Archive for July, 2009

Walking the Baby to Sleep

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

I don’t know if all babies love motion (probably yes, as there are lots of rocking chairs in the world), but it is one of the best ways to calm Maddox down.

This morning, Mads and I slept late (7:30) so he didn’t want to go right down for his nap. I tried cuddling and bouncing and changing him just in case it was cold wet diapers keeping him awake. No dice. So, I put Maddox in his Baby Bjorn (I love the Bjorn) and we went for a 15 minute walk around our apartment complex. By the time we did the last loop, Maddox was fast asleep.

Transferring him to the Pack n Play went fine, and soon he was happily swaddled and listening to iTunes (Stanford Mixed Company a Capella group). Unfortunately, our cats decided that now was a great time to fight each other, so he’s up again. But it’s still amazing how taking a walk will help a sleepy fussy baby make that final transition to sleep.

Two Month Check Up

Monday, July 20th, 2009

Today Mads had his 2 month check up with the pediatrician. He’s healthy (yay!) and generally pretty happy. Unfortunately, our poor little guy missed his morning nap, had to have a bottle of semi-cold milk, and received 2 shots and an oral vaccine (blech). Needless to say, it has not been an overly smiley day. =(

Here are some of the things we learned at the doctor’s office:

Mads is the size of a four month old. He is 13.13 lbs and is 23.5 inches tall. Apparently, this is completely okay and we should feed him whenever he’s hungry instead of worrying about him eating too much.

Personally, I wouldn’t want to try to get in the way of his food consumption. When he’s eating, his eyes sometimes flicker back and forth like he’s checking out potential competition for his food and is ready to take them out.

triumph buggy

His size means that he can ride in his 3 month baby carriage, so long as we are careful that his head is supported. It seems so light-weight that I kind of worry about him riding in it at his age, but I’ll just make sure I go with him until I feel more secure, so I can keep an eye on him.

More good news: he’s been kind of nuts lately (see previous post). The doctor said that the fussiness is at its peak around 2 months, but should ease off in the next couple of months. We have a lot of patience (because he’s so darn cute) but it’s nice to know that he’ll chill out a bit eventually.

Another cool fact: we can start feeding him some solids at 4 months. I’m really looking forward to this – Jon and I love good food, and it’ll be really neat to introduce Mads to different flavors and textures. I’ve got a pamphlet to read about which foods are best and how to introduce them which will be neat to learn.

It goes by so fast!

I noticed the nurse put him in size 2 diapers after she weighed him. We’ve been using size 1-2, and I’ve had an increasingly difficult time changing him at night. When you’re trying to squeeze a baby into diapers that just barely fit him, it becomes like a puzzle and at 4am, no sane person really appreciates puzzles.

For me, this is a milestone. Even more than the different sounds he’s making, or the clothes he’s outgrowing, because he does both of those things so continually. But changing his diaper size means he’s really getting bigger, and while I am so proud of him, it’s kind of a pang because I now realize what other parents mean when they say, “It goes by so fast!”

We had another milestone today – Maddox was wrapped in his swaddler and he thrust his arms out to the sides and it burst open. He was surprised but delighted and so he laughed. He’s been doing little half-laughs and lots of smiles, but I swear, this was a genuine laugh. I love our happy baby.

To wind up:

After the doctor’s appointment, we went to visit Dad at work, and then Mads and I snuggled for an hour or two. It’s really cool – when Mads sits on my lap, the top of his head reaches so much higher than it used to.

Right now he’s watching his Bear Parade, yawning and making sad grumpy sounds which I translate to mean, “Whoa, look at that bear parade. Go, bears, go! Oh my god, my bear parade has stopped. Bears? Bears why aren’t you moving? Bears? BEARS ARE YOU OKAY? MOM, MY BEARS AREN’T MOVING! OH MY GOD SOMEONE HELP THEM! (Mom winds the bears) Whew, there they go. Yaaaaaaay! (Insert happy smiles) All is well…zzzzzzzz.”

Image credit: Triumph buggy

Pretty Much Our Entire Sunday

Sunday, July 19th, 2009

KingMads

The Many Faces of Mads

Friday, July 17th, 2009

Here he is in his new (lighter-weight for the summer) swaddler:

faces1 faces4 faces2 faces3

And my favorites:

faces6

faces5

And having some tummy time on Dad – Mads’ can lift his head up 90 degrees! Of course, he gets tired pretty quickly, but it’s still pretty awesome:

tummytime1

And lastly, playing in his new bouncer:

Maddox’s Schedule at 2 Months

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

Although there are always those days when it’s anyone’s bet as to what will happen, Maddox has started to follow a schedule.

Mads usually gets up around when Dad leaves for work, between 6 and 8. He has breakfast and then we have playtime and I take care of the little things, like trimming his nails or restocking his wipes.

After playtime, I bring Mads out to his Pack n Play and wrap him up for his morning nap. This morning, he’s not really into napping, so he’s making noises and watching things while Mom blasts Norah Jones and hopes that he’ll fall asleep. Today he’s going over to Grammy & Papa’s for lunch (I have a meeting) and I’ll probably have to get him up in the middle of his nap, since he’s late going down.

It is so, so wrong to wake up a sleeping baby after all the effort to get him to sleep.

On an ordinary day, Mads has lunch after his nap, and then we play some more and go out. We’ll visit Dad or Grammy & Papa, or my work. Yesterday, Auntie Kate came up and we went for a walk, which was terrific because all that good fresh air was soporific and he slept for 90 minutes.

I’m hoping that the afternoon nap will become a fixture. Usually, it’s only 30 minutes, but yesterday it cut “crazy time” down by about an hour.

What is “crazy time?” Well, between the afternoon nap and bedtime around 8, Mads likes to either move constantly or eat insatiably. After Mom and Dad are ready for the nuthouse, he then proceeds to pass out for a 4 or 5 hour stretch. I go to bed as soon as he does, since he’s up 2 or 3 times during the night. This is a vast improvement – it used to be every 2 hours.

All in all, this is a pretty good schedule. Any sort of schedule appeals to me, since I live to plan and even having a loose plan helps. Having crazy time is tough, but it’s more than balanced out with Maddox going longer between feedings and with his increasingly adorable awake times. He smiles all the time – sometimes he’ll be having a screaming fussy fit and then he’ll pause, grin at you, and then continue. It is impossible to be mad or even frustrated with someone so cute.

Here’s Mads with his new toy, courtesy of Auntie Kristy. The beginning of the video is pretty cute, but then he kind of just stares at me like, what the heck am I supposed to do with that, Mom, I’m just learning how to use my thumbs.