Naptime

For the past few weeks, I've been spending a lot of time with my friend, Cori, who is a brand new mom. Baby Brady is almost 6 weeks old. Seeing such a small baby, brings back a lot of memories (although it wasn't that long ago). We have taken our boys on a few outings these past few weeks. Brady has slept through several trips to the mall and yesterday slept through a movie. All his sleeping made me think about how different Cole's naps are now then they used to be.

Like any newborn, when Cole was brand new, he would sleep anywhere and through anything. He'd fall asleep on his playmat or in his bouncer or even while eating. Nothing was sweeter than holding my tiny newborn while he slept. (Okay, I lied... falling asleep myself while snuggling my newborn was actually the best). Somewhere around 3 months, Cole started to refuse to let us put him down to sleep. He would fall asleep in my arms and wake as soon as I tried to put him down. My mother will swear that this is because I held him too much while he slept. However, many experts agree that babies that young cannot form habits. Eventually he got through that stage, but not without a lot of frustration.


For the first few months of Cole's life, there was no rhyme or reason to when he'd fall asleep or for how long. At some point, I started to really pay attention to Cole's sleepy cues. I would look for yawns or eye rubbing and know that meant he needed a nap. He started sleeping on a pretty consistent schedule. One hour of wakefulness was all he could handle. This seems wonderful, doesn't it? Well it wasn't! Since Cole wouldn't fall asleep on his own and needed to be bounced to sleep, every few hours I would be bouncing him (more like doing squats) for 20 minutes or so, until he fell asleep. Then I would try to lay him down without him waking up. More often than not, he'd wake up and scream and I'd start the whole process over again. I was also using the EASY routine at this point. Eat, Activity, Sleep, You time(time for Mom while baby sleeps). This really helped keep our day structured.

Around 6 months, we went to a two hours of wakefulness schedule. Shortly after that we started sleep training (see "Sleepless Nights" post) and we no longer had to bounce Cole to sleep. He was taking 3 naps a day and finally sleeping through the night.

We have recently gone to a 2,3,4 nap schedule. Cole goes down for his first nap 2 hours after he wakes up for the day and his 2nd nap 3 hours after he wakes from his 1st nap. 4 hours after he wakes from his 2nd nap is bedtime. This is working sooo well! At nap time, I read him story, sing him a little song, put him in his crib and turn on his crib aquarium. By the time the aquarium stops playing music, he is out!

Although Cole has never been a long napper, he tends to take shorter catnaps (this has gotten better with our new 2,3,4 schedule), I feel so thankful that I finally have a baby that can lay in the crib and fall asleep on his own. It wasn't an easy road, but it was certainly worth it!

Sleep books that we used:
Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, by Marc Weissbluth

Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems, by Richard Ferber

The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems, by Tracy Hogg, Melinda Blau (not actually a sleep book, but this is where EASY comes from)

Cole says "Hello"

Tonight during dinner, Cole was sitting in his highchair eating Cheerios. My husband, Brien, was hiding behind the Cheerio box and then popping out and saying "hello" and making Cole laugh. After about three 'peak-a-boo hellos' clear as day and in the same sing-songy tone, Cole repeated "Hello" to his daddy!! Brien and I both gasped and then freaked out! (Although he refused to do it again after that) I can't believe how big my little boy is getting.

Beware of Meatloaf!

Today as I was pouring Cole's Gerber oatmeal from the box, I noticed this meatloaf recipe on the back. The recipe included the following ingredients:

1 2nd Foods Green Beans
1 2nd Foods Garden Vegetables
1 pound ground chuck
1 cup Gerber Oatmeal cereal
1 egg, beaten
¼ cup ketchup
1 ½ Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. Garlic powder

Upon further investigation, I realized that this recipe is intended for the whole family not just for babies! YUCK! Who in their right mind is eating meatloaf with baby food green beans, garden vegetables and those oatmeal flakes.

Beware of friends with infants trying to serve you meatloaf!

Booo Graco!

We have a Graco SnugRide infant car seat in Park Meadow. We also have the matching stroller to complete our travel system.

WAY back in November Graco recalled the seat pad on the car seat.

I registered the car seat when I first got it, so I knew I should be receiving a notice about it in the mail or through email. My notice arrived around Christmas. It asked me to find my car seat's model number and choose one of the patterns available for that model and a replacement seat pad would be sent. It also mentioned that I could fill out this form online. Wanting to save some time, I logged onto their website to find that my car seat's pattern was not a choice. It was a choice on the form that was mailed to me, so I mailed the form instead.

Weeks and weeks went by. Cole reached the weight limit for the SnugRide, and we switched him to a convertible car seat (Evenflo Trumph DXL - which I love so far!). This weekend, we finally received our replacement seat pad. It is jungle print!

I wrote the following email to customer service today:

I am writing to express my displeasure with the way the SnugRide seat pad recall was handled. Not only did it take several months for my replacement pad to arrive (my son has now outgrown his Graco SnugRide), I also did not receive the pattern that I requested. The pattern that I was sent, was not even an option for the model that I own. One of the reasons I chose a travel system through Graco was the coordinating car seats and strollers. Now my car seat does not match my travel system. When a recall is issued it is the company's responsibility to replace that product in a timely manner. It is unacceptable to send the customer a product that they do not want. I will not be purchasing Graco products for my future children.

Immediately after sending the email, I received an automated response stating that the Graco reserves the right to send you a different pattern and that 6 weeks is the estimated time that it will take the company to send the customer a replacement for a recalled part. I personally find this ridiculous. Baby products are time sensitive. I only used the seat for 8 months and I spent a a third of that time waiting for the forms and then waiting for the replacement seat pad!

Pulling Up and Falling Down!

It seems like as soon as Cole figured out how to crawl, he automatically knew how to do everything else too. In the past few weeks, he has started crawling, can now go from laying to sitting, and the latest accomplishment is pulling up and cruising. (My baby-less friend asked me what cruising was, so in case you don't know, it's walking while holding onto something, like the table or the couch).

Now that Cole is pulling up, he is also falling down. A LOT! He's had a few collisions with the coffee table and one with the leg of the kitchen chair. He has two nice bruises on his forehead. Is it normal to be embarrassed about this? I feel like people will be looking at my kid and thinking, "why doesn't she watch him so we doesn't fall?" or even worse, "how did that kid get those bruises?"

Cole is pretty darn tough though. When he does fall, most of the time he doesn't even act like it phased him. A few times he's cried a little, but stopped as soon as I picked him up. The falling certainly isn't preventing him from wanting to try it again. He gets more and more daring every time he does it (letting go with one hand, bending down to pick things up while stand, etc.)

Just in case you think I posed him like that in the picture (I have been known to do this), here is a video clip.

Teeth!

It seems like Cole has been teething for months. When he was around 3 or 4 months he started drooling like crazy and putting everything in his mouth (he's still doing both). A tooth finally popped through at about 7 months and shortly after that a second one came through.

Can you see my teeth??

Now it looks like his top two teeth are on the way. Judging by the fact that he was up 6 times in one hour last night, these teeth may be bothering him. Honestly, we've been pretty lucky with the whole teething business. I hear some babies get fevers, diarrhea, and are just down right miserable when they are teething. Cole hasn't been SO bad. He's a bit whiny and not sleeping as well as he usually does, but all in all I can't complain.

A few tips for mom's with teethers:

• Use Motrin (if your baby is older than 6 months). It is stronger and lasts longer than Tylenol.
  
• Put teething toys in the fridge for a while and then let your baby chew on them.
• Give teething foods like biter biscuits. (I've been let him chew on Wagon Wheels because I'm paranoid about choking and they dissolve much easier. They are also less messy.)
• Put an ice cube in a thick burp cloth and let your baby chew. (please watch your child carefully if you do this)

Go Terps!

Saturday we took Cole to his first UMD basketball game. This was his second visit to the campus. The first was back in September for a football game.

Cole with Daddy at the football game.

My husband and I both went to Maryland and are huge Terp fans!

Cole dressed in his Terp pj's.

Cole did a great job at the game! The first time the crowd cheered he burst into tears. At that point, I thought we were in for a long afternoon, but he quickly got over it and didn't cry for the rest of the game. He enjoyed the clapping, as it is his new favorite activity.

Cole checks out his shoes at the game.

After the game, we took a stroll around campus (actually we were walking to our car, that was parked about a mile away, but it sounds nice to say that we took a stroll) The weather was surprisingly warm!

Cole in front of his namesake, Cole Field House. (Hey, we could have named him Comcast Center)

My husband and I enjoyed ourselves too. It's always fun to push your favorite team on your child who is too young to know any better!

For my husband's take on Cole's first game, visit his blog.

We have a Crawler!

Apparently Cole was upset about me poking fun at his army crawl, because last night he crawled for real (like on his hands and knees). I'm so proud!!

Baby on the Move!

When Cole was tiny my husband and I would say things like "I can't wait for him to _____" (insert milestone here ie: shake his rattle, say mama and dada, sit up on his own, crawl etc.) It is really amazing to watch your, once incapable of doing anything but pooping and crying, baby achieve these developmental milestones.

Cole has recently become mobile. It started with rolling. I would put him down on the floor to play and he would roll to the other end of the room in a few seconds. He eventually learned to roll himself at the correct angles to get toys (which seems like pretty complicated math to me). He has since graduated to the army crawl. Cole's army crawl is that of an injured solider, who has possibly been shot in the left leg. However, if you watch closely, you will see that the leg is not totally useless. It's quite good at tapping along to music.



Now that Cole can easily move around, I am beginning to regret the fact that I wished for this. While I would never want my child to not be able meet appropriate milestones, it would have been alright with me if he had waited just a few more months. All day long I am removing him from places and taking away items that he cannot have. I'm not sure how many more times I can say "No, no ______ (insert item that is inappropriate for babies here. ie: CD's plastic bags, laptop wires etc.)are not for babies!" (Now you can go write an "I told you so" comment on my babyproofing post)

Packing for an Overnight Trip

I am going to type this out, so I have a checklist when I pack for Cole. Hopefully, it will be helpful to someone else also.

Clothing
3 outfits
3 pairs of socks
4 undershirts
2 sleepers
shoes
hats

Feeding
4 bottles
2 sippy cups
formula
fruits
veggies
oatmeal
rice cereal
puffs
plastic bibs
spoons
bowls
travel high chair

Sleep
Pack N Play
2 sheets
monitor
blanket

Changing
diapers
wipes
changing pads

Bathing
baby wash
lotion
towel
washcloth
bath toys
comb

Miscellaneous
stroller
toys
books
burb cloths
bibs