I call mercy...

So little man is still sleeping badly. I have read so many articles and websites... sleep regression, teething, separation anxiety... who knows. It is probably all of the above. I am averaging 3-4 hours of sleep a night, which us just Plain Not Enough. The past few nights he was very obviously in pain from teething and ibuprofen seems to be the only thing that helps... unfortunately when it wears off after 4ish hours he lets me know. He is a miserable teether - my mom said I was the same. He will be 8 months old in a few days, when will teeth come???

We have tried a number of things over the past couple months: zantac, moving him into his own room, new bed time routine w/ an earlier bed time, melatonin, etc etc. The bed time routine has been the most helpful, but everything else, not so much... I have to say, I am tired of hearing the suggestion to let him cry it out though. Not going to happen, people, at least not before he is a year old. Sean and I have numerous valid reasons for this... not to say cry-it-out isn't the right thing for some babies/families, because it is, but it is not right for Ari or us right now. It might never be right for him, personality wise, but we'll see. Sorry for sounding defensive... the lack of sleep has left me more irritable and cranky than usual, for sure. :-p

During the day he is mostly in a good mood although there have been a couple days when it seems the combo of teething and being tired makes him cranky. He is rolling around and pushing back onto his knees. He still doesn't sit up for long without assistance though... it seems like he is always just wanting to be mobile and get things out of his reach, then down he goes. His doc said he should be rolling both ways and sitting totally unassisted by 8 months, but I am trying not to be concerned about it - I remind myself that he was born almost a month early, which his doc seems to forget/ignore, and although he has been fairly on track developmentally, all babies are different and he might need a little extra time for some things.

Ari is eating solids much more regularly and with more desire/interest on his part now. He is loving sweet potatoes and also loves to gum/suck on banana chunks. We will include some photos related to this in our 8 month post... because I am too lazy to get them off the camera right now.

I am adjusting to running this new business combined with being a SAHM... not as easy as it might sound, with a pretty demanding baby and not much sleep. But it is going well. February was busier than March so far, but it is like any other retail business and is busier around holidays. It should pick up for Easter and especially for Mother's Day. :)

Rollin, rollin, rollin.....

This one's pretty self explanatory. This was the first day that he discovered his new skill with mom.

7 Months

Ok, so yet again we are behind on our blogging about our little man. We've had a lot on our plate in the last few weeks, namely Cara owning her own business. All excuses aside though, here we go...

We keep looking at pictures from when Ari was born and wondering where the little baby that we brought home went??? We can't remember exactly how long he was the last time the doctor measured him (might have something to do with the lack of sleep, but we'll get to that) but it might not matter anyway as he seems to have sprouted. We did take him to the doctor last week to get his flu shot boosters and he weighed 19lbs. 3ozs. On a funny side note, one of my friends from high school commented on Facebook that she hoped her little girl would weigh 20lbs. at her year checkup so she could get her "big girl" car seat. We already bought Ari's new car seat, thanks Aunt Mandy for the discount!

Ari is growing by leaps and bounds in other areas as well. He wants what he wants and he's not afraid to tell you about it through a screaming fit. I don't know where the stubborness comes from, must be his mom. He is sitting up mostly unassisted, although we still sit behind him or next to him for support as he's such a wiggler and still throwing himself backwards. One of our concerns with him was that he might be behind in learning to roll over and crawl since he doesn't want to be on the floor most of the time. Cara has been making an effort to spend more time there with him during the day. Well about 3 days into their morning playtime he just decided to roll over and over and over, like he'd been doing it for years. Of course then he realizes he's on his belly and forgets he can roll over the other way and starts to fuss. We've gotten in the habit of cheering for him when he's on his belly and that works to keep him happy for a few more minutes in which he can do some more push ups. We are still waiting for some teeth to pop through. He's drooling more now so hopefully those suckers will make an appearance soon. Of course as much as he likes to chew on our fingers that might not be such a good appearance. Another one of his new skill is separation anxiety. Usually if Cara or I leave the room on him he breaks out crying like we left him on the side of the road, even if one of us is still there. Like I said he wants what he wants.

As most of you know already through Facebook, Ari has been sleeping horribly since about Christmas. We only thought it was bad when he was a newborn, we had no idea. Cara deserves all the credit as she gets up with him during the week so I can be somewhat rested for work. I know she is plain wore out at this point. We have started a few new things in order to try and get him back on track. We moved him into his own room, not a great improvement yet. We have him on Zantac as we thought he might be suffering from heartburn at night since it's the only time he tends to sleep flat, not a great improvement yet. The doctor told us to give it a little while for the medicine to work fully so we are working on that. We also have a new bedtime routine. Cara and Ari turn down the lights, read a book or two, nurse a little, swaddle and rock and he's out. This has made a huge difference in him wanting to go to sleep at night, it used to be a major battle to get him down. He also tends to sleep a little longer in the first stretch of the night, unfortunately we don't go to bed at the same time because we are trying to get a little something accomplished. Hopefully things will turn around for him soon whether it be his teeth coming in or something else, but the sleep will be greatly appreciated!

Ari has been eating more solids. His favorite to this point seems to be Mango. He absolutely loathes oatmeal, Nana Alexis can relate, it made him gag with every bite. Bananas were somewhere in the middle along with rice. We have some pears made up for him but we haven't tried them yet. And I won't tell you what the other food we have tried is, you'll have to guess from the pictures.

That's about all I can think of right now, but it won't be long till our 8 month post....

Could you ask for a cuter mug to look at everyday?

No pictures please!! Have your people call my people.
Mmmm tasty....
Guess that food?

Avocado...

So the time has come to begin our little man on some solids. The Dr. recommended either rice cereal or oatmeal as those are supposed to be high in iron. But through the magic of google we discovered, or should I say Cara discovered that there are plenty of other food that are just as high in iron if not higher. So this weekend we tried out a little avocado. Ari did pretty well despite the faces, and by well I mean he didn't spit any out or have any adverse reactions. Our little man is growing up, sniff sniff. Pretty soon it will be all we can do to get him to sit down to a meal with us.

Bottle Fun

So this video just happens to have a bottle in it but Ari pretty much has the same reaction with any drinking vessel we might be holding.

Six Months

We are a little behind for this post, since Ari turned six months on the 9th. But he didn't have his well check up until the 19th so now we have more data to include. :-) At his appt he weighed 18lb2oz and was 26.25 inches long, just under the 50th percentile for both, pretty much where he was percentile-wise at his last appointment. Both the nurse and the doctor commented on this chubby thighs. :) He screamed as usual when they poked him with needles but calmed down pretty quickly after dad picked him up off the table. The doctor said he looks healthy and we discussed starting solids.

The past 6 or so weeks have not been great sleep wise. Around 5 months he went through a sleep regression for a couple weeks - very little napping, not wanting to go to bed until 11ish, etc. He started to get back on track for a few days but then got sick around New Year's with an ear infection etc and slept more poorly at night than he did as a newborn, by far. Then of course he is teething (one of those bottom teeth will pop through any day now!), and he went through his six month growth spurt. He started to get back on track again..... then he had his shots and that always messes with him as well. We are pretty exhausted but hoping he will start sleeping better again soon.

Good news is that he finally likes his car seat better, due to a couple adjustments on our part as well as, I assume, him just getting used to it. He will grow out of it in a few lbs here though so we have picked out his new one at Target and will be purchasing that soon thanks to various gift certificates acquired over the holidays and such.

Ari is working on sitting up by himself; not there yet, mostly due to incessant wiggliness, but getting close. It's hard to keep your balance when you have the wiggles. ;p He is also working on rolling from his back to his tummy; he has done it a couple times by pushing off of me, but has yet to do it on his own. He has also pushed himself up onto his knees while on his tummy a couple of times. He is going through some separation anxiety stuff and is very very attached to mommy and daddy right now... especially mommy of course if he is hungry or doesn't feel good. He is so excited to see his dad when Sean gets home and gets upset if he walks out of sight, so we have to follow Sean around while he changes clothes etc so that he can watch his daddy. ;) Ari is getting to spend quality time with both his nanas every week too which is really nice.

We will start solids soon, probably by the end of the month; since he was born early we are waiting until he is at six months adjusted age. We are in no hurry since he is thriving without them, has tripled his birth weight etc, and we're not looking forward to the mess or the stinkier diapers. (Speaking of diapers, we are in the middle of transitioning to cloth diapers and are excited to start saving some diaper money!!) We will start with either oatmeal or avocado, haven't decided yet.

Here are a couple pics taken on his half-birthday... I think he looks more and more like Sean every week!!

Too big....

I think Ari may have outgrown the swing finally, you be the judge.


What? I wasn't doing anything!

Caught red handed!
When I first saw this the other night, I was looking at something on the computer and I could still hear the swing making the motion noise. When I looked over it was stopped and he was holding on to the leg. I got a video today for fun.

Chairs

We got a couple new chairs for Christmas. We now have a high chair for Ari (thanks Aunts Mandy & Renee) - with the accompanying suction cup toy which has been a total hit, as you can see below. My brother also shipped the rocking chair that he made for us from scratch, out of walnut. It is gorgeous!

New Year's (Or How Kids Always Get Sick on Weekends or Holidays)

New Year's Eve / Day was kind of a bust this year as far as celebrating. The two nights before New Year's Eve, Ari slept horribly, waking up every two hours or so. I assumed he was teething, or maybe hitting the six months growth spurt. So on New Year's Eve I was exhausted and didn't have any reason to believe that night would be better... so I headed to bed around 10:30 and Sean watched the ball drop by himself. :( We had champagne chilled and everything, but I was just too tired and was worried about another bad night of sleep. Turns out I was right about that, as this night was even worse than the previous two, with the baby waking up every hour or so. New Year's day, in the morning, I considered calling the doctor's on-call line, but he wasn't feverish and didn't actually seem sick, just a little tired and fussy, so I held off. Late in the afternoon he had diarrhea and there was a spot of blood in the diaper, and that freaked me out enough that I called the nurse's line. The nurse advised us to take him to urgent care that evening, so we ran out the door and got there around 6:30, before they were closing at 7. The urgent care pediatrician seemed stumped, since his symptoms didn't fit one thing or another. She told us he does have an ear infection in his right ear, but it didn't look that bad. The blood in his stool could be from a variety of things ranging from no big deal to an intestinal issue requiring surgery. She didn't think it was the latter because he would probably have a fever and/or be vomiting. So she told us to watch for those symptoms, but decided it was probably a bacterial infection in his intestines (like salmonella), and we would just have to wait it out. She didn't prescribe antibiotics for his ear infection because that wouldn't be a good idea if he had something like salmonella. Basically she said to watch him carefully and bring him back if he got worse, otherwise to follow up with his doctor on Monday. She said we could give him tylenol for the pain. So poor little man has had diarrhea, tummy cramps, and an ear infection, and of course he is still teething as well - not a great start to the New Year for him. Not for us either, because last night marked 5 nights in a row of very little sleep and we are exhausted! Hopefully this isn't any indication about what 2010 will bring for us!

Christmas Part 2

Christmas Part 2 was the Sunday after Christmas at my mom's house (she had to work on Christmas, bummer!). She invited a few family friends and we went over early to open presents. Then we had a prime rib roast (my favorite!) and other deliciousness for dinner. Nana Alexis spoiled Ari rotten, with lots of books and toys. We also got a cooking stone (which Sean has been wanting for cookies and pizza) and a food processor, which I wanted to have for when Ari starts solids. I also got a gift certificate to have a couple of facials, woohoo! My skin is still recovering from the pregnancy hormones. My brother and sister had also sent a few gifts to my mom's house for us, thanks Uncle Jon and Aunt Metri! Anywho, pictures below... the first one is the outfit Ari came in, but we had an explosive diaper on the way over so Nana took a quick picture and then we changed his clothes. ;p (His shirt says "What Santa doesn't bring me, Grandma will!") The second pic is Ari helping to open a present from my sister, and the last one is Ari with Jackie, a long time friend of my mom's, who has always been so sweet to me! She was thrilled to meet the baby. :)