Some Recent Photos

Enjoying some Mom time

Cute winter polar bear outfit from my cousin

On a neighborhood walk with Dad

Elliot and his friend Greta, showing off their new shoes

Laundry day (ie. what to do with a dirty baby)

5 Months Old

It's been 5 whole months since Mr. Wiggles was born.
Here are some things he does and likes to do these days:
~talks A LOT, mostly squealing and cooing, often to me when we're playing, to himself, and sometimes to his toys
~smiles all the time, and laughs a lot too
~if he's fussing and I start laughing "at" him, he'll often stop and laugh with me
~goes to bed easily most nights, but wakes up every 3-4 hours to eat (only partially wakes up, and falls asleep again almost instantly)
~sleeps in in the morning, usually until 8 or 8:30am
~tries to eat his hand, and often fits the whole thing in his mouth
~tries to eat my hand, and usually only fits one or two fingers in his mouth
~tries to eat anything that comes near his mouth, or that he can grab
~likes to go with us for walks outside, looking at the leaves and trees
~is almost rolling over (but has only succeeded once, from front to back)
~can sit up propped with pillows on the sofa.
~entertains himself for 30 minutes at a time on his play mat.
~looks at books, and is most interested in the interactive ones (crinkly ones, ones that move or wiggle)
~loves to smiles at the baby and mommy in the mirror
~has a little bit of fuzzy blond hair that is finally growing longer and sticking straight up (except in his very bald bald spot on the back of his head!)

Talking up a Storm

Elliot has been "talking" a lot these past couple of days. He talks to himself mostly. Or maybe he's talking to his Elephant "Ellie", or his bird, or his bear "Gingerbear." Can't quite tell. But it's very cute. Here Ellie is sitting on him. (what would you do with an elephant that likes to sit on your chest?)

A Visit to Patty's Farm

We drove up to Amherst, MA this weekend to visit Patty and family. She used to be a post doc in Chris's lab and moved up here 1.5 years ago. They recently bought a 120 acre farm and have been fixing it up. It was wonderful to visit, and I can't wait to go up there again.

A beautiful gift for Elliot, an alpaca hat from Bolivia. It's so soft! and will be wonderfully warm in winter. Looks cute too (a little gnome hat).
They have many acres of forest, with creeks running through. We took a walk along one of the forest paths, out to the CSA veggie farm on the far side of their property. I hope Patty's daughters (ages 4 and 8) realize how cool it is to grow up on a farm with so many gorgeous amenities like their own forest to explore, horses to ride, creeks to swim in, apples to pick, chickens to chase, and soon, cows and goats to milk.
Elliot met his first horse (though he slept through the whole experience). This is Rose, a draft horse (formerly owned and trained by the Amish). She and her horse partner pull the wagons and other farming implements. Patty's husband Bernard is trying to go "petroleum-less" as far as working the farm goes. He has many horse-pulled pieces of equipment. The whole place is going organic too. It seems like so much work, but incredibly rewarding in the end.
The farm, which they bought not too long ago, has had horse-boarding facilities for many years. They decided to continue that business.

Elliot's Bears Come Out of Hibernation

I pulled out some new toys today. Elliot is starting to grab at things and almost "play" with them so I thought I'd give these bears a try. He also seemed to enjoy tasting his platypus rattle.

This bear tastes pretty good, though most things these days seem to taste good. Or at least they tend to end up in or near his mouth. He's entering the oral fixation stage. He has very little hand eye coordination thus far, so getting things INTO his mouth is tricky (his hands being the exception.)

Good morning smiley baby (whoever you are)!

Cute naked baby photo

Milking issues

Crap! The breast pump broke a few hours ago. The motor is completely dead (as far as I can tell from taking it apart). A new one costs $300. I'm searching for a used one. Hope I can find one in the next 24 hours or my milk may dry up. I tried hand pumping--slow and ineffective (half the milk, twice the time, difficult). And I tried to make him nurse directly, but that didn't go over very well either.

Baby Burrito

Ingredients for a 9 layer Baby Burrito:

1 baby (freshly washed)
1 clean diaper
1 pair fuzzy socks
1 nightgown
1 long sleeve fleece sleep sack
1 fleece swaddle blanket
1 fleece blanket (baby size, folded in two)
1 cotton hat
1 wooly hat with ear flaps

Start with a clean baby. Wrap and tuck all ingredients, in order, around squirming bundle. When you can barely see exposed skin, you're almost done. Place in bassinet and hope that he's warm enough.

First Snow

It snowed today (and still is snowing as I type) for the first time. It's wet slushy snow, but Elliot's first, so we went out in it to explore. He seems entranced by all the white. He was warm all bundled up in his cozy fleecy suit (and many layers underneath). We did get a little wet, so next time, we take an umbrella.

Our International Baby Group

We have formed an informal baby group with some moms and babies around the neighborhood. I met one mom in my dancing through pregnancy class, and through her, as well as a baby and mom exercise class, we've met a few others. Yesterday I had everyone over for tea and munchies. It was really fun! Most of the babies are around Elliot's age, but one is 2 months older, and one is 1 month younger. There's one girl in the group. So many boyfriends to choose from! Languages represented in the group: English, Italian, German, and Hebrew (and a little Spanish and French).

Waaaaaaaaaaa

Mostly non-stop crying today is driving me crazy.

Where is the DADDY when you need one to take over for a while?!

New developments in the past days: He acts hungry, so I try to feed him, but he cries so much that he gets too upset to do anything. The only thing that will calm him is to swaddle tightly, hold in the pacifier, and at the same time jump up and down until he stops (10 min?), then do a switch-a-roo with the pacifier/bottle. Then he eats just fine, then falls asleep, only to repeat in +/- 90 minutes.

AAaaaaarrrggghhh.

baby's first novel

I'm subscribed to an e-mail list that sends me updates on what milestones my baby should be hitting as he develops, as well as health tips and other interesting and useful tidbits. What drives me crazy, or makes me paranoid, is that it's designed for full term babies so I'm always thinking that he's so far behind where he should be (though of course I know chronologically he's really 4 weeks behind because of his premature birth).

He ISn't rolling over yet (and doesn't seem to be even close to it). He ISn't doing baby push ups yet. He just barely started reaching for (more like batting at) dangling toys. He ISn't sleeping through the night (or more than 4 hours at a time). He still eats every 2 hours during the day. But he's just about the size of a full term 3 month old.

I don't focus on what he SHOULD be doing according to "the experts", but rather, I am in awe of what he DOES do. Though it still throws me off when I get an e-mail saying something like "At 4 months your baby should be running his own publishing business and learning the fine art of French Indonesian cooking," (or something like that) when Elliot can't even read yet and doesn't know where Indonesia is on the map.

Mom's Birthday Walk in the Woods

We went on a mycological foray on Sunday. Didn't find many mushrooms, but had a nice walk in the woods (minus the mosquitoes).

My first frog encounter. We found some salamanders too.
One of them tried to escape by squirming down my shirt.

A moment with Mom.

Dad took me bird watching.

A family portrait.

Fall Colours

Autumn is on its way! Found these lovely leaves today on our walk.

Daddy made me laugh!

This is one of the first times I've seen Elliot smile (and almost laugh) to others' trying to get a response. Daddy made some silly noises.

Baby Gym time

Go figure. He seems to prefer the giraffe to others. Maybe it's because of his lovely giraffe outfit? or the sleeper with the giraffe. or that mama wears shirts with giraffes. or that dad is as tall as a giraffe. or he likes orange.

Updates with a smile

Elliot and I have had a few days now to really get to know each other. Chris left for 2 weeks in Ecuador, so it's been just babe and mom for 4 days now. The first day was tough. He cried A LOT and I had no relief. I was kind of mad at him (though when he smiled at me, it sort of made up for his behavior). The last 3 days have been very good though. I'm starting to put him on a sleep schedule. To bed between 7:30 and 8pm. He's waking up to feed every 3-3.5 hours in the night. That's doable. It's still every 2 hours during the day. We get up together around 7 or 8am. He still naps a lot during the day. It lets me work on projects (yay!). And when I want him to nap, I just wrap him up in the Moby on my chest and go for a walk. Works every time.

Feeding updates: we're giving nursing one last try. My first attempt to wean him from the bottle didn't go very well a few weeks ago. I'll give it a time limit, if he still prefers the bottle and won't breastfeed, so be it, and we progress from there with continued pumping and bottles. He's gaining weight very well (on Tues he was 11 lbs 10 oz, now 50% for his actual birthdate) and is happy (as far as you can tell a baby is happy). I'm doing alright now with the pumping (benefits being it gives me 15 min of knitting/reading time every 4 hours, and I can see the amount of milk Elliot drinks--the scientist in me likes that part a lot).

Here's a photo of him this morning. Smiling and wiggling away while watching me pump his next meal.

Mom and Babe

My little chunky monkey.

Grandparental visits (and other family too!)

Grandma and Grandad visited in mid-August, and gave Elliot a Native American Children's blessing. Oh, and Aunty Becky made an appearance too.


My mom, Nana, with Elliot in early August.
Nana and Papa came back for a visit in early September. Wow, he's so much bigger!

And the honorary grandparents, Cheryl and Del (in mid-August).

more on breastfeeding woes

I'm trying now some new techniques to ween baby off bottles and onto breast, one feeding at a time. We'll see how it goes, and if it makes us all grumpy for a while but happier later on. I've also found out that there's a La Leche League meeting monthly within walking distance from our house! I'll go next week.

Thanks for all the words of encouragement from everyone. I DON'T feel like a completely bad mother, it's just frustrating . . . In a few months I/he/we won't remember any of this, right?

sigh and argh

argh.
Here's an update on breastfeeding and our failures at it. At one point a few weeks back, I thought Elliot was starting to get it. But I was wrong.
He nurses a little every other feeding or so. This usually lasts from 2-15 minutes, but it's never enough for a real meal. He's always still hungry when he spits out the nipple, and refuses to take it again (and the crying is even louder if I try to offer the other side). So, I still have to pump and feed him with a bottle.
Nipple confusion? Dislike of nursing? Other issues?
It's frustrating. But at least he's getting breast milk.

However a new issue came to light the other day. I keep saying, "But at least he's getting breast milk." and "I don't mind pumping as long as he's getting my milk." We had the opportunity to go whale watching this weekend, but couldn't go because pumping is NOT really portable. Yes, I could take bottles ( I have plenty). But pumping in the car or on a boat with lots of other people, or in a public place isn't really doable. And if I don't pump multiple times in the day, my milk slows, my boobs hurt and it's an all round bad situation.

It also makes me feel like a bad parent to not be able to do this basic human/mammalian procedure. Also, he's just fussy, crying A LOT these days, so that contributes to my feeling like a bad mother. I just want a happy baby. He's decidedly not happy right now. Nursing would be a comfort to both him AND me.
Sigh.

A Morning Haiku

Poor little pumpkin
Has intestinal issues
Please poop again soon

Bath time

He seems to like bath time except when it gets to washing his hair. (By "like" I mean he tolerates it without crying.)

He opens his eyes

And lovely eyes they are. He also has started to track faces. He can hold his head still and move his eyes from side to side as grandad moves his face from side to side. Still no real interest in toys or looking at the black and white images of monkeys that I printed out. He sometimes grabs at things, but mostly it's unintentional.

A lot of time on the couch

Feeding is still slow. It seems that at times, Elliot gets it: he drinks deeply and for 15-20 minutes (sometimes on two sides). Other times, he just sips, then it takes him/us 60-90 minutes, and he's still not satisfied after. I then have to pump and feed him a bottle. It's nice to breastfeed him, I enjoy the together time and the idea of breastfeeding, but I'm wondering how long I can keep this up. Bottle feeds are fast and efficient. Pumping is also fast and efficient. But they're impersonal and baby gets really worked up during the wait time. But I DO like the nursing. The new iPad is helping, or maybe it's hindering (as I'm paying more attention to it. than to the baby at times!).

Baby Net

The mesh fruit/casserole cover thing fit over E really well. He enjoyed napping on the grass while we had lunch at our aunt and uncle's house today. Notice the lovely striped knee socks. Must find more.

By jove, I think he's got it!

Or at least he's on his way to getting it. The past 2 days have gone really well. He's slurping away, and more quickly too. Though more often. He's eating/wanting to eat every 2 hours (sometimes more often). Yay! Much happier mom and baby.

Breastfeeding is a Challenge

Ugh. I spent literally 5 straight hours with a little person dangling off my chest this afternoon. With a few short (like 5-10 minute) breaks. He's a slow eater. Doesn't get enough directly from the boob to satisfy him, so by the time he's too tired to suck more (after 30 minutes), he falls asleep for 5-10 minutes and then he's really hungry again. Today he woke up and cried every time I put him down when he looked like he was asleep. Finally he/we got a short break when I gave up and fed him a full BOTTLE of milk, then carried him in the Moby (or as Chris says "the Mobius strip").

I keep hoping as he gets bigger and more experienced, he will improve in the feeding speed (after all, yesterday was his due date).

In the mean time, I'm producing enough milk to feed triplets, but with only one munchkin to drink it.

First hike with the squid

he slept the whole time. Although Chris was on the verge of overheating due to the extra space heater packed against his chest, Elliot seemed quite content to be held close for 3 hours.

Eating like a champ

So the boy is apparently a good eater. Today at his 4 week doctor visit, he weighed in at 7lbs 7oz, that's more than 2.5 pounds up from his birth. I guess I don't have to worry about how much he's getting enough from breast feeding, he seems to be doing ok.

It's interesting, being a mammal.

Welcome to the World

Born 7/5/2011
4lbs 13oz
19in

Note that his birthday is all prime numbers. I like that distinction!
He came home with us on 7/11/2011, our first anniversary, quite a little gift.
We're still all getting used to each other.