Little Guy is Getting Bigger

Ben is growing up fast all of a sudden!  He is really on the verge of crawling.  He gets up on his knees, but still tries to push off with his feet, so he ends up in a kind of push-up position that looks really tiring!  He can kind of inch forward this way, but he is so frustrated.  I think he knows what the possibilities are, but it just takes so much effort for very little payoff right now.  I know I jumped the gun in my predictions of when Sophie would crawl, but I'll still be pretty surprised if he isn't there in two weeks.

Ben is eating more and more foods, and although he will eat just about anything he's offered, we're starting to see preferences.  He has a limited tolerance for squash and beans... just like his mama.  This week I started feeding him those little Gerber puffs that dissolve in their mouths, and yesterday he learned to put them in his own mouth (after some funny episodes of forgetting where the puff went once he had picked it up!).  I think in the next week or so we'll try to switch to Cheerios, which definitely seem more wholesome than the puffs.  Seems like there is so much junky food even for babies.

Ben still likes to say "ah-gah!"  He doesn't do any other syllables, but he's been having fun experimenting with the different tones you can make by just going "aaaaaaaaaaah!"  Sometimes he will say "gah! gah!" when he's crying, which is just irresistible to me.

Also this week, he has stopped waking up twice during the night.  Most nights he has woken up just once, and once he didn't wake up at all!  Hooray!  But now the problem is this: after he goes to bed, we close both kids' doors so they don't hear us talking or watching TV.  Then when we go to bed, we want to open Ben's door to make sure we (or really I) can hear him if he wakes up at night.  But his door always creaks when you open it.  And it's not even that loud, but it ALWAYS wakes him up.  I'm sure it's because he's learned that sound means someone is coming in, so he's extra sensitive to it.  I think we'll have to get something to grease the door hinges... either that, or use our monitor again.  I'd rather just be able to open his door and check on him!

Today he had his 6-month well visit.  Not much to report.  He weighs 20 lbs exactly, which puts him in the 75th percentile.  He got some shots, which of course he did not like, but he was ok soon.  I think his sister was almost as upset by it as he was!  The whole visit, she cried and tried to leave the room, even though I kept telling her that we weren't there for her, and she could just read a book or play with my iPod.  After a while, she believed me, but then when Ben got his shots and cried, she cried too... for him!

Here are Ben and Sophie swinging together:

Not Feeling So Good

Well, Ben seems to be a little under the weather this week.  Starting on Monday, he has been very fussy all day, which many of you know is odd for him.  When I put him down or go away from him, he gets VERY upset.  He's also been sleeping a little more than usual.  Yesterday afternoon, he started running a fever, so I've been giving him baby Tylenol and offering him liquid -- breastmilk or water -- often.  The fever seems better today, but he is still pretty fussy.  No other symptoms, though.  I don't see any signs of another tooth (he's broken seven through now), and he's not coughing or sneezing and his diaper content seems normal.  So I guess I'll just keep watching him and giving him extra comfort until whatever this is has passed.

He's become very talkative!  He likes to say "ah-gah!" over and over.  We told Sophie that this is "what he says" now, so it's nice to say it back to him.

He's pretty mobile for someone who can't crawl.  He scoots and rolls, and he can get all around any room this way.  However, those kind of motions don't let him go forward, which is what he really wants sometimes.  John has tried to get him a little further along with crawling, but he doesn't seem close yet.  He never gets on his hands and knees, which Sophie did for probably a month before she actually crawled.  He's very alert, and always watches intently as everyone goes about their business.  I think he'll be very happy when he can crawl and pull himself up on things.  All in time.

On A Happier (and More Adorable) Note...

Here are some fantastic pictures that Grammy Sue took during their visit last week.  Enjoy!

Something over there is funny.

OK, how do I get my face out of the smile position?

Yay, old people are the best!

My great-grandfather and I are no longer amused.

What did you say about my great grandpa?  ...That's what I thought.

I hope you are not going to try to come between me and my food.

Ohyesgivemethefoodputitinmymouthrightnowyumyumyumthisismyfavoritepartofthewholeday.

You're going to give me more of that right?  Right?  Yes, put the spoon in that green stuff.  Then put it in my mouth.  No funny business.  Just put the green stuff in my mouth and nobody gets peed on.  Well, ok, you probably will get peed on.  But I'll smile at you during it.  Just keep that food coming.

Hey, I'm just trying to make it as easy as possible for you to put that food where it goes.  You can't miss it.

Stylin', as usual.

Nope... I'm just not ready to walk yet.

Time to chill.

Feelin' good with my Poppy Pete.

CIO Showdown

I'm up at 2am to write this post because Ben is screaming.  He has been crying on and off since 11:30pm.  I figure since I can't sleep while my baby screams anyway and I'm too tired to do anything more productive, I might as well write down my frustrations here.

In my time as a parent, I haven't really subscribed to any "methods."  I'm not really one to read parenting books.  I've just followed my intuition and tried to stay consistent to make it easy for my kids to pick up on patterns in how I respond to what they do.  I'm not saying I have such great mothering instincts that I don't need anyone else's advice, just that so far my kids have been nice enough not to do anything major that I'm at a loss for how to handle.

So it's not that I'm a particular fan of the "cry-it-out" method for getting babies of a certain age to sleep at night.  I think it's important to give them comfort if they need it.  But in certain situations, I feel justified in trying to let a baby put him or herself to sleep.  It's bad for me if my kids think that whenever they wake up, someone needs to rock them back to sleep.  My "rule" is basically that if you're well-fed and burped and have a clean diaper, I will rock you to sleep twice (or ask John to do it one of those times).  If you fall asleep easily once I've picked you up but you start crying again soon after I put you back down, I have to infer that nothing is seriously wrong and your main problem is not being held.  And after I've already rocked you to sleep once or twice, I don't really have the patience to keep that up indefinitely, and certainly not when I should be sleeping.  Of course, a newborn baby is not going to get this.  I don't know what the magic age is -- that's where the intuition comes in, and mine tells me that Ben is plenty old enough to pick up on cause and effect.

The problem with Ben is how persistent he is.  When I hear other parents talk about reluctantly letting their kids cry it out at night, the story is usually that they decide beforehand to give the kid 15 minutes to fall asleep.  The kid falls asleep in 15 minutes or less.  So maybe it's just that the moms who let their kids cry for longer than that aren't telling others about it because they're ashamed, but I never hear anyone say they do that.  When Ben is really worked up, he'll cry for an hour or more.  I just can't believe how long he lasts.  Here is tonight's story: tonight he wakes up at 11:30pm to nurse -- earlier than I'd like, but fine.  He nurses for plenty of time, and I put him down with no problem when he's done.  I think everything's good, but about 15 minutes later he starts crying.  I wait about a minute, then go in and rock him back to sleep, making sure to give him a chance to burp in case that's the problem.  Once again, he goes down easily.  Then about 10 minutes later, crying again.  This time John goes in, rocks him to sleep, puts him down quiet.  Then... crying again.  OK, now we leave him on his own: he's not crying like he's hurt (just mad), I can't think of anything that could be wrong, and we've comforted him twice.  It's 1:30am.  Well, like I said, I started typing this post after 2am.  I think he finally quit around 2:15.

I do feel really bad letting him cry that long, and I don't know how Sophie can sleep through it.  But I also just can't bring myself to reward that behavior.  So we see who breaks first.  It seems really messed up to be playing chicken with a 6-month-old baby.  My decision in this case isn't something I'm proud of.  But I still think it was the right one.  Sigh...

Something Stinky This Way Comes

Ben is almost through his second week of solid food.  He LOVES it.  I can't believe how excited he is about eating.  We started with rice cereal mixed with breast milk, then added peas, and finally carrots.  He eats everything we offer him, and sometimes cries when it's all gone.  We don't even use a bib for him, because he swallows every last bit.  Next I'll add sweet potatoes, then maybe avocado.  Once he's been eating veggies for a week or two, I'll add bananas and applesauce.  I think after he's tried lots of things, I'll get a food grinder so I can just quickly puree whatever we're having for dinner.  He's a great eater, but of course this means the end of the relatively benign yellow poops that we're used to.  They didn't even smell bad... like buttered popcorn.  Now we are in for the stinky brown messes.

What else is new?  Ben's Grammy Sue bought him a nice wooden crib and dresser, and we added a cute bedding set to make his room look like an actual nursery.  I'm really happy with how it turned out.  I had convinced myself that these things don't really matter, but I think we did a good thing to make his room a nicer place to spend time.  Here are a couple of pictures:

At his last doctor's appointment, he weighed just under 18 pounds, which puts him in the 75th percentile.  I could tell he was getting a little less chunky, so I wasn't surprised to hear that his weight was getting more "normal."  However, since we began feeding him solids, I notice him getting chunky again.  I thought maybe he would nurse less, but that doesn't seem to be the case... probably because we've been feeding him at our mealtimes instead of at the times when he would normally nurse.

We finally went to Wakulla Springs last weekend.  Ben did just fine on the drives there and back, and mostly stayed in the sling while we walked around and took a boat ride to look at the wildlife.  Here's a nice picture of our family out on the water:

Slowly, I'm beginning to see patterns of things that Ben really likes.  Here are some things that always seem to make him smile:

Meeting strangers
Looking at himself in the mirror
Being naked
Standing (with help)
Eating, especially with a dramatic approach of the spoon to his mouth
Being lifted in the air
Watching Sophie run in circles
Being wrapped up in his swaddling blanket right before it's time to sleep

He used to love baths, but not as much anymore.  We're kind of in between good places to wash him.  He kind of squirms out of his baby tub, but his sitting isn't quite good enough for the bathroom sink yet.  So he just doesn't get a bath very often.  Oh well, maybe that's why his skin is still so soft!  :)

On A Roll

Ben finally rolled over!  So far, he's done it 4 times... I think!  He always seems to do it when I'm not watching!  So either he can roll over, or the gnomes that live in our house and steal our camera chargers play with him when I leave the room for a minute.

Cute video of Ben in his new monstrosity (otherwise known as an exersaucer):



Nights have been great lately... Down at 8pm no problem, up at midnight and 4am (give or take an hour) to nurse.  Sometimes he wakes up really early -- like 7am -- and is all ready to greet the day, but actually if I just nurse him, I can put him down on his rainforest playmat and he'll be content for up to an hour while I go back to bed for a bit.  I guess his teeth are taking a little break.  Still nothing showing on top!  I can tell they bother him even though they're not out yet.

He's getting really good at grasping things, which of course he just puts in his mouth.  Recently I started reading books to him, and he really loves that!  I was reading to Sophie much earlier, for lack of anything better to do with her.  I don't think it will make a difference, but it illustrates how important it will be for me to make sure Ben is getting the attention he deserves.

Here is Ben watching his sister's antics:



Ben loves SuperWhy!  Something about that show really appeals to my kids.  It's not just the fact that it's TV... Ben will sit there and watch the entire 25-minute show, grinning at the characters.  Then as soon as the show ends, he starts fussing.  I really think Sophie benefited a lot from SuperWhy!, so I don't mind letting Ben watch 2 episodes a day with his sister.  It means I can have dinner ready when John gets home.

Here are some very cute photos of Ben from the past couple of weeks:

Next week should bring more updates.  Ben's Grammy Sue bought him a crib, which I hope we can pick up this weekend -- that should make possible some cute nursery pictures (dresser to follow at some later date).  He also has his 4-month appointment with the pediatrician next week, so I'll report on that as well.

Poor Ben

He's been crying a lot lately.  It's easy to be worried that this is a lasting change in his personality, but the real issues are that he has been sick for the past week, and his incoming teeth are bothering him.  So we'll see if his temperament improves over the next couple of weeks.  Meanwhile, I'm not always able to give him the comfort he needs.  Poor Ben.

I see his personality emerging in leaps and bounds through all this, though.  Not in any specific way.  When I notice these types of changes in my kids, it always scares me a little -- in a healthy way.  Each of these moments appears to me as a tiny burst of independence from me.  It's exciting and frightening to be reminded that these kids are their own people.

Fortunately, I think we finally have a very solid schedule.  Wake up between 7am-8am, sleep from about 10:30am-noon, sleep again from about 2:30pm-4:30pm, then down for the night again at 8pm.  There is still some variation in what happens at night, though.  Two weeks ago, I was exhausted because he would wake up to nurse three or four times during that twelve hours.  Now, it's just twice, but both times can be kind of strange.  Once he woke up at 10:30pm when he normally doesn't wake up until midnight or later.  Unfortunately I had a drink that night, so couldn't nurse him back to sleep right away.  Last night, he woke up at about 4am to nurse, which is what I want him to do.  However, he was hyper and agitated and did not go back to sleep!  So I tried rocking him for a little while, but he only seemed to get more hyper.  Finally, I put him in his swing, which he often sleeps in during the day.  I thought maybe being there would cue him that it was time to sleep.  No such luck... he cried for a half hour straight before finally falling asleep.  I felt terrible.  But all my options seemed to send a bad message: either that it's ok to be awake and playful in the middle of the night, that someone will come if he just cries long enough, or that no one will come no matter how much he cries.

I don't mean to sound too negative.  He's still VERY good-natured and loves to interact with people.  He'll give just about anyone a big smile!  Here are some extra pictures from the past month or two: