Sunday morning

Happy Halloween!

We had a great day on Friday celebrating Cash's first Halloween. First, since we get up so early anyway, Ross made pumpkin pancakes to start off the day.


Cash had a parade at day care to get to so Ross and I dressed him up in his pumpkin costume. The costume was a gift from my babysitter from Hershey and it worked perfectly. He was definitely the star of the parade.




With Cash at day care, I had a chance to finally break out the Beaba babycooker. On my walk home I went to the Union Square Farmer's Market and picked up some sweet potatoes and pears to make for him. So far he's had the sweet potatoes...mixed with banana of course. My little monkey seems to know what he likes.

Yummy avocado?

We've stepped up the solids and now Cash is getting some fruit in the morning and a bowl of rice cereal with fruit at night before bed. He is extremely into banana which makes sense since I ate a lot of them while pregnant. He loves it. We tried something new today - avocado. It was recommended as one of the best first food for baby. I don't think Cash is too convinced. He gagged on the first few bites. Then I mixed it with some banana and it was all ok. I plan to make a bunch of new stuff in the Beaba babycook this weekend - pears, apples, sweet potatoes and squash. Also, Grammy and Papa have put some apple and banana flavored oatmeals in the mail for him so we have a bunch of new things to try. Overall though, the eating is going really well. He's pretty adept with eating from the spoon and seems to enjoy eating. I think it's starting to show too - he's getting more of a chubby baby tummy going on. I love it!

Happy Birthday Mama Mollie!

Cash wanted to say happy birthday to his Mama Mollie in Texas today! We all love you and look forward to saying happy birthday in person (through Skype) this weekend.

High chair play time

Last night I decided to set up Cash's high chair for the first time and see if he was ready to sit in it while Ross and I ate dinner. Since he was born, Cash has been confined to the car seat on top of the table while we ate dinner and usually he was ok with it. However, last night, he started to writhe in it so much I was scared he would wiggle his way out so it seemed like a good time to break out the large apparatus that was hiding behind the coat rack. As you can see, he's still a little on the short side for it...


I got out a bunch of toys so he could "play" while we ate. Didn't really work so well. He's not much of a grabber yet, meaning, he'll shake and look at things that you put in his hand for him, but he doesn't reach and grab for things himself. So we would push the little keyboard that played music for him and he would be fascinated for a few seconds and we could choke down a bite of chicken. Then he would fuss and we would push another button, 5 seconds of fascination, eat, and repeat.


I think the main reason for fussiness has to do with the sitting aspect of the high chair. Cash does not like to sit very much. He loves to stand though. I think if we held him in the standing position all day he would be a happy happy boy. His feet are almost flat now when standing and he tries to take steps. However, making him practice sitting is a recipe for fussiness (and falling over). I tried to make him sit on a blanket on the floor the other day, let go for two seconds, and thud! His little head went straight over to the floor. It makes a mom wish for wall to wall carpeting.

Ready for solids...yeah, not so much

At Cash's 4 month well baby visit, our pediatrician suggested that we get Cash started on some solids. So this week, we've been giving Cash some rice cereal in the morning. Since he is still not the best sitter, we usually put him in his swing and try to force a couple of globs of the stuff in his mouth. For the most part, he's not all that enthused. Monday, he actually opened his mouth and let me finish the bowl, but since then Ross has been able to get about 3 spoonfuls in his mouth before Cash clams up and turns his head. I have some bananas to try out later this week, maybe he'll like that more. But honestly, I'm not terribly convinced the little guy is ready for solids yet. If the pediatrician hadn't recommended it (especially since it was right after telling me he was in the 10th percentile for weight) I probably would have held off for at least another month. However, we got on this train so I don't see the point in getting off now. I'm still going to keep it just to morning feedings for a couple of weeks though. Since his bedtime routine and sleep have been so off, I don't really want to throw a wrench in the mix and make him not want to nurse at bedtime because he's so full of this rice goop. We are excited to try avocado in a week or so though. This little half-Texan needs to get started on liking guacamole early.

Happy 4 months!

Cash turned 4 months old yesterday. I remember thinking when he was first born that at 4 months he would hit a bit of a milestone and be out of that still somewhat a fetus type state and be more like a real baby. He definitely has changed so much since June 12th and he is doing new things almost daily. This morning, he grabbed the mirror hanging from his activity gym using two hands for the first time. Yesterday, he rolled from tummy to back for the first time on the doctor's table. The list of firsts that have happened in the past few weeks seems endless.

And with this monthly milestone came a well baby trip to the doctor. We got a chance to check on his ear infection and it seems to be clearing up. We also got the standard weight and height checks. Cash is now 25 inches long (which is 75th percentile for height - yay!) and 12lbs, 13oz (the 10th percentile for weight - boo!) The doctor seemed to suggest that I wasn't feeding him enough and that he needs to get 5oz in his bottles at daycare. Since there doesn't seem to be any way that I can physically keep up with that demand, we are resorting to tricking him into some formula eating and mixing an ounce in with each 4oz bottle of breastmilk. Considering his general anger at me when I tried to give him a full bottle of formula the other week, I hope that the trickery will work and that we can gradually increase the ounces so that he will take formula when needed...like when I have to go away for a couple of days for work in January. We also discussed solids and Cash will be starting on some rice cereal this weekend. I hope he is into it so that I can break out the Beaba babycook and make some yummy pureed food for him to eat.

However, on another "mommy fail" note, apparently my grand scheme to keep him straitjacketed in a swaddle forever so that he will sleep was frowned upon by my pediatrician. She actually told me it was dangerous to keep him swaddled since he was mobile now and could roll over and not be able to get back around. So the swaddles will be packed away. He did ok with it his first night but I'm a bit anxious to see how it will continue.

Hopefully I'll get a better grade at the next well baby visit at 6 months. Until then, I'll be attempting to fatten up my rolly-poly unswaddled little man!

Under the weather

This past week has been pretty rough. Cash has been congested for the past few weeks now and it finally got so bad that we took him to the doctor on Wednesday who diagnosed him with his first ear infection. So he's been on antibiotics since then but his coughing and congestion hasn't gone away at all. In fact, I think it's worse. And sleep....well, I'm not sure I even remember what sleep is anymore. The poor guy coughs himself awake every other hour or so and in general, is just not his smiley and joyful self. So we will probably be going back to the doctor tomorrow to see if there is anything else we can do. For now, I have a video we took at the outset of the illness when he still had his smiles. :(

Where is the sleep training method for the 1 bedroom apartment family?

Cash, sleeping peacefully for once...

I think the question that new mothers hear most frequently after the general "How's the baby?" is "So, is he/she sleeping through the night yet?" It doesn't matter if your baby is 4 weeks or 4 months old, this is apparently at the forefront of everyone's mind when they think about how new parenthood is going. Your baby sleeps through the night = everything is going ok. Your baby doesn't sleep through the night = I feel an enormous amount of pity for you and also joy that this isn't my life.

So when friends and coworkers inevitably ask me how Cash is sleeping I say..."Okayyyy....". And that basically is the truth. He sleeps ok. Does he sleep through the night? No, not even close. But does he get me up every 1.5 to 2 hours or some other horror stories I've read? No, he's not that bad. Basically, depending on whether or not he napped alot at daycare that day, Cash goes to bed anywhere from 5pm to 8pm, sleeps about 4-5 hours, wakes up to nurse, goes back down for another 3 hours, nurses, and then (hopefully) sleeps to his newly self-established wake up time of 5:30am. From there he likes to "talk" really loudly,smile and play for about an hour before nursing again and going down for a nap between 30 minutes to 2 hours and then, maybe, take another long nap at some point in the afternoon. He is not the most consistant baby.

Now did it used to be this bad? No, he used to sleep for about 6-7 hours, nurse once throughout the night and then sleep to about 6-6:30am. In other words, those were his glory days. But then about a month ago, I went back to work and he got his first cold at daycare and everything has been all screwy ever since. So Ross and I decided about a week ago to attempt "sleep training" with the help of the Sleep Lady method which was recommended by Ross's coworker. Basically, the method tells you to put your baby down "drowsy but awake" at a consistant time each evening so that he learns how to put himself to sleep. Then, choose whether or not you want to dream feed your child (meaning feed him around 10 or 11pm when you are about to go to sleep) or feed him upon his first night waking but then, after that, you don't feed him until 6am. When he wakes up other times during the night, you need to try to soothe but DO NOT pick him up out of his crib. Also, you need to establish a morning and afternoon naptime and stick with it.

Sounds easy enough, right? However, what does one do when you are right next to your child's crib? I can sit there and pat his head and shush him for hours, but I can't leave and close the door to his wails so that he can attempt to soothe himself for a couple of minutes. He knows that both of us are right there. Plus, it's not exactly easy to let the process run its course when you are not even two feet away from your screaming child. Also, we have neighbors who already dislike us enough since we fill up the community trashcans with diapers and block the hallway with the stroller most days.

So, Ross and I quickly modified and tried to soothe by picking Cash up but not feeding him. No dice. When you live in 450 square feet, there's not exactly a divying up of nighttime parenting. If Cash wakes up, we both wake up. If one of us is pacing the apartment with a screaming baby, we are both there in spirit. Plus, given the fact that Cash is in full time daycare, establishing a consistant nap schedule is unfortunatly off the table as well. Does Cash usually nap during the lights out period of 12:30-2:30 at daycare? Usually but not all the time and with a room full of lights and other screaming babies, I can't exactly demand that the day care providers make my son nap at certain times during the day. So the best I can do is try to adhere to the 12:30 - 2:30 schedule on the weekends as well even though that pretty much only gives him one long nap a day when everything I read tells me he needs two. Plus, on the days he doesn't nap he is so tired at 5pm that I feel I should just swaddle him up and put him down for the night. But then on days he does nap, he wants to stay up and since Ross doesn't get home until 6:30pm, I'd like him to stay up to to have some Daddy-time. His natural "bedtime" just hasn't presented itself yet, so we can't establish a routine and I have no idea how to enforce one in our situation.

So Sleep Lady pretty much got thrown out the window and we are back to adhering to Cash's demands. I'd like to know where there is a sleep training method for people who HAVE TO (not choose to as in co-sleeping) sleep in the same room with their baby. Not everyone has a door to shut or 1000 square feet to separate themselves from their baby in order to instill "proper sleep habits". Also, most of these methods don't really seem to be designed for working parents. For 5 days out of the week, I have little control over my child's nap schedule. It's not my fault, it's just the way that it is. If I try to demand a certain schedule, it would be pretty unreasonable considering the constraints of day care and affording a full time nanny who I can tell what to do isn't an option. I figure there has to be some kind of method out there for people in our situation but until I find it I guess I just have to continue to live in a zombiefied state with a permanent coffe cup in my hand.

Flying baby