Week 23 - Schedule, Schmedule!

( 1/20/08 - 1/26/08)

Week 23 - Schedule, Schmedule!

Overall Paul and I have a very easy time with Jake when it comes to having him on a schedule. He has been that way since the day he was born. I don't know if the 4 days in the NICU with those ladies who are like schedule nazi's was what did it, or if he is just inheriting the easy going baby genes from myself and Paul. According to both of our mothers we were very good sleepers as babies/children. I guess if I had to have my son inherit anything from me I am glad he got the good "schedule/sleep" genes!!!

Jake started sleeping a 5 hour shift at night when he was 6 weeks old, by 2 1/2 months was sleeping a 6-7 hours stretch, and of course by 4 months and even now he will sleep 8+ hours at night. He even is on a very nice schedule during the day. I recently got him on a 3 hour eating schedule (he still wanted to eat every two hours during the day) and he will stay awake for about 2 hours and then sleep an hour. It is really nice because Paul and I know that every two hours or so we will get a nice little break to do chores or just relax.

HOWEVER!!!!!!!

This week has been a little different. Jake is definitely a people watcher so when I go out to the mall or grocery store he is usually wide awake and is watching everything!!!! But we have a magic sleeping pill in the form of his car seat! It has never failed to put him to sleep within minutes of pulling out of the garage. He could have just gotten up from a nap and will still succumb to the powers that are "THE CAR SEAT!!!!"

Well this week I went to the grocery store one day and then the mall two days later. On both days he stayed up way past his 2 hours because there were too many cool things to look at while I was out. At the time I didn't worry about it because I had a 30+ minute car ride ahead of me that would put him to sleep. Weeeellllllll....I am sure you saw this coming..... he DIDN'T SLEEP!!!

What????? He didn't sleep???? I kid you not! He not only didn't sleep but then continued to not sleep even after I got home! On both days he missed his 2pm'ish nap and proceeded to stay up until 8:30-9:00 that night before going to sleep. He ended up sleeping the entire night (thank God for small favors) but in the meantime he was mad, cranky, and moody!!!

Oh well...I guess every now and then it is OK to not have a good sleeping day. Overall I am very blessed to have a baby who so naturally took to a schedule, I have heard horror stories from other mothers who had babies well past one year old that still weren't sleeping through the night.

So from here on out I will try not to plan my outings around his 2pm'ish nap and hope that he doesn't make it a habit to skip naps and drive his parents insane!

Week 22 - LOL =)

(01/13/08 - 01/19/08)

Week 22 - LOL =)

Well we now officially have a 5 month old little boy. And BOY has he changed a lot the past few weeks. He has really gotten himself quite a personality and started making "razz" noises and blowing bubbles as his way of talking to us.

We are still feeding him one meal a day of rice cereal and he has really taken to it and has a fun time with daddy feeding him. In fact he tries to talk to Paul using his "razz" noise but never fails to do it with a mouth full of rice cereal so Paul and I are covered in it by the time he is done "talking".

One big thing we have noticed this week is that he is starting to entertain himself a lot better. I have caught him on more than one occasion "talking" to the toys in his crib and the video at the top of this post has him cracking himself up for what adults would think is no reason, but for him is funny!

He is very very close to sitting up on his own and I have a feeling he will probably sit up on his own before he will roll over. Right now his rolling over consists of him getting completely on his side and then right when you think he is going to roll over he plops right back onto his back again. But I am sure it is going to happen by surprise!

Week 21 - That wasn't steak!

(1/06/08 - 1/12/08)

Week 21 - That wasn't steak!

Well it turns out that I was under the illusion that just because I wanted to exclusively breastfeed for at least 6 months that Jake would lovingly oblige......YEAH RIGHT!

For the past couple of weeks Paul and I have been noticing that Jake watches anyone eating like a hawk. You can actually play cat and mouse with him and he will follow your spoon (or food) all around the place before you actually eat it. He even started grabbing for my water bottle and actually let me put it to his mouth.

Soooooo......I went to the store and bought some rice cereal and figured....WHY NOT!

I am still not going to feed him real food (fruits, and veggies) until he is 6 months but that is only 5 weeks away. I started with 1 Tbsp of cereal with 1 ounce of milk for the first feeding. He was not too happy about it and ate maybe 3 spoonfuls. The next day I decided to let Paul feed him and of course Paul came in with his various "planes, trains, and automobiles" sounds which Jacob loved. He took to eating right away and would even open his mouth for Paul when he knew the next bite was coming. After 4 days he is finally up to eating the whole serving.

I haven't figured out if I am going to stick to just one meal a day but increase the amount of cereal over the next 5 weeks or if I am going to stick with the small serving but start serving it more often until I have 3 meals a day.....hmmmm...decisions....decisions....

All I know is that Paul loves being able to feed Jake (he always felt out of the loop when it came to feeding) and I get a tiny break myself.

Wish us luck!

Week 20 - No needles please!

(12/30/07 - 1/05/08)

Is it just me, or is my baby the only one who HATES tummy time? Trust me, Paul and I have tried everything from buying "tummy time mats", floor mirrors, standing on our heads, putting him on the bed and being on the floor so he can see us, but nothing works. HE HATES IT! The only thing/gadget that I did purchase that seems to be helping a little bit is the Lamaze Spin and Explore which helps because since he doesn't quite push himself up on his arms yet it keeps him from face planting onto the mat. He can now tolerate the tummy for a few minutes without crying but still hasn't quite figured out that his arms are there to push up on! Does anyone have any suggestions?? The only reason he is doing as good as he is in the picture is because there are soooooo many pillows under him he can't help but put his arms down.


Well we took Jake to get his 4 month immunization shots.....

Lets just say that I completely believe it, it is harder on the parents than it is on the baby. Last time (2 month shots) he ran a slight fever for 2-3 days and slept ALOT! This time well....he was actually happier than normal the day of his shots and then the next morning he woke up with a slight fever (99.7 taken in the ear) but wasn't really that sleepy like the last time. But then again the last time he was 2 months old and slept more anyway. Paul and I have just made sure he is in comfy clothes and gave him tylenol every 5 hours to help alleviate any crankiness.


I have ONE BIG BOY on my hands. Jake is 4 1/2 months old and is in the 90th percentile for EVERYTHING. He weighed 18 pounds, and was 27" long. Everything checked out fine and he is doing well for his age. He has started teething or should I say drooling buckets so everything including my hair is in his mouth. I found these awesome teething tablets "Hylands Homeopathic Teething Tablets" that work wonders. His "high maintenance" that I mentioned in the last posting seemed to get better when I gave him the tablets, so Paul and I feel kinda silly that it was probably his teething pain all along that had us going crazy!