Sleep Progress

That's how many hours he slept last night(1/17/13.) Straight. 8 hours straight. EIGHT HOURS STRAIGHT! This is a big deal. He is sick with a chest cold (horrible cough) so maybe that's why he slept for so long. When he woke up I changed his diaper, fed him and he slept 5 more hours (with a couple of wake ups in there.) He slept forever. I could have stayed up to watch Downton Abbey but I went to bed super early thinking he'd be up in 3 hours. I hope he is feeling better today. (He's got Daddy Day Care.) I'm looking forward to seeing what tonight's sleep will bring.

The latest on his sleeping is that I've stopped doing the "No Cry Sleep Solution"...I probably haven't done that for several months now. It was too involved and tiring. After trying that for several months I wasn't seeing enough progress. The one good thing that came from that though is that I broke the habit of nursing him and falling asleep while doing so. I made sure that as soon as he slowed down I would pull him off. Another key change is that I am no longer swaddling him at night or during the day for naps. (K doesn't swaddle him for naps, Mike does - so we'll just need to help Mike transition - I'm not sure he's ready yet though (Mike, not Stanley...hahha!)) Because he isn't in a swaddle and he is now able to roll over he usually sleeps on his tummy or side. I will plop him in his crib and he automatically rolls over. He might fuss for a little bit, so I'll sing to him and rub his back and he eventually will settle down. I leave the door open and I go on about my business. If I hear him cry I will go to him and pat his back, say "night night" and/or put his pacifier in if he wants it (sometimes he doesn't want it; he's good at showing me with his mouth if he wants it or not.) It's usually only one time that I'll go back to comfort him. It's such a huge difference from all of the rocking and bouncing and white noise machines and singing I had to do to get him to sleep before. Another change I have recently made is not writing down every time he wakes, eats and falls asleep. I think that was helpful to a point but I also think it held me back from really just paying attention to his signs of being sleepy or hungry. It's nice to look to him rather than look to the clock. He is constantly changing where the clock is the same from minute to minute, second to second. I think it has put me more in tune with him, which is nice.

P.S. He slept 4 hours the next night and then 5 hours the following night. 4 is sort of average and 5 is above average so hopefully we'll see a lengthening trend. 

Musician?

Perhaps he'll be a musician. He loves watching/listening to Mike play the guitar, uke, and thumb piano.

And it seems like he is acquiring some drumming skills by playing with this baster:

The Strength of Baby Humans and Baby Rattlesnakes

Aki Burrito has got a serious grab and grip. He has no idea how strong he is, he goes full force. I guess it's like what they say about baby rattle snakes...their bite is more dangerous than their mamas because they have no control over how much venom they release and so they release the whole jar of venom. Aki B releases full muscle flex in grabby and grippy hands. And then once he's got you under his death grip he unleashes his two adorable but deadly serrated teeth upon your nose or cheek. Notice his thumb digging into Mike's eyesocket (Mike is silently crying for help):

Cat/Kid Friendship

Aki Bear does this adorable thing while he sits up. He flaps his harms up and down. K, our daycare lady, said that he was doing that one day and it was making another baby laugh. I asked her if she thought Stanbear realized that what he was doing was making the other baby laugh and she said she thought so. He would do it and the other baby would laugh and then the Bear would stop. Then he would do it all over again. She said it was hysterical.

Here he is doing his arm flap thing in front of Dickie the Cat. You can't see the smile on the Bear's face but he's smiling and the cat could care less. HA!

Here is a picture where Dickie the Cat is watching the Bear and he is oblivious to her cat plotting. Doesn't it look like she's planning his demise? I wonder if they'll ever be friends.

P.S. Did you know you can click on the pictures and see them at their largest size? Did you know you can click on the lower right corner of the videos and it will enlarge them to full screen? Just thought you'd want to know (Mom).

Restaurante de Papa

Here he is guzzling his food the way Papa Bear serves it:

First Night Out

Mike and I went to a concert on Wednesday night. One of our favorite bands, Yo La Tengo, opened their tour at the the Triangle area's premier music venue, Cat's Cradle which is in Carrboro, NC (Carrboro is a lively little town smooshed up against Chapel Hill's west side.) Our first dance at our wedding was to a Yo La Tengo song - their cover of Daniel Johnston's song "Speeding Motorcycle".

Speeding motorcycle won't you change me
in a world of funny changes
speeding motorcycle wont you change me

speeding motorcycle of my heart
speeding motorcycle always changing me
speeding motorcycle don't you drive wrecklessly
speeding motorcycle of my heart

many girls have taken you out for a ride
hurt you deep inside but you never slowed down

speeding motorcycle of my heart
speeding motorcycle let's be smart
because we don't want a wreck
we can do a lot of tricks
we don't have to break our necks
to get our kicks
speeding motorcycle the road is ours
speeding motorcycle let's speed some more

because we dont need reason and we dont need logic
because we got feeling and were damn proud of it

speeding motorcycle theres nothing you can do
speeding motorcycle i love you
speeding motorcycle let's just go
speeding motorcycle lets go, lets go, lets go

Our runner-up-first-dance-song (one of them, anyway) was another Yo La Tengo song called "Our Way To Fall". This song makes me tear up every time. Here's the first verse and the chorus:

I remember a summer's day
I remember walking up to you
I remember my face turned red
And I remember staring at my feet
I remember before we met
I remember sitting next to you
And I remember pretending I wasn't looking

So we'll try and try
Even if it lasts an hour
With all our might
We'll try and make it ours
Cause we're on our way
We're on our way to fall in love

Love love love them. Plus they are great live. We saw them play right before I was pregnant last year or the year before as well. They played songs from their bass player's band Dump which is also a great band. They are a three person band and each of them are the stars. Anyhoo. I have a point in regards to the Bear. Because we went out to see YLT live we had to get a babysitter (although I think Aki Burrito would have loved it because sometimes I think he will be a drummer.) Our first date night! We have gone to our friends house with Stanbear for Fakesgiving (which is Thanksgiving dinner with 6 other wonderful friends about a week after the real Thanksgiving) and he slept there and then we drove home at around 10 or 11 and he did really well! We also did a daytime movie date while we were in Maryland for Christmas and Auntie, Uncle and cousins babysat but this was our first night time outing without the Bearcub. Our go-to-gal, Auntie Christina, had to work that night at her hotshot job so we asked Anna to sit. Anna babysat for the Bear before when he was about 4 months old. I wrote about it here. She is one of Mike's former students and she's lovely. She's going to India next week for 6 months (at least) to teach art! Dreamy! We were a little nervous because for the last 6.5 months I have been the only one waking up with Aki Bear and getting him back to sleep when he wakes up (usually by rocking him or popping a pacifier back in his mouth or breastfeeding him.) We didn't know what he would do if he woke up and someone else had to help him back to sleep. Mike was able to simplify the situation by telling me that all Anna had to do was keep him alive for 4 hours or so. Maybe that sounds a little dark but that put my mind at ease. If he cries at least he has someone there to help soothe him. When Anna came over I was singing him to sleep. He was on his tummy in his crib. His eyes were still open and he was moving his hand over the bed sheet over and over again. Since his eyes were open I really wanted him to see Anna before we left so she came in and he pushed himself up on his hands (like a seal) and looked at her and smiled! We went over a couple of things in his room and then we went out into the kitchen so that I could show her how to use the bottle warmer. He started crying so I went back in his room and patted him on the back and said goodnight. I walked out and left the door open. Mike, Anna and I continued talking for several minutes and when we were done going over babysitter things I popped my head in on the Bear and he shot up for a flash and then put his head back down and was basically on his way to fall in love asleep. I was amazed. We left right after that, around 8 and came back around 11:45pm. (We left the concert early as I was about to fall over from exhaustion.) Anna was sitting on the couch and said that Stanbear never woke. WHAT?  I was amazed. He ended up waking up around 12:15am. So a good 4 hour tummy sleep plus an easy put down. I'm looking forward to seeing if that will happen again tonight! I hated having to leave the concert early but was happy that they played "On Our Way to Fall" and a zillion other great songs. Their opening band was them which is brilliant. They played a short set of really mellow acoustic songs. When they came on as the headliner they rock and rolled. Our first date night was a success!

I Think I Can, I Think I Can

I read this plea to other parents about not helping her child at the playground over at Alameda dot Patch dot com. You can read the entire thing at that site here. Here's a snippet:

"Because, as they grow up, the ladders will only get taller, and scarier, and much more difficult to climb. And I don't know about you, but I'd rather help them learn the skills they'll need to navigate them now, while a misstep means a bumped head or scraped knee that can be healed with a kiss, while the most difficult of hills can be conquered by chanting, "I think I can, I think I can", and while those 15 whole feet between us still feels, to them, like I'm much too far away." -Kate Bassford Baker

Tummy Sleep = A Rosy Cheek

I know, more high chair pics. See how one cheek is rosy and the other one isn't so much? That's because he just woke up from a nap sleeping on his tummy. YES, you read that right: His tummy! So he slept with his left cheek down hence the rosy left cheek. I put him down unswaddled and now that he can roll over he....rolled over and slept on his tummy. Unfortunately he only slept for 30 minutes. (I was hoping for a 2 hour nap because they say that tummy sleep = longer sleep...not for Stanley Bear; he likes being awake as often as possible.) When I put him down for sleep at night he will roll over onto his belly and just push his upper body up with his arms and be awake or cry for awhile. I don't know if he's just not comfortable (maybe his belly is too big? ha!) The first night of tummy sleep he only slept 2 hours and woke up crying briefly after the first hour. Maybe it just takes some getting used to. I will keep you posted. In the meantime feast your eyes on this one rosy cheeked, two teethed smile:

The Great Outdoors

It was nice and warm a couple of weekends ago so I took the boy out on the front lawn and let him put his hands in the dirt. He's wearing a handprinted shirt by my talented friend Jody of Flytrap Studios. It says, "Bona Fide LOCAL."

Of course he just wanted to eat everything:

Look at that hair!!!

The Truth About Teething While Nursing

While pregnant and taking breastfeeding classes I was thrilled about the prospect of breastfeeding but I was scared as ever about the idea of my little baby having teeth AND breastfeeding. That just sounds like a very bad combination.

Baby Bear was born and breastfeeding commenced. We worked hard on it. I was lucky to get to work with a lactation consultant in the first 48 hours of his life. She came to almost every daytime feeding. She was great. She described what a good latch would feel like. She told me to massage the milk ducts to get maximum milk. I think that Aki Bear gained back his birth weight and more so quickly because of what I learned from the lactation consultant. There were a couple of times where he wasn't latched and caused some soreness on one of my nipples and every time he nursed on that side I would scrunch up my face because he would re-aggravate it but after the initial latch the pain would disappear as he would continue suckling. It's like having a blister and then going out the next day to tend to the garden again and yep, it still hurts but each day it gets better because the blister heals and eventually toughens up and gets used to those repetitive actions. Eventually my nipple healed and got tougher and didn't hurt anymore.

At 5 months Aki Bear got his first two teeth. Tiny, white and very sharp. I could feel them. That's it. I would be nursing him and I could tell he had two little teeth. He didn't bite but I was waiting for that moment for him to bite. He is about six and a half months now, that's 1.5 months with teeth. He has accidentally bitten me twice. I probably said, "YOW!" but never shoved him away or dropped him because the bite came while he was pulling himself off. He's so dramatic when he's done eating. It reminds me of that finger in your mouth popping technique (finger=nipple):

Those two bites caused a soreness. Every time he nursed on that one side his two little teeth were little reminders of those initial bites and I gave that same scrunched up face. One week later that soreness is gone. I still feel his little teeth but it doesn't hurt. I am also not fearful of being bitten even after I've been bitten twice. He is doing it accidentally so it's gentle and over in a flash; he is not chomping down as if to bite off a piece of carrot. I now have a new fear of when he gets teeth on the top. That'll be more scary than a gum top/tooth bottom bite. I'll let you know. Wish the nipples luck.

Well, Hello High Chair!

I finally put his high chair together. I love it. It's from Ikea (Thanks Auntie Sue and family!) I wanted a high chair that had no little folds or nooks and something I could take outside and hose off if I needed too.

 Isn't his bib awfully adorable too. I want to make lots more in that style. The bib is from Aden + Anais. (Same folks that make his swaddle blankets.)

 

One of his favorite things to do while sitting in his chair, besides eating, is looking for Dickie the Cat. This day she kept running right underneath the chair and the Bear kept looking down for her to run past again.

 Here he is opening his mouth, enthusiastically, for the next spoonful of oats, bananas, cinnamon and pears YUM!

And now, ready for a nap.

Boy, Not a Baby

Doesn't he look like a little boy here? He doesn't look like a baby anymore now that he can sit up in his very own chair!

Second Snow

It snowed on Thursday night/Friday morn. It wasn't a lot and in the morn before I dropped the Bear at daycare I threw him in his snowsuit (thanks Jen!) and sat him in the front yard on the crunchy snow.

 He wouldn't look at me. He kept looking at the snow and touching the cold ground.

He eventually fell over to model his downy suit. That hat is from Jen too!

6 Months

Here we are going for a walk around the neighborhood last weekend. (It was 74ºF out hence the bare arms and legs.) The Tuesday before that the Bear had his 6 month pediatrician appointment. Mike and I made a wager (but somehow forgot to mention what the winner would get - so I guess it was a wager for pure fun and love of a competition.) Mike thought he'd weigh in at 24 lbs. and I guessed 25lbs. We were both off. He came in at 20 pounds, 5.5 ounces. He's ON the chart now! I think that is the 90th percentile if I remember correctly. He's still off the chart in height and he's in the middle of the pack on head circumference. Mike said to the little one, "Well, there goes your hopes for being a sumo wrestler." The Doc said that 6 months is usually the peak of the chubby thighs so I'm glad we had a warm winter day to show them off before they get too gangly and lean; they are so squishy and zrrrbrrrtable right now. I mentioned to the Doc that he really thrashes his head back and forth* when going down to sleep. It's pretty intense and I thought it had to do with mouth pain due to teething. She thinks he's having nightmares but I disagree because he's not even asleep yet when he does this. He's getting a bald spot on the back of his head from doing it too. I wonder if Mike and I did this when we were kids? (Moms?) or if anyone elses babies do/did this? It's like he's shaking his head "no" really dramatically and over and over again (maybe 8-10 times at a time.)

*O.K. I looked up this thrashing head thing and although there were no official answers from Pediatricians that I could find, there were many moms (and mums) that have little ones who do this and a majority of their pediatricians said it's nothing to worry about. It looks like the majority was that the babies do this to soothe themselves. I also read about it in the book What to Expect the First Year and they called it head rocking and rolling - which seems really sweet and gentle...sweet and gentle this is not but at least it let me re-research it with that term and I found a simple and helpful article on "head rolling" on this Australian site called Raising Children dot net dot au. They also talk about head banging and body rocking. Looks like boys are more likely to head bang...oy vey. From that article on why they do it:

Why children do it
Rhythmic behaviour is comforting and soothing, even in normally developing children. You might notice your child doing it more if he’s experiencing some anxiety or stress during the day. But by itself, rocking, banging or rolling doesn’t mean your child has an emotional problem.

You can read the entire article here. Thankfully Mr. Bear doesn't do it all the time. In this case, yay for normalcy!

Expressive

I liked these pictures so much because he was so expressive in each one. So, I thought I'd put together a little comic strip...although I think I need to practice my comic writing skills.

Sitting Up

Cup Skills

Mike has his food so watered down (with breast milk) that he can drink it. He's really good at drinking from a cup. Mike feeds him from a shot glass. I don't know what that says about his future.

Swing

Here we are on our way to our New Year's annual creek walk trail; there's a park on the way with swings! We stopped to give the Bear a ride. He loved it:

Sitting!

He can sit up pretty well now. Sometimes he'll fall to the side but not often.

He outlasted the monkey.

Sweet Child of Mine

O.K. so maybe this isn't exactly a smile but it's adorable. That is Mike's salt and pepper beard on the left. I cut him out of the picture because he looked kinda creepy! Ha!

Aki Bear has this amazing smile. It lights up his entire face: his eyes, his mouth, his dimples on his cheeks. It even seems to shoot out of every pore like this tangible and contagious rainbow; as if you could grab it and put it on yourself like a mask. You can't be expressionless when you see his smile, you always smile a real smile back. Not only do the corners of your mouth turn up but your heart swells, your blood warms, your tummy flutters, the world around you blurs. There is a purity about it. He doesn't fake it; he doesn't know how. It's the real deal. It's pure and simple happiness, unsullied.  

It's the truest of the true. 

It's the brightest of the bright. There are moments when I smile or make an expression and for an instant, a flash, I recognize part of that expression in me as him - it's the same shape - as if I'm channeling him. I don't know if it's me mimicking him or if I have bits and pieces of this rainbow left from when I was a baby and I've passed it along to him but forgotten it myself along the way. Does that make sense? I was trying to explain it to Mike the other night and struggled to explain it to him so I told him I would try to write about it. (I'm not so good with speaking language, I'm much better with written language.) I think we can re-learn a lot from babies. I think we grown-ups knew it once upon a time.

I wonder how we can nurture this rainbow? If I can see flickers of it in me at age 38 there must be ways to hold on to it a bit longer - or bring it back.

After I wrote that above I hopped in the car and the Guns 'N' Roses song, "Sweet Child O' Mine" came on the radio (kismet!) and I listened to the words for what seemed like the first time ever (even though I owned that 45 record when I was in Junior High.) Here are the lyrics:

She's got a smile it seems to me
Reminds me of childhood memories
Where everything
Was as fresh as the bright blue sky

Now and then when I see her face
She takes me away to that special place
And if I'd stare too long
I'd probably break down and cry

Oh, oh, oh
Sweet child o' mine
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Sweet love of mine

She's got eyes of the bluest skies
As if they thought of rain
I hate to look into those eyes
And see an ounce of pain

Her hair reminds me of a warm safe place
Where as a child I'd hide
And pray for the thunder
And the rain
To quietly pass me by

Oh, oh, oh
Sweet child o' mine
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Sweet love of mine  

Where do we go?

Where do we go now?

Where do we go? 

Oh, oh.

The end of the song repeats that last bit over and over again. I asked Mike what he thought that meant ("Where do we go? Where do we go now? etc.) He said, "Those are the teenage years." Ha!

 

Paternity Leave

While I was on my Maternity leave one of Mike's students asked him if he was going to be taking Paternity leave. I think the student was half serious but it dusted off a previously hidden door in Mike's brain and he asked the secretary if the University granted paternity leave. The secretary wasn't sure but gave him a phone number to call and he called it and that previously hidden door was now open and led him to a full paid semester of PATERNITY LEAVE!!! This leave is better than what I received! So, Mike will have the Spring Semester off to spend time with Stanley, clean house, and make art. I will take some before (and hopefully) after pictures of the craziness that is the contents of our house. We both really want to simplify our lives and starting with the contents of our home is the best place to start. Please send Mike some good cleaning-house-energy as I think he may need it in order to part from much of his "stuff". Although the fact that Aki Bear will be crawling soon is incentive enough.

The Grab

Thought he showed good prehensile skills:

On Children

I was reading a post from Teacher Tom, a blog written by a preschool teacher in Seattle, WA and he interspersed pictures of children running around and playing and creating with the words from Kahlil Gibran's "On Children". It made me weepy. These words are really beautiful:

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Zombie Baby

He likes biting/nuzzling our faces. Mike's laughter is almost better than the Bear's actions here.

Water Boy

Mr. Bear still enjoys his bath time. Look at the smiling otter:

I totally need to shave my legs...just kidding, those are Mike's legs.

In fact he seems to like the water so much that we're going to sign him up for swim lessons. The Homestead Aquatic Center in town offers swim lessons from 6 months and up! It's a 30 minute class. Here is the description:

Parent accompaniment required in the water. Instructor facilitates water adjustment between child and parent. Parents will be taught holding positions while familiarizing the child to body positions in the water. Water games and songs are also taught to make water learning fun! For children who have little or no previous water experiences. Parents and children will be led in water explorations activities with the objective of having fun and becoming comfortable in the water. Waterproof diapers are required for babies.

On a Roll!

On Sunday, December 30, 2012 Stanley decided to roll over. I caught his third roll on video which you can see in the beginning of the movie below. The next two were done on New Year's Eve. Roll Stan, Roll! Roll right into the new year!

Banana Breastmilkshake!

His new favorite solid food is banana with breast milk. MMMmmmGOOD. When he's ready for the next spoonful he just opens his mouth and sticks out his tongue - his way of saying, "MORE! MORE!" As you wish, little one.

He loves grabbing and holding the spoon. I think that chewing on it is soothing for his teething aches and pains. He's pretty good with the spoon too. He usually doesn't gag himself with it.

Feeding time can get pretty sloppy - especially when he keeps hijacking the spoon. I think this pic is toward the end of the feed when he is dazed and blissed out from consuming the goods.

This is 1 day old banana. I put half a banana in the ricer and filled up this little 4 oz. (I think) pimiento jar. The next day just the top of the pureed banana turned brown. Once you stir it up again the brown blends in with the rest. It's still edible, just oxidized.

Baby Book Review: On the Night You Were Born

Aki Bear got lots of books for Christmas. One of my favorites that he got from Mike's sis Sue and fam is called, "On the Night You Were Born" by Nancy Tillman.

Just the cover alone is great. It has TWO thunderbears lovingly dancing in the cold night, under the full moon! We read it out loud as soon as we opened it and although Mike and I made it funnier than it really is I cried when I read it. The first page reads,

On the night you were born, the moon smiled with such wonder that the stars peeked in to see you and the night wind whispered, "Life will never be the same." Because there had never been anyone like you...ever in the world.

(I added, after the line "life will never be the same", and your parents will never sleep again. ha. At one point Mike added something like, and then we attached a plunger to your head so we could vacuum you out!)
How sweet is that beginning! It gets better and there's one page that just made my eyes well up with tears. You'll have to go to the bookstore with your pocket tissue and read it for yourself. It ends with,

Heaven blew every trumpet and played every horn on the wonderful, marvelous night you were born.

And of course we had to add, "those trumpet sounds were really just the beeping noises in the NICU." What a bunch of unsentimental spoilers we were. Really though, it is a super sweet and lovely book, with gorgeous illustrations and I will buy it for future baby-havers.

Tissue Box Toy

This is the kind of present to give a 6 month old:

He loves the tissue box. He can grab it, bite it, pull tissues out of it and eat them and throw them. It's all he ever could want.

Aunties...

Gotta love 'em:

First Snow!

 Mike and I went to see the movie Lincoln while Auntie S, Uncle D and the cousins babysat. It snowed while we were in the theatre, so we missed it, but they put the Bear's winter hat on and took him  outside to experience the snow firsthand! I'm so happy that they took pics of it! Also, you can see he has a pacifier in his mouth and you can see he had one in his mouth in the road trip pic too. I think he is finally taking one because of his teething; it really helps soothe his achy mouth.

Look at those knuckle dimples!