to. He babbles a lot, until I pull out the camera then he's super quiet. Today he was babbling and it sounded like he said Dadadada, when I asked him what he said he became super quiet, yep he knows....you learn to say mamama first or you start sleeping alone :) I took a short video of him making his G sound, for Grammy :) The only time he makes the M sound for mommy is when his mouth hurts.
10/20/09: Drew had papaya tonight...loved it!! Maybe even more than mangos and so far that has been his favorite. He has tried a lot of food and he seems to like squash and peas the best of the veggies but he didn't care for green beans. He even liked broccoli more than green beans which is surprising to me. Of the fruits he likes mango and papaya the best and he will tolerate apples and pears but isn't sold on the peaches yet. He's a silly baby. Food time isn't about eating to him it's play time, he's a mess. I think he knows that mommy still provides all his nutrition and he doesn't really need to get the solid food in his belly.
10/23/09: I made a batch of homemade baby food for Andrew, very cost effective. It cost me about $3.00 for a butternut squash and it made almost 70oz of food, Gerber squash is $1.00 for 5oz. It's a no brainer. I also made sweet potatoes and have bananas and avocado, but you can't freeze those so I'll get through what I can before it goes bad. Drew gagged on his first bite of avocado but then I mixed it with the bananas (which the books said is a good combo) and he ate them all up. Today he ate a mushroom! Gary was making his spaghetti sauce and gave a mushroom to Drew to check out, he shoved it in his mouth and bit a piece off, I grabbed it out of his mouth, I was afraid he would choke on it, I put the mushroom in his mesh food bag and he ate it all up. I can't believe he liked it. I have a list of 63 items that babies should try before they are 1 and mushrooms are on the list. Drew has now tried 9 things on the list.
10/25/09: Drew started pre-crawling today. He's gets up on his knees and hands and rocks back and forth. It won't be long. He also said a naughty word today :) He is babbling up a storm and it sounded just like he said God Dammit, exactly like it, Gary even heard it. Naughty Naughty baby! He's making all kinds of sounds, Ba, Ga, Da, Ma, Va, Goo, Mum, Ca, and something that sounds an awful lot like kitty, he is big into the ki, ka sound right now. His favorites are Ka, Da, and Ba.
10/28/09:
Drew is way more fun during the day than I had imagined and way more work during the night! I don't know why he doesn't sleep without mommy. My pediatrician said breastfeeding creates clingy babies he wasn't kidding. I really tried the cry it out this week. It's not getting any better. Sunday he screamed at the top of his lungs for 40 mins until he fell asleep, the woke up about 70 mins later screaming. He screamed for 10-15 minutes and fell asleep, woke up about 45 mins later, screamed for 15 mins, fell asleep. Woke up about 30 mins later and screamed so I went and got him. It's ridiculous, I can't let him scream all night long. Monday I put him in his crib for nap he screamed for 20 mins and fell asleep until Ethan cried and woke up about 15 mins later, I couldn't get him back to sleep after that. Monday night he screamed for 30 minutes and fell asleep and was up 70 minutes later, cried for 20-25 minutes and fell asleep then was up about 30 minutes later. I put him in bed with me again. No one can sleep when he's screaming and Gary needs sleep to go to work. Tuesday I put him in his crib to nap at two different times and each time he fell asleep in under 15 minutes and each time it's like Ethan knew, he woke him up. Ugh. Tuesday night I rocked Drew to sleep and placed him in his crib, not a peep. He slept for an hour, then was up screaming for 25 mins. I finally just went and got him, Gary got annoyed with his crying. When I put him in bed with me he sleeps fine. Wednesday I tried to put him in his crib for a nap and he cried for 45 mins, I laid down in bed with him and he slept for 65 minutes. Ugh. I can't figure this sleep thing out. I would do the cry it out thing but it's getting worse not better. I'm just too much of a softy, it really breaks my heart. Drew is in there with tears running down his face screaming for his mommy. I'll figure something out, I just can't see how that's good for him, crying like that on and off all night and for as long as 45 minutes. That's just terrible. On days that I don't have Ethan I just nap with Drew, no big deal but when Ethan is awake it's hit or miss that I can get Drew down for a nap. Drew is also such a light sleeper a creaky stair can wake him up so when Ethan make any noise Drew is up for the rest of the day! Maybe the 2 weeks Ethan is off for his surgery I can take the time to rock Drew and get him used to going down for a nap in his room.
10/31/09: Happy 1st Halloween Drew! Drew is saying Mom/Mum now. He says it a lot when he wants me but I'm not sure if he really knows I'm mom. He says Mum mum, it's so cute. I guess I'm Canadian :) The sleep is still an issue but we're working on it, it's been a week and it is still taking 50 minutes to get him to sleep and he still wakes up many many many times. But he's the perfect baby during the day and I don't mind him sleeping with him, I love cuddling with him, I love that he cuddles with me. I can't believe my baby is almost 6 months old. I hope he is a cuddler when he's bigger too, I love him so much. On top of saying mum he's reaching for me when he wants me. It's so awesome, he wants me :) When someone else is holding me he leans for me and reaches his arms out and when I go in to get him from his crib he gets so excited and smiles and kicks and reaches his arms up. I feel so special :) I just can't believe how fast time is going by, I feel like I still have a newborn but I don't, I have a 6 month old. I might tell Angela I can't watch Ethan anymore, I want to do activities with Drew while he's little and I can't with the 2 of them, and I don't want to use up my weekends because that's when I get to see Gary. I want to take a water babies class and a my gym or gymboree class, I want to do the lap sit reads at the library and just enjoy my days with my baby, I can't believe how fast they are going by. By the time the school year is over I will have a baby that's 13 months old, that's not a little baby anymore, that's a walker!
11/3/09: Drew found his toes! When I change his diaper and pull his feet up he happily sticks a toe in his mouth, so cute! He is also talking up a storm. He says mama all the time now. We have had so much fun this week, this is why I wanted to be a stay at home mom. We went to lapsit at the library where we sang songs and read stories and to a gymboree class where we got to play and move around. It was great to hang out and do fun things with my baby. He had fun too I think. I wish money wasn't an object so I could do all these fun things with him, but these baby classes are so much money. Gymboree is $60 a month, just like an adult gym, but I had way more fun playing with Drew there than I would have at an adult gym. I don't think it's worth it in the summer but Chicago winters are long so it would be nice to do something from Nov. to Feb. when you can't go outside and play. Maybe I can get gift certificates for Christmas and my birthday and that would take care of the cold months.
Mommy and me with my cousins Alex and Zoh, Uncle Aaron and me, me eating a Maryland crab in Baltimore
eating carrots for the first time (at Uncle Aaron's house), A Rangers fan already, a little worried about the DC Metro
Meeting Barack in DC, my mommy's best friend Mary, Playing at home after a long weekend in Maryland
eating carrots for the first time (at Uncle Aaron's house), A Rangers fan already, a little worried about the DC Metro
Meeting Barack in DC, my mommy's best friend Mary, Playing at home after a long weekend in Maryland
My Halloween Costume!
5 1/2 months old, I'm a big boy. That's my rice crisp I'm eating, reading a puppy book
eating fruit in the mesh bag, playing on the bed, napping in the chair..mommy want to know why isn't it the other way around
jumping, dressed for the cold, playing with the new duck
ready to cache with daddy, playing with my dragon
still with the dragon, in the ocean, tired out from playing
sitting up in the little bassinet, eating a block, checking out Ethan
Mommy why is there another baby here? Reading educational magazines
eating fruit in the mesh bag, playing on the bed, napping in the chair..mommy want to know why isn't it the other way around
jumping, dressed for the cold, playing with the new duck
ready to cache with daddy, playing with my dragon
still with the dragon, in the ocean, tired out from playing
sitting up in the little bassinet, eating a block, checking out Ethan
Mommy why is there another baby here? Reading educational magazines
Playing outside on a nice fall day...about 22 weeks old (5 1/2 months)
I'm 5 months old and I'm a PC
I'm 5 months old and I'm a PC
mommy where are you going? Come Back! Yeah Mommy is back!!!
playing with my farm...eating the fence and the feed troth...hey, there's no food in this thing, wearing my outlaw pants
Going for a chilly walk with my buddy, walking is tiring, upside down baby!!
playing with my farm...eating the fence and the feed troth...hey, there's no food in this thing, wearing my outlaw pants
Going for a chilly walk with my buddy, walking is tiring, upside down baby!!
playing with me computer keyboard, it doesn't fit mommy's computer, after a bath,
In my Halloween shirt
showing off the reese's pumpkin, I didn't let mommy finish :)
playing with the pumpkin
looking all serious , eating my stuffed lollipop on Halloween
put candy in here, in the yard on Halloween
In my Halloween shirt
showing off the reese's pumpkin, I didn't let mommy finish :)
playing with the pumpkin
looking all serious , eating my stuffed lollipop on Halloween
put candy in here, in the yard on Halloween
Trying out a cup, naked baby, Mommy...I'm naked, put the camera away!
Ooohh my frog, I can get it, Look I got it!!
Ooohh my frog, I can get it, Look I got it!!
