salmon cozying up to my milk

Chris, I love him, but placing salmon burgers on top of my frozen breastmilk? That just seems wrong. And he knows I'm adament about meat not taking up residence next to the frozen fruit, so why he would think it makes a good companion for breastmilk I will never know.

Other than that, I want to report that Atticus was a dream today. He woke me up just twice last night, which is a big improvement from Monday night. Then he napped today for two hours and 45 minutes, during which I completed most of my homework. And after (and before) he was all smiles despite continued slobbering and gnawing. Life is good.

teething

Atticus is definately teething. Those first teeth may still be months away, but he's slobbering all over everything and everybody, biting on everything and everybody, and the poor little guy is suffering some pain here and there (hence the unusual crying). He's also had a runny nose and diaper rash, which I've learned from several people can also be side effects of teething.

Some other things going on that may or may not be related:

• He's become fond of sticking his tongue out the last week and half or so. It's super cute (we'll have to get some video of it up soon). I just hope he doesn't clamp down on that tongue and hurt it.
• He's taken to grabbing himself now. As soon as I unfasten his diaper, his little hand starts rooting around. And when I'm trying to fasten the new diaper, I sometimes have to pull that hand out several times. That's kind of cute too, except when his diaper is very poopy, then it's just worrisome. (Chris has his own set of worries regarding this new habit--that Atticus will be sticking his hand down his pants in school when he's four. I'm pretty confident though that this is perfectly natural and doesn't at all mean that Atticus will be oblivious to social norms and niceties.)
  
• He's sleeping pretty terribly at night these days. I felt haggard today, and it's only Tuesday. He woke me up four times last night, the first at 11:30 pm, barely three hours after he'd gone to bed.
• He's sleeping much better at daycare, taking 1 1/2 - 2 hour naps some days. It turns out Lisa is putting him to sleep on his belly, and she credits this for his new napping success. I don't know whether we should be concerned about this or not. The pediatrician, like most of them these days, says to never allow a baby to sleep on his side or his belly. Of course, not long ago, everybody put their babies to sleep on their bellies. Not to mention that I know a number of people whose babies roll over onto their tummies after being put to sleep on their backs. And his head is to the side, after all. It's not like he's face down into the mattress. Still, I feel nervous about putting him to sleep on his belly at home since I'm asked about it every time we go in for a pediatric appointment.
  

the return of the teething hypothesis

So, once again, I wonder if Atticus is suffering brief periods of teething pain. Every day this week there's been a period where he was pretty difficult to console. That's not like him.

However, besides the crying, there's also the occasional drooling, thumb and fist sucking, and biting. Plus, today when he started into the crying bout, I put my finger in his mouth, and he chomped down on it and ceased crying for a bit. When he started up crying again, I decided this was enough to warrant trying out the homeopathic teething tablets we bought a while back. Is it wrong to drug my baby when I'm not absolutely certain he's teething? It is just natural stuff like chamomile, after all. I don't know, but I'll tell you this: teething or not, the remedy worked. The crying was replaced with a spacey grin in which he seemed to stare off happily at nothing in the corporeal world. Fluorescent, surfing mushrooms in his head perhaps? Soon he was out for two hours.

revelation about post-partum depression

This afternoon, after Atticus's nap and his massage and my holding him up in the air so that he could be a flying baby, he had a meltdown. That baby screamed at me off and on (but mostly on) for nearly 40 minutes that felt more like four days. I better understood then why fussy babies are a common factor in postpartum depression. It's depressing as hell when your baby screams at you no matter what you do, and despite that you have spent a good hour and a half straight giving him your undivided attention, time during which he was as blissful as a baby can be--smiling and giggling. It seems cruel and ungrateful (something akin to when in their adolescence they don't want to be seen with you in public and in their teenage years they don't want to live on the same planet as you, I guess), and like I said, downright depressing. Lucky for me, Atticus is a really agreeable baby. He rarely cries for more than a few seconds at a time. And thank goodness. I don't know how you parents of fussier babies do it. I feel for you.

I tried a dozen different things to calm him. What finally worked was music and dancing. It always does. I should have come to that sooner.

Oh, and remember when I said we'd somehow so far avoided a major blow-out in the car seat? That luck ended Saturday. What is the scale for blow-outs? Zero to 10? If so, I'd say this was a 9. The only thing saving it from a 10 was that nobody ingested any poop as far as I know. I think I went through about 30 wipes trying to clean him, me, the car seat, the changing pad, etc.

First Father's Day (video)

First Father's Day

New Toy for Atticus

We bought Atticus a doorway jumper.  He hasn't got the hang of it just yet.  He seemed into it for a little while. 

Atticus plays hide and seek. (video)

The video is probably to long but I didn't have a way to edit it.  But if you are looking for a 4 minute Atticus fix this is it.

Atticus hide and seek!

changes

I keep telling everyone how quickly Atticus is changing. Really, in the last three to four weeks or so, I've seen so many changes in him, I'm astounded. Suddenly, he seems so much older than he did a few weeks ago. When I pick him up at daycare lately, he's often sitting in one of those little walkers (I think that's what they're called), up on his feet and playing with the various little gadgets around him (e.g., a plastic book that plays songs as he turns the pages).

Yesterday, he gave me the silent treatment while I was cooking dinner--stuffed flying saucer squash (you can pretty much count on all of our dinners including squash these days). I was trying to keep him from getting bored by chatting with him while I chopped and sauteed and so forth, but he wasn't satisfied. When I bent over to give him kisses and some more focused attention, he refused to look at me. After that (or maybe it was before) I gave him his hug bug to play with, and he threw it. Yes, sometimes he drops toys unintentionally, but this time around, hug bug appeared to have been intentionally cast away. So it looks like Atticus has learned how to punish his mama and how to throw minor tantrums.

Lately, he's taken to arching his back during massages and rocking back and forth so that he lifts half of his body off of the ground. And he seems to be so eager to be on his feet. He kicks like crazy and loves it when I lift him up to a standing position. I have a feeling that despite his heft, he will be walking on schedule, if not earlier.

His caregiver, Lisa, commented today that he's a very serious baby.

Oh, and as far as sleep goes, his intervals are creeping back up again. Eight hours last night!

super baby and his super dad

taking a brief nap before bath time. Day care is wearing Atticus out. It's good for me in that his long post-day care nap allows me to get in most of my at-home-portion of my work day done before too late, but I hope that the overdose of stimulation isn't bad for his health or something. He woke up at 5:30 this morning and fell asleep at 7:15 before we left the house. If I hadn't had to wake him to change him and put him in his car seat, he would have napped for an hour or so. Instead, all he got was a 20-minute nap, and then at daycare a meager 15-minute nap in a 4 1/2 hour time span. As usual, when I picked him up, he fell asleep almost as soon as I put him into the car. I'm just thankful he's there for just half-days. I'd really be worried if he was going for 8 or more hours on nothing but a couple of pathetic cat naps.


tomatoes and squash (zucchini, yellow crookneck, and tons of flying saucers) from the garden

It's been a while

Atticus rolled over!

Okay, granted he did this on the bed, which makes it easier, I think, because it's cushiony and gives nicely when you apply pressure, but nonetheless, it's an accomplishment, and I certainly don't want to take the wind out of his sails. He rolled over twice from belly to back while we played a game in which I roll him back and forth while singing the "Ten in the bed..." song.

Then an hour later he had the biggest blowout I've ever seen--baby poop all over the seat of his swing. And the poop didn't just target the removable/machine-washable padding, but also the unremovable strap and the right foot of his beloved hug bug. This is the sixth or seventh time he's had a blowout in that seat--I'm talking specifically about blowouts that exit his clothing (there have been other more minor ones that require a change of clothing, but no laundering of the seat pad). Interestingly, I don't think he's had a blowout anywhere else but on that seat. And after today's disaster I realize just how lucky we've been that he hasn't done this in his car seat when we're out on the town. How would we ever make it home?

A few more notes: I weighed him again at mom and baby group today, and he's now about 17 1/2 pounds. Sheesh! His growth rate isn't exactly slowing down.

Last night he slept about 5 1/2 hours before then waking up about every 2 hours. It's a little frustrating, but it does help that he falls asleep easily both when I first put him to bed for the night and each time he wakes to nurse. I know they say that just when you think you know your baby's schedule, they change, so I guess this is to be expected. Hopefully his intervals will change back again soon. He does take good long naps during the day--often 2+ hours. He's waking up from one now. I better go.

belated happy three-month birthday

Atticus's three-month birthday was yesterday. I don't have much time or energy to post anything by the end of a work day, so I'm late acknowledging this. And I'm lacking in photos because my photographer is still in Hawaii. As far as stats go, Atticus weighed 16 pounds 12 ounces last Saturday, so I imagine he's about 17 pounds by now, probably a little over. He's SO heavy, but thanks to head control, he's actually easier to lug around now than he was a month ago. No more having to cradle his head when I pick him up or having to block it from knocking into my collar bone.

His latest triumph is that he finally has strong enough neck muscles to lift his head as I pull him by the arms to a seated position. I've been dying to do this with him for months (shows you how exciting my life is), and now I can pull him up again and again and again.

Now I'm trying to teach him how to roll over. I roll him back and forth using a blanket. He doesn't seem too interested in trying it on his own yet, but he mostly enjoys my rolling him, except for the one time I rolled him a little hard and he smacked his noggin a little. That he didn't like so much.

I regret to report that Atticus has regressed this past week when it comes to sleeping at night. The week before he slept 7+ hours about 5 nights out of 7. This week he slept 5 hours straight max. And last night he slept no longer than 3 hours at a time. :( I hope this is a result of the big changes in his life this week--his daddy in Hawaii for over a week, then his grandmother Ginny visiting for several days. Please, please, please, Atticus, get your act together. We had a marathon feeding session this evening, so if he doesn't sleep substantially longer than 3 hours straight, then he must be going through a monstrous growth spurt.

The Baby Whisperer

Before Atticus was born, I couldn't manage to conjure up more than two lines of a lullaby. I am now proud to announce that I have learned all five verses of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and that I sing it to Atticus before bed and before naps. It works magic. In fact, if I want to be sure he fills his belly before going to sleep at night, I have to wait until he's done nursing before commencing into song or that baby will start to nod off even in the face of hunger. "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," a little belly rubbing, and some California Baby calendula cream applied to his face and that sweet baby is on cloud nine.