The four stages of weaning…

So I’ve determined due to my lack of nighttime rest, that there are four stages to nighttime weaning. The first stage is going from two nursings a night to one. The second is (and this was a problem caused by me falling asleep during nursings) weaning him to feel comfortable in his crib instead of our bed. The third is going from one nursing a night to none and the last is being able to put himself to sleep.

I’ve determined that this is going to be a long and hard process. We’re working on simultaneously doing the first two stages. It’s going ok…just ok. It’s been about a week now and I only feed him the first time he wakes up. The next however many times it happens, John or I will put him back to sleep. He always sleeps better and wakes up fewer times when he’s in our bed. It’s like he can’t get comfortable in his own. But I’m trying to be diligent with getting him back in the crib every time. I’m hoping to have completely night weaned within the next month. Well, when I first started writing this post, I was much more motivated. Now I’m completely tired because I’ve been up so long and have been out of the house much of the day…sorry for the abrupt ending!

What has my baby eaten?

Okay, so this may not be a very interesting topic to most people, but I haven’t posted in a while and it’s the first thing that came to my mind. I’m going to list the stuff that our baby has eaten in the 3 months he’s enjoyed eating “normal” foods. Keep in mind, these are in no particular order.

Proteins: Turkey, chicken, egg yolks, ham

Grains: Puffs, rice cereal, oatmeal, mixed cereal, barley, pieces of pasta and pieces of rice, plain saltine crackers

Vegetables: Sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, green beans, butternut squash, white potatoes

Fruit: Apples, pears, blueberries, strawberries, peaches, bananas, prunes, grape juice

Some of the things he hasn’t particularly enjoyed are peas, green beans, white potatoes, plain turkey or chicken, plain pasta. Some of the things he has really enjoyed have been: all of his fruits, sweet potatoes, carrots, and egg yolks.

He loves to feed himself, especially with crackers, egg yolks, and puffs. He’s definitely starting to get a little appetite on him. The only thing he’s eaten that has given him any sort of reaction is blueberries. He got a rash when he ate those straight, but is fine when he eats the blueberry puffs because they’re in such small quantities.

Triangle Complex Fire - Southern California Fires

Southern California is on fire again and this time it sure hits close to home. The fire known as the Triangle Complex Fire started at the Green River area along the 91 Freeway heading towards Anaheim. It quickly made it’s way to darn near where my husband works so needless to say this fire is very important for us to be watching.

It doesn’t look like the fire is going to let up any time soon but it has also all but skipped completely over my husbands office. He decided to take a drive out to his work today since the freeway was open again. He took several pictures around the area he works and has since posted them on a marketing blog he writes on every now and then.

Photos of the Triangle Complex Fire

Last night we were helping some friends move and just watching the fire from a distance at night is rather impressive. According to the Orange County Fire Authority website at the time I am writing this there is a zero percent containment on this fire after burning now for roughly 29 hours.

Our prayers and thoughts go out to anyone who may be in the path of this fire or have already been devastated.

To my husband

So this post doesn’t really have much to do with the baby, but I thought I’d write it anyways. Sometimes it can be difficult being a new parent because everything changes–money goes into things it’s never gone into before and most of the attention is given to the little tiny being that is brand new to the world. Sometimes it can be easy to feel neglected or under appreciated, so I just wanted to let John know that I do appreciate him going to work each day and supporting our family. I know the baby takes up most of my time these days, but I am thinking of you lots when you’re away and I am thankful for the things you do for us. I love you baby and we sure did good with the beautiful little one we made together.

Date Night with Daddy

So Mommy and Daddy had their first real date since I was born. Well, meaning they went out and did something fun without me. Grandma got to babysit me until late at night while mommy and daddy went to watch the Pirates dinner show out in Buena Park near Mideval Times. For some reason I wasn’t in a good mood when I was at grandma’s that night and I cried for about 2 hours after eating, resting and playing a bit earlier in the evening. I must’ve worn out myself with all that crying because I slept the whole night through which mommy and daddy thoroughly appreciated.

The Pirates dinner show had some great hors d’oeurves. Mommy and daddy got to munch on spinach and cheese ravioli, pasta salad, veggie sticks, shrimp, and fruit. Well, they didn’t get all of them because they didn’t get there early enough and some of the stations were closing, but they got a lot of them and they sure were yummy. Then they got to go into the show. The green pirate was theirs and he ended up with the wench. The show was kinda funny, but the meal wasn’t all that great. The chicken was kind of dry and daddy’s seafood was too soft. The desert was yummy though.

(Now it’s mommy talking.) It was fun to have a night out without the baby. I think it’s something every couple should do once in a while. It was a nice surprise by my husband who thought we needed to get out and do something fun.

More Recent Pics

These pictures are all pretty recent and show baby JJ doing some of his most favorite activities–eating, sleeping, playing, and hanging out!

Does he know I’m going back to work?

I think my little guy knows I’m going back to work soon. It seems like he’s been acting extra fussy lately. I hope he doesn’t do that with his babysitters. I think he’s going to be one of those babies who doesn’t eat much at the sitters and saves all his eating for when mommy is home with him. I say this because this morning I fed him at 8:45 am and then he went to grandma’s work when I was at the doctor’s. I gave her a bottle because I figured he’d get hungry. Well, I didn’t pick him up until 12:30 pm and he had only eaten a whopping 1 oz. This situation might be a good thing though because I anticipate it being difficult to pump during the work day being a substitute teacher and I might not be getting a lot of milk to give him at the babysitter. Him not eating much during the day might allow me to continue breastfeeding longer and not having to use formula. However, the downside to that is that he might start waking up more during the night to eat. Hmmm….Guess we’ll have to see. Next week school officially starts back, so I’ll be working again! I’m excited to get out there, but will definitely miss all the times I get to spend with my little guy during the day.

Is it an allergy…or something else?

So, food allergies don’t run in my family or in my husband’s family that I know of. Less than 1/2% of breastfed babies are allergic to milk. However, I have some suspicions that JJ might be allergic to dairy. It is one of my weaknesses and he undoubtedly receives a lot of it in my milk. If he is allergic, he doesn’t have severe reactions. He has only one symptom that is bothersome to me and that is that his stools are always very mucousy. This has been happening probably since about we came out of the hospital or roughly a month ago. Lately they have also been green which is characteristic of some sort of virus. Anyhow, someof his other symptoms are red, itchy eyes, coughing and sneezing, chronic congestion, and dry skin behind the ears and on his legs which doesn’t get better with lotion. Whatever it is hasn’t caused him to not lose weight at least I don’t think so although his symptoms started about the same time he didn’t gain anything for three weeks. Since then he has gained weight. I just feel bad for his poor tummy. It always makes all these little gurgling noises and he’s been extra fussy lately. I hope I can figure out what’s going on. Hopefully he’s not allergic to anything because otherwise I’ll have to toss all the milk I’ve worked so hard to store for him. Well, I’ll ask the doctor at his next checkup which is a week and a half away.

Another Milestone

Well, last night my little guy hit another milestone. He was laying in his crib fussing up a storm because he didn’t want to go to sleep. He was moving all around and before I knew it (before he knew it, for that matter) he had flipped from his back to his tummy. He had his arm stuck for a while underneath him which irritated him some more, but eventually he got it out. This was the first time he did this, although he’s been flipping from tummy to back for quite some time now. I think it’ll be a while before he is doing this on a regular basis, but it was cute to see.

I think I’m going to have to put the bumpers on the crib soon because he moves so much when he’s sleeping and half the time he ends up with his head up against the rails or his legs sticking out the rails. The other morning, he had his legs all the way up to his thighs out the rails. Now that he can roll, I’m not concerned about SIDS anymore so putting the bumper in there should help him stay more comfortable.

Earthquake!

So today we had an earthquake, one of the biggest ones I’ve personally ever felt. It was a 5.4 and it was centered very close to my home–only about 15 miles or so. However, it was pretty deep and so the damage statewide wasn’t all that bad. We’re all taught in school to duck and cover when there is an earthquake, but I forgot all about that when it was happening. My protective instinct kicked in and I went directly to my baby and hovered over him, making sure nothing was around that could have fallen on him or hurt him. Luckily, it didn’t last that long. It didn’t even scare the baby. He just looked around like he was a little startled, but otherwise it didn’t even seem to bother him at all. I felt one of the aftershocks, but it wasn’t that bad. Overall, in the first 3 hours after the earthquake there were over 30 aftershocks. This will be something to write in his baby book–his first major earthquake. Not like he’ll remember it or anything.