Noah at the zoo

Noah 14 months

Christmas in Hawaii this year. We got a video camera from my parents for Christmas and have taken many many videos. Here's one of Noah (14 months)!

12 month checkup

Noah got his 12 month shots today. He did great and the doctor said that he doesn't need shots until kindergarten! Wahoo! (Note to future self: Noah didn't get the HepA vaccine).

Well-baby stats:
23 lbs (50%)
30 3/4 in (70%)

Some additional updates since I haven't posted in a while...

We threw Noah a birthday party. He got lots of new books and toys from our great friends and had a lot of fun.

Grant finished has 365 days of Noah photo book. For those of you who haven't heard of it, Grant took 1 picture of Noah everyday for his first year of life. He didn't miss a single day the entire year. I can't believe he did it, and I admit I was skeptical at the start of the project, but I am so glad Grant did it and the book turned out amazingly well.

Noah is now a full-time walker and is getting pretty close to being able to run. He has learned to do the sign language word for "more," and he recognizes the sign for water. He can identify a large number of objects in books and in real life by pointing. His hand-eye coordination has gotten a lot better and he has learned to play with toys where you put objects into holes. He has mastered finger feeding and is getting pretty good at feeding himself with a spoon. His hair is getting crazy long and curly. I am contemplating getting him his first haircut since it is becoming borderline mullet-ish, but it's so cute I can't bring myself to do it quite yet.

Noah is 1!

We celebrated Noah's first birthday today. I can't believe he is already 1. It went by so fast.

Aunty Kristy came into town to celebrate. We had a nice day of opening presents, enjoying balloons, eating banana cupcakes, and going to the Santa Ana zoo. Next weekend we'll be having a larger birthday party for him.

I have to admit that last night I was feeling a little sad. I mean, Baby Noah (which is what all of the toddlers in Noah's daycare call him) has certainly been getting more fun every day and many things are much easier now that he is older, but now he's not a baby anymore. I'm going to really miss this baby stage. He is so darned cute and cuddly.

Anyway, besides my mom pity party, this year has been better than I could have ever anticipated! Love that kid!

Hilarity

Noah has officially become a walker. He took 10 steps today at daycare. He walks with his hands above his head, like a little monkey.

Additionally, Noah is completely hilarious. I never want to work anymore because he is so fun to hang out with.

Examples:

1. He can tell jokes. The other day he looked at Grant and I and yelled "BA" then started cracking up. He also will laugh at burps and farts. Typical guy.

2. He is obsessed with produce, in particular apples and oranges. It has gotten so that I can't take him into the produce aisle in grocery stores because he has to be given something to hold. But then he bites off chunks of apple or orange rind and I have to pry his mouth open in the middle of the store with him screaming his head off. I generally find this embarrassing, which is why I try to avoid the aisle. He is also able to recognize, and will crawl to a spaghetti squash if prompted.

3. He loves watching airplanes, helicopters and buses. He also loves watching people mowing lawns and using leaf blowers. If Grant or I aren't watching any of these things with him, he will point and grunt to bring them to our attention.

4. One of Noah's toys is a spinning wheel that has letters and animals on it. It also sings the ABC song. Whenever I sing Noah the ABCs, he will crawl and find this toy and spin it to make it sing. This is amazing to me because the tune of the ABCs is different on the toy (a jazzier kind of version) compared to the traditional way that I sing it, but he is able to associate the two anyway. I can barely believe it, but I have tested this several times. So much fun!

Noah's first steps

We have been in Seattle scoping out where we might be living come January. While there, Noah practiced taking his first steps (around Sept. 17). His balance is been getting better and he had been standing solo increasingly well just before we left. Noah definitely wants to walk and is exceedingly proud of himself when he does it. The end of this video is pretty representative of how Noah 'walks' in that it is more of a step and a lunging fall. To date the most he's done is 3 consecutive steps. It is difficult to define whether he is actually walking. One of our friends claimed that in order for him to consider his own kid a walker, he needed to take 5 consecutive directional steps. I feel that that bar is too high. But we'll just say that Noah took his first steps but is not quite a toddler.

Ferberizing

We caved and Ferberized Noah. It was an awesome decision. We clearly fall into the category of parents that desire to be a 'No Cry' family, but clearly are a Ferber family. Noah cries for 10-30 minutes going to bed and he usually wakes up 1-2 times per night and cries for an additional 10-15 minutes. I actually don't feel this is too bad, maybe because this way I get more than 5 hours of continuous sleep at a time. Any guilt I had about doing this has quickly gone away with each additional hour of sleep I obtain. Selfish perhaps, but necessary, and I will definitely do this with my next kid!

First major illness as a mom

I am just getting over having Strep throat. It really knocked me out. I was out of work for nearly a week and Grant did nearly all Noah-related duties because I didn't want to get Noah sick (though I actually think I got it from him as what adult randomly gets Strep throat?).

Moms really can't get sick. It is no good. It was breaking my heart not playing or cuddling Noah. And he wanted me to carry him so badly and would stand up holding my legs and reach up for me. It was terrible. I still was breastfeeding, but I would wear a mask, which he found to be hilarious, so that was really the only contact I got with my little boy.

Additionally, I feel that Noah is kind of a sickly kid, so I really can't be missing a week of work being sick myself. I am having serious guilt about working because between job interviews, Noah being sick, and me being counter-sick I haven't worked a full week in a while. Not good.

The silver lining in all of this is that Grant did a great job as primary parent. Grant and Noah really bonded while I was sick and are extra good buddies now. Cute.

Noah's blocks

Noah's favorite toy are these wooden alphabet blocks.

We keep the blocks in a wooden storage tray that we slide under his crib. There isn't any reason to keep them there except that is where I first put them when he was too little to play with them and then I kind of forgot about them for a long time. But now Noah knows that is where his blocks are kept, so first thing in the morning when we put him on the floor to play he'll crawl over to the crib and pull his blocks out. It's so cute. Even when we went to Maine and were gone for nearly a week, when we got back in the middle of the night, Noah went straight for the blocks storage place.

I am trying to get him to say "blocks" as his first non-mama or dada word. Currently he'll hold up a block and say "Ba," which I can imagine is meaningful, though admittedly he'll say that syllable at any random point in time. In my defense, though, my mother interpreted the "Ba" syllable as meaning: book, butterfly, balloon, and several other words starting with the letter b when my brother was a baby. I'm going to keep pretending that he means it.

Noah and Grandpa video

Grandpa Randy and Uncle Tyler were in California last weekend for a baseball tournament in Compton. We drove up and watched a little bit of Tyler's game on Saturday, then Grandpa came down to Corona del Mar while Tyler and his team went to Knott's Berry.

Noah really, really loves Uncle Tyler, and he kept preferentially crawling to him, which was making Grandpa jealous. However, Noah really loves Grandpa too, as you can see from this video. I think the feeling is mutual.

New Noah video

Noah's first airplane trip

Noah's first trip was a doozy. We flew from Orange County to Maine so that Noah and Grant could accompany me on a job interview in Bar Harbor, Maine. It is not easy to get to Bar Harbor, and we did 13-17 hour days of travel. Noah was perfect . He smiled and flirted with everyone on the plane, so when he got a little fussy (which wasn't very much) no one really cared. He also slept a fair amount and just did a great job. I quickly had to get over my germ-a-phobia as Noah insisted on chewing on the plane safety information card (which would literally send chills down my back because it is so disgusting) but he was very insistent on doing it and it kept him happy and quiet, so what else could I do.

Our brand new stroller, which we had bought to replace our previously stollen stroller, got stollen in the airport on the way out to Maine. Well, stollen or lost, but we checked it at the end of the gateway, and when we got off the plane it was gone. There goes another $150. I have no idea why people keep taking our crappy stuff. It wasn't even an expensive stroller brand. Another couple had a MacClaren, and somehow our cheap-o Kolcraft stoller is the one that goes missing. Anyway, Grant had to go buy a replacement stroller in a Walmart in Maine and it is terrible and I hate it. Plus, what is double sucky is that the stroller we had has been discontinued it so now I can't even get the same one to replace it.

Maine was beautiful and Grant and I really loved it. I'm not going to take the job, but we would have really loved to live out there.

Big stuff going on

We have had lots of big stuff going on....

1. Noah started UCI daycare full time. We love it. We get report cards as to what Noah did during the day with stuff like, exactly how many diapers were changed, exactly how much he ate, when he slept, and cute things like, "Today Noah watched bubbles float outside." How awesome is that? Noah hasn't completely adjusted to his new environment yet, he is still having trouble sleeping in the new set-up, but for his first week, I think he did pretty well. It is also so wonderful for me to cut my morning walk time in half! Wonderful!

2. Grant was a single parent for a full day on Friday. I went on my first job interview. It was in Seattle and I flew up early in the morning and came back late at night. So Grant had to get Noah ready for daycare, take him there, go to work, and do the night time ritual and put Noah to bed all by himself. Frankly, I was more worried about leaving Noah for that long, more than I was worried about the interview. But Grant and Noah did great without me. No problems at all! My problem was that during the interview, which was a full scheduled day, I was unable to sneak away to pump at all. As a result, it looked like I had gotten a boob job by the end of the day. In the taxi cab ride to the airport, all I could think about was getting to a bathroom to pump. I had carried my manual pump with me and I sat in a stall for 45 minutes pumping before getting on the plane. This is part of the reason I don't want to go on too many interviews and I hope I find something I like sooner rather than later! I have another interview in Maine, which Grant and Noah are coming with me.....I am freaking out about traveling with a baby.

3. We saw the pediatric allergist yesterday. I feel much better after speaking with him, though the bad news is that he 'strongly' urged us to get rid of our cat. He said that even though Noah's allergy to the cat might not be so bad right now, having him around the cat sensitizes him to be more likely to develop asthma, and so it would be best to find Winston another home. I feel really bad about this, but how could we have known that we would have such an allergic baby when Grant and I have always been around pets. Poor Winston.

In general, the doctor suggested that we practice avoidance. The idea is that if we don't expose Noah to the allergens, particularly peanuts and egg whites, then we have a better chance of letting his body stop making the antibodies against them and hopefully after awhile, his immune system will mature and stop making them all together when they are re-introduced.

Yesterday I cleaned out our pantry of all peanut, egg and milk containing products, there wasn't a whole lot left at the end. We even had to get rid of things made on the same equipment, even if it didn't contain the ingredients per se. Ultimately, it looks like we are going to have to stop eating most processed food. Like I said, this is going to make us really healthy. I also am going to buy a couple of cookbooks for allergic families so I can at least have an occasional cookie.

The only good news to come out of this, for now, is that the doctor thought we could ignore the wheat allergy results. He said it often comes out as a false positive. So we can try giving Noah wheat containing products and just see what happens.

9 months

Happy 9-months Noah! I can't believe he has been out now as long as he was in my belly!

Crawling!

In honor of Independence Day, Noah started crawling, officially crawling, yesterday. It is so adorable, I can barely stand it. He is still getting the hang of it, so he looks very jerky, like a mechanical toy, when he does it. So far the only things he has felt are worthy of his effort are his red ball and most things that I don't want him to get into (e.g. a heater, our desk drawers, electrical cords, the diaper bag, etc.).

Allergy test

We took Noah to get an allergy test. I feel that the root of all of the health problems we've been dealing with...the excema, the bacterial infections, etc. stem from allergic reactions. To do the allergy test they performed a blood draw and screen for antibody levels against common allergens. Unlike when he was a little baby and they took blood out of his heel, this time they took blood straight out of his arm like an adult. It was the saddest thing ever and I almost cried.

We got the test results back yesterday and I almost cried again. The test is out of 5 or 6 scale, with a 2 being the lowest number that they consider to be an allergic reaction.

Noah is allergic to:
Wheat grain (2)
Milk (2)
Egg whites (3)
Peanuts (4)
Cats (2)

We have an appointment to speak with a pediatric allergist in mid-July and I think we'll know more then. The doctor said for now that we don't have to get rid of our cat. I'm most concerned about the peanut allergy, though Noah certainly has been exposed to peanut protein as I have been eating peanut products the entire time I've been nursing.

Anyway, after my initial freak out yesterday, I'm am trying to remain calm about all of this. Everyone keeps reassuring me that kids grow out of a lot of their allergies and that it is so common now-a-days for kids to be allergic to everything. Also, Noah' allergic reactions so far have only been hives and excema, so far no respiratory problems. All in all, I realize that it could be worse. Part of it is I just have to wrap my mind around being an allergy family. It's a foreign concept to Grant and I as we're not allergic to anything. I suppose it will make us eat healthier as a family, and that is a good thing. However, I am not a parent who wants to deny my kid junk food, so the thought of Noah going to birthday parties and not being able to eat cake and ice cream breaks my heart a little bit.

Splashing in the pool


Post-pool. Noah doing his best Zoolander pose.

We put Noah in a pool on our deck yesterday. We were really excited to do this. The problem is that we don't have a way to get water into and out of the pool easily. Grant filled it using a pitcher. Then to empty, he had to carry the pool through our living room to empty it into our bathtub. Suboptimal, but not disasterous. Noah liked it.

UCI daycare

We have finally reached the top of the UCI daycare list!!! Only 1 1/2 years to get there. We took a tour yesterday. It is pretty awesome. I wish we had been able to have Noah in there the entire time. I am feeling torn, however, about taking the spot. I know that we are leaving the area soon. Noah really loves Fay and she loves him. So I feel bad about breaking that bond. That said, I do think Noah is just a love-able guy and I think he'll love anyone over time. I think we're going to take the spot anyway.

It is always something

We took Noah to the doctor, again, yesterday. He has a pimple on his eyelid and I freaked out because of the last bacterial infection. The doctor said is a tear duct that got plugged and infected. She said to put a warm towel on his eye for 5-10 minutes 3 times a day and gave us some antibacterial ointment for his eye. I did not like this doctor. She was old and I don't think she's handled a baby in a while. The way she said to put the towel on his eye was like no big deal. Yeah right. I cannot for the life of my get Noah to stay put for 5 minutes at a time with a towel on his eye. Squirmy-McGee. The upper eyelid now has a bump on it, so I am even more worried because it is spreading. I think I'm going to take him to urgent care tomorrow. We are bleeding all of our money to Kaiser in $15 increments with all of Noah's infections. :(

Noah's new tricks

Noah has had a spurt of activity, literally within the last day and a half. He has figured out how to go from laying down to sitting up, backward crawling, and has become generally hilarious. He has really transitioned from the lump-of-a-baby stage into a busy-body-baby that wants to get into everything. And with his new found coordination, he now can. Plus, he is so clearly happy about his new tricks, you can't help but laugh with him.

For a while now, Noah has been mobile. While not crawling, he's been getting all around by rolling and scooting on his butt. But he wasn't super fast about getting around, so we didn't have to watch him every second. Not anymore. Just today, he has been getting into everything, so fast. Now our lives are about to officially change. The time has come to baby-proof the house.

As anyone who has been to our apartment recently will know, our place is a mess. MESS! With Grant and I being crazy busy at work and Noah duties at all other times, house-keeping is way low on our list of priorities. Plus our place is so small that I don't have enough room to store things to get them out of the way. Anyway, clearly that has to change. We're going to try and make a dent into everything starting this weekend. Truthfully, I'm really not looking forward to it. But it must get done!

Dermatologist follow-up

Before 5/29/09

After 6/12/09

We went to our follow-up visit to the dermatologist today. Actually, Grant went with Noah. I went and got some blood-work done at the time, so this all is what was reported by Grant. As you can see from the pictures, Noah looks SO much better. The doctor said we are doing a great job. It is nice to have confirmation that we are doing something right, as I feel like most of the time I am doing wrong things. Anyway, I guess we can stop using all of the steroid-containing medications unless there is a flare-up, which is awesome. I want to go and get professional pictures of Noah taken now. I wanted to get them for his 6 month birthday, but he's had his excema for so long and I was waiting for it to clear up. Now I can get them!

Also, as of yesterday, Noah is 8-months old! Happy month-i-versery Baby Boy!

Family

We had both sets of grandparents in town this past weekend, plus Grant's sister-in-law and niece and nephew, for my graduation. Noah did great with all of the people. He happily allowed himself to be passed around and he smiled for everyone. Admittedly, I was worried before everyone arrived because he had been showing some signs of stranger anxiety. But, in any case, he barely cried the entire weekend. Except, of course, when it came for sleeping, which he cried a lot. Sleeping schedule is off again, but that is to be expected.

Having a lot of family around made me realize how sad I am that we live far away from everyone. I would like it if Noah could grow up in closer vicinity to his grandparents and aunts and uncles. I have been looking for jobs nationwide, but I am starting to hesitate more about the East Coast ones. When I don't see my family for a while, it is easier to think about moving even further away. However, after I get to see them and see how much they love Noah, I feel sad about living too far away. Now that everyone is gone, it feels lonely.

Who would steal a baby stroller?!

We left our umbrella stroller outside of our door for a couple hours. Someone stole it! Who would steal a baby stroller?! Plus it had my rain coat and an aluminum water bottle in it. I was hoping to see someone on the street pushing it so I could make a citizen's arrest and call the police for them stealing my property. Alas, it was no where to be seen. Grrrrrr....

For the sake of a post

My boys loitering.

Dermatologist visit

We took Noah to a Pediatric Dermatologist today. Our primary care finally referred us to her because we've made so many doctor trips due to Noah's excema related problems. It was wonderful. There is a reason there are specialists in the world. The doctor was awesome and explained everything in detail and provided rationale for everything we have to do. Awesome!

She said the excema is caused because Noah's skin lacks enough lipids to appropriately retain moisture. So basically, since we live in Southern CA, which is a desert, his skin is getting super dried out. Plus, he is probably allergic to something in the environment, most likely that we don't have control over, like pollen or dust, etc.

Here is our new regiment:
1. Luke warm bath every day
2. Non-soap soap, like Dove
3. Prescription Derma-Smooth, which is a medicated baby oil, which is supposed to lock the water into his skin to help with the dryness.
4. Perscription non-steroid ointment for his face.
5. Steroid ointment for his body
6. Vasaline or Aquaphor over his whole body
7. Antibiotic ointment into his nose and Grant and my noses to control for the bacterial infection.
8. Change detergents to ALL Free and Clear.

It seems like a lot, and we spent nearly the entire day in the doctors office, but I am so happy. I feel like for the first time we have a chance of possibly fixing his excema. It is encouraging. We have a check up with the dermatologist in two weeks, at which point she will re-evalute. One sad thing is that we might have to get rid of our cat, but she said that that depends on whether or not he responds to the rest of the treatment, so we'll see. But other than that, yay!

Making baby food

I made my first batch of homemade baby food today. Organic pears. I am so happy! I have been incredibly excited about making baby food for the longest time. I used the Beaba steamer/processor that Marmie gave us for Christmas. I am planning on making as much food as I can--hopefully everything except carrots (nitrates) and squash (don't have a good enough knife to cut through them). Anyway, I'm planning on doing frozen peas next.

Feeding Noah is my favorite activity. He loves everything, except he won't eat the cereals. I've tried mixing them with other things to mask the taste, but he is very particular. He will act as if I poisoned his bananas or carrots if I put even the tiniest amount of rice cereal into it and will refuse to eat it. I wish he would, though, so we could stop giving him the iron supplement. I tasted the iron supplement we have to give him and it tastes horrible! I gagged and need to chase it with juice. No wonder he hates it. I think that pretty soon I can introduce meat and that will help.

Back in action!

Little boy finished his antibiotics Saturday afternoon. Look at that adorable little face. All healed. He has a couple of places that look like little scars where the infection was the worse, but I'm hopeful that they will heal and go away eventually. Yay!

Grant and I shared baby duties this past week. We each did half-days. No point in messing this process up for 3 days of daycare. So Noah will go back for the first time in a while on Tuesday. I must say that Grant and I had a lot of fun staying home with Noah. He's been a lot of fun lately.

In other fun, non-health related updates....
1) Noah can officially sit up. I would say he started doing this consistently around 6-1/2 months. Right on time.

2) Noah can sleep without a swaddle! This is amazing to me. I never thought this day would come. The last 3 nights, he has slept the entire night without it. Everyone told me that the baby would let us know when he was ready to sleep unswaddled, but I didn't believe it. It was true, though! Three nights ago, he was screaming and wouldn't go to sleep. I took off his swaddle, just to readjust it, but in the process of me getting it ready, he promptly flipped to his belly and fell asleep. Just like that. I couldn't believe it, and we haven't gone back! Also, the head-scratching, eye-rubbing that he used to do has decreased dramatically. Amazing!

3) I think Noah is at the cusp of crawling. He's doing some rocking motions on his belly. He also does a lot of crawling/scootching motions, but I don't think he is strong enough to pull all of his weight--the curse of a big baby. Anyway, maybe I'm imagining, but I feel that it is coming.

I'm excited for life to be back to normal!

Hellish May

We have been battling a skin infection on Noah since the beginning of May. It has been thoroughly awful and I have spent everyday since it has started feeling like I am about to cry and/or be sick from worry. The following pictures occur over about 10 days. The infection got so bad, so fast. I haven't been able to post the pictures until now because I really couldn't bear seeing images of Noah looking like this without wanting to cry. He is now looking more like a regular baby again. We are still not out of the woods, though. He is on pretty harsh antibiotics and I am still constantly worried about how it is effecting his tummy, and whether they are really working. 

Saturday, May 2: Noah has a fever and we take him to urgent care. They say to watch him, but that it is probably just a virus. His face is perfect.

Wednesday, May 6: We take Noah to the doctor because he has several whitehead pimples on his face, in addition to his excema (the redness of his cheeks is typical of his excema flare-ups). He is put on Cephalexin antibiotic for impetigo.

Friday, May 8: It gets so much worse. So so so much worse. The infections spread up his face and around his lips and crust over. I call the doctor again and they say that it takes time for the antibiotic to kick in, but that he is clearly still contagious. We spend the next 3 days swaddling him and carrying him constantly to prevent him from touching his face. Noah is very brave and not nearly as fussy as one would expect. In the meantime, he passes the infection to me in the course of breast feeding. 

Tuesday, May 12: We go back to the doctor thinking the the infection is getting better, but she says it isn't responding as well as it should. She suspects he might have an MRSA strain of impetigo and switches his antibiotic to Bactrim. I also start taking Bactrim for my infection. Within 1 day he looks so much better. 

Wednesday, May 13: Noah breaks out into hives that night. We go to urgent care. He is allergic to Bactrim (sulfa antibiotics). Furthermore, so am I. His antibiotic gets switched to Clindamycin. 

We were supposed to leave for a week long trip to the midwest on Friday morning. I was supposed to be in my very good friend Kateri's wedding. We had been looking forward to this trip for half a year. I have to call and tell Kateri that I can't come, and she is wonderful about it. I think it is too risky, since if anything happens with this new antibiotic, we'll be in the airport. I am sick over all of this and really sad. 

Saturday, May 16: Noah is doing better. He still looks more or less like the last picture above. We have to give him 1 tsp (5 mls) of antibiotic three times a day. 1 tsp while cooking seems like nothing, but putting it into a babies mouth....it is a ton. It tastes awful (two different doctors warned us about that). Giving him the medicine is a two person job (me prying his little mouth open and Grant squirting it in, while he squirms and cries). We currently have 21 more times of doing it. It seems like an eternity. I'm still worried about it giving him diarrhea, which I know it inevitably will do, so I do a poop analysis after every diaper and we are tracking his wet diapers for signs of dehydration. I'm exhausted and praying that this antibiotic kills everything off and little boy can get better.

Poor, poor Noah

We took Noah back to the doctor today. He had these white-head pimples around his mouth, but not small little milia type pimples. These were big, teenage-going-through-puberty type pimples. It ended up that the excema on his face is infected. He has to go on oral and topical antibiotics. Poor kid.

Payback

Noah was entirely too easy during his first 6 months of life. Now, he is teaching us to not become complacent. The last two weeks, in particular, have been tough. He is still the darling, happy baby we are used to all day long. Then night comes and he becomes a little monster. The kid hates sleeping. I love sleeping, how can someone related to me hate sleeping so much?! The last few nights have involved inconsolable crying (either holding him, rocking him, and even occasionally when trying to nurse him) for hours. We think he is teething (which we are now blaming the fever from the weekend on), so I have been giving him a break because I know he might be uncomfortable. But during the day, he seems to be in a perfectly good mood, it's only at night that he freaks out, so I don't think it is only a physical thing.

One major issue we are having is with swaddling. Noah is still being swaddled at night. However, I am beginning to suspect that he doesn't like it. But he has such busy little hands, that if we try to let him sleep unswaddled, he will pull his hair and ears, rub his eyes, scratch his head, etc, etc, etc and is unable to fall asleep. Thus, we always end up putting the swaddle back on which, in turn leads to more screaming and crying. These behaviors only happen when he is tired, and I really don't know what to do. The other night I tried putting him to sleep on his belly (which currently is a big dogma no-no because of SIDS), but even then he couldn't fall asleep, and I gave up and resorted back to the swaddle. Another time, I tried putting socks on his hands (because the baby mittens are no match for his giant baby hands) and he ended up rubbing the sock across his mouth so much he rubbed his lips raw. It is really frustrating and I feel so bad for him and us. 

The other night I had had it. I wanted to just let him cry it out. Grant wouldn't let me. So now we are trying really hard to do the 'No Cry' sleep solution again, as one last effort before resorting to Ferber method. I am having my doubts about the 'No Cry' way of doing things, but I promised Grant to really try this one last time, and if it doesn't work, he promised to try the Ferber method with me. 

It's an ongoing battle and I am trying to maintain perspective about it all, as I know that this will eventually pass, but it is so so so so frustrating. 

No rest for the weary

My defense went well yesterday, so I am happy that it is finally done. I was really looking forward to relaxing this weekend, but that's not happening. Noah has a fever. I guess I should be glad it came on today and not before my defense. We took him to urgent care, and they said he didn't have an ear infection so to just keep watching him for the next 3 days. He is super fussy. I feel so bad for him. My plan of sleeping extra and watching TV isn't working out the way I envisioned. Ah, parenthood.

Solo sleeping

Last night, Noah slept in his room by himself for the first time, with neither Grant or I sleeping next to his crib on the floor. It was a stress-inducing situation, not of Noah, but for his parents. I have to admit that we caved twice and risked waking him up to go and check on him. We left him alone because he is back to not sleeping well and we're experimenting to see if our movements are what are waking him up. Last night he woke up just as much as every other night, but we're going to give it a few more days. Anyway, just in time for my dissertation defense, I am back to sleeping in two-hour shifts. Sub-optimal, but what can you do. I'm going to fully address this sleeping situation once this thesis business is behind me. One thing at a time.

Strategic pooping

Noah has been very sneaky lately. Most days, he'll wake up around 5 a.m. I'll nurse him and get him all cozy in his swaddle. Then I gently lay him in his crib and he seems to be almost asleep. I get all cozy in my bed, and as I am about to fall asleep, I'll hear him poop. It's been happening entirely too often lately to be a coincidence. I'm beginning to think that he is doing it on purpose to avoid having to go back to sleep. Little stinker.

6 month check-up

Noah got his 6 month shots today.

Stats:

Weight 20 lbs. 1 oz. (85%)

Height 27" (75%)

He seems like such a giant baby to me, I can't believe that there are babies his age that are bigger!

We asked the doctor about his allergies. He said we could get blood work done to see what he is allergic to if we want to. But he said if eliminating things from my diet is working for us (which is more or less seems to be), then that is fine. We got some prescription ointments to help with his excema. And other than that, Noah  is in pretty good shape. No more shots until he is 1!

Noah got to eat carrots for the first time today as his reward for going to the doctor. Carrots he seems to like very much. 

Back to the daily grind

Boo. Everyone has left. Noah has to go back to daycare and I have to go back to work. Boo. Noah misses his grandma!

I fed Noah bananas today. He liked it much better than rice cereal. I don't blame him. I tasted the rice cereal and it is funky. I will probably just use it to beef up other stuff. 

Thought I had the rash situation under control. I cut out milk, soy and shrimp out of my diet. I don't know if shrimp/shellfish is doing anything, but I rarely eat it anyway, so it isn't hurting anything. This afternoon he broke out into another rash. The only thing I can think of is maybe he is sensitive enough to react to cooked milk, since I did eat a muffin. Unlikely, I feel, but I don't know what else it could be. Oh, and I think he has ringworm. It's all super duper. Thank god we have a doctor's appointment on Friday morning for his shots. I have lots of questions.

We miss Aunty Kristy

Aunty Kristy left yesterday. We are all sad. Noah loves her so much.

Grandma, Aunty Kristy, Food, Teeth

Grandma Ann and Aunty Kristy are in town watching Noah this week since Fay, our daycare person, is taking a week off. Granted, I have since decided to stay at home too so I don't miss out on the fun, but I am technically working from home with Grandma and Aunty K taking primary baby duties. Yay!

Noah tried solid food for the first time on Saturday (4/11...his 6 month birthday!). Rice cereal in breast milk. Yum! Noah did a great job. He opened his mouth for the spoon like a pro. He even swallowed a little, I think.

Today I saw a tooth in Noah's mouth! Bottom front was peeking through. 

Wow, stuff happens fast!

Allergy frustration

Noah broke out into a rash again today. It has to be something that I am eating. But what?! I have no idea, and it is driving me crazy! The most likely candidate is milk, but I have been eating milk-containing products the entire time Noah has been alive. Also, strawberries, egg-products, soy-products. The entire time! But only the last 3 weeks has he been breaking out randomly. How am I supposed to figure it out...it could be anything over a 2-3 day period. Plus, he gets milk pumped from previous days, so it is hard for me to remember what I ate. I would gladly give up anything so he wouldn't have this rash, but I don't know what the problem is. So frustrated with myself!

New stuff for giant baby

Our giant baby Noah is outgrowing his infant gear. We are bidding a fond farewell to some of our daily hardware. 

Goodbye to the Baby Bjorn. Straps now dig into shoulders too much, but up until this point, the Bjorn was awesome and served as my favorite baby carrier. 

Hello to the Moby wrap. It had a steep learning curve of figuring out how to wrap it, which was the main reason why I liked the Bjorn in the beginning, but now that I've gotten the hang of it, I can see why it is popular. You bear the baby's weight on your hips, so it is much more comfortable. Plus, Noah is so cute in it. When I walk around Corona del Mar, I have literally heard people in stopped cars saying "Look at the baby!" How nice. 

Goodbye to our infant car seat. You have served us well, no wonder it is the most popular brand in the USA (I think). Technically, Noah still fits into this, but we bought a new convertible car seat today. We have to install it. It looks gigantic. I'll miss the convenience of the portable infant seat.

Fun stuff updates

I've been so caught up with Noah's excema and fussiness, I haven't gotten around to updating his fun progress. The last week has actually been pretty fruitful for him. 

He has...

1. Discovered his feet. He loves to pull his foot into his mouth. Look at his tongue out with effort! So cute!

2. Rolled over from front-to-back. He can now roll from back-to-front and from front-to-back, though he hasn't done a complete 360-degree roll yet. Interestingly, he seems to be much better at rolling when he doesn't have clothes on. I don't really see a reason for this, but I guess it is his preference.

3. Much improved sitting up. He can now sit up and balance by himself for a few seconds before he falls. We practice this every day. 

Excema

We took Noah to the doctor today. He's had a rash on his face for a while now and he's been so fussy the last few days, so we just wanted to get it checked out. The doctor said it is just excema. We just have to keep it moisturized and put a little hydrocortisone on it if necessary. Noah has been so itchy and miserable lately. I feel so bad for him. This all started with the hives outbreak. Now we've entered a terrible cycle where he itches his face and makes the excema worse, which makes him more itchy, etc. Look at his poor face, and this picture is not even from the worse day.

Brutal

Our darling little boy has not been sleeping well. Every nap, every night, he screams and cries and fights sleep. He doesn't want to be held, he doesn't want to be put in the crib by himself. He won't fall asleep in the stroller, in the car, in a baby carrier. I don't think he wants to be swaddled, but he absolutely can't fall asleep or stay asleep without it, so he has to be. He eventually will fall asleep at night, when he is exhausted because he has barely slept all day. It is generally exhausting. This is the revenge for Noah not having colic and not crying that much previously. Something like this happened once before when he was about 3 months old, and he eventually stopped that, so I hope he will stop this soon....hopefully before Mom and Kristy come, or else we will lose precious baby-sitters.

Giggles - Monster/Wild animal

Video 1: Noah has been awfully giggly lately. Lots of fun. 

Video 2: Noah has also learned to make a new sound when he is protesting things that sounds awful. It sounds like wild animal. I call it his monster-wild animal call. He basically does it whenever we are putting him down for a nap or at night. It's different than crying, and in that way is easier to listen to because his face doesn't look like he is that upset when he is doing it. But it certainly isn't pleasant to listen to, by any means. I hope he forgets about this sound soon.

Emergency room run

We took Noah to the emergency room last night for the first time. It wasn't a terribly traumatic situation, so in some ways it was a good test run.

Noah was having a hard time sleeping last night and was being really fussy. The room was dark, but I decided to turn on a light and look at his face. Poor thing was bright red. The reaction to the formula had gotten worse and his face was all blotchy with a hives-like rash. He was probably super itchy, which is why he couldn't sleep.

We called an after-hours nurse's hotline, and they suggested we take him to the ER, to check to make sure the reaction didn't progress and effect his breathing. I think everyone was erring on the side of caution. 

I kind of felt dumb because by the time we drove to the ER, Noah looked much better. Plus he was in a great mood. All smiles and giggles. He thought it was a great adventure being up that late at night.  His face was still a little red, but much better than when we had left the house. The ER nurses probably thought we were over-protective freak parents, which is still partially true, but in our defense I wasn't planning on going to the ER until the phone nurse told us to. Anyway, I know people have problems with Kaiser, but so far I've been so happy with our experiences there. We waited in the waiting room for about 20 minutes, then got in to see a doctor who told us that we could give him a little children's Benadryl if Noah was really bothered, but that otherwise he seemed fine, and we were sent on our way.

Noah fell asleep in the car ride home and proceed to sleep for the next 5 hours in his crib, without any Benadryl, so I guess he wasn't that bothered after all. After dropping us off at home, poor Grant drove all around trying to find an all night pharmacy to buy some Benadryl, just in case, though we didn't end up needing it.

This morning, we all slept in, but Noah looked much better. A little rash was still around, but overall much better. Now I can add food allergy paranoia to my growing list of parental concerns. Great.

Introducing formula

Today Noah had his first try with formula. We thought we'd slowly ease him into it, so Grant mixed in 1 ounce of formula with the breast milk I pumped for him over the course of an entire day. 

So far, not going so well. Noah ate it and didn't seem to have a problem with the taste. However, it appears that he has a bit of a rash on his face and chest, which I'm guessing is an allergic reaction, probably to the cow's milk? Also he's been pretty fussy all day, according to Grant. And he's having trouble going to sleep. Again, fussy. I'm wondering if he has a tummy ache. 

Now we have a giant can of powdered formula that I'm afraid to keep using. I wonder if there is anyone we can give it to so it doesn't go to waste. We're going to have to try and get smaller sizes next time. 

I was really hoping that Noah wouldn't be a kid with allergic reactions to cow's milk. Darn. Formula is officially on hold again.

Little man

I always call Noah "Big Boy" (or Big Boi if you like Outkast) because he is one. I've noticed that our pediatrician and daycare person use the alternative term "Little Man." I've decided that Little Man is exceedingly cuter and think that I will start using that instead.

No pants Noah

Noah had a blow-out poop this morning just as we were about to start our hour walk to daycare. The poop was all over his pants. It was Monday morning, I hadn't had any coffee, I was dealing with poop, and I didn't have any extra pants for him. Anyway, I figured he'd be fine going to daycare without any pants on because the daycare lady has extra changes of clothes for him. So I just piled blankets on his legs for the walk over.

We get there late and with a baby with no pants, so I explain to the daycare lady what happened, which she seems to understand. 

Grant picks up Noah at the end of the day. Noah still has NO PANTS! He is wearing exactly the same thing I dropped him off in. And the lady says, "Tell Mom (i.e. me) he need pants. It's not summer." What?! Seriously?! First of all, it's not like I am in the habit of dropping off my baby with no pants on. Clearly something different happened today, which I explained! Second, you have extra clothes. Change the poor kid's clothes if you think it is too cold. Jeez!

Tracking napping

We had a great weekend with Noah. He was super happy. I think a big part of this was that he took good long naps. Naps are key. We've been reading about sleep training to help Noah get better with sleeping. So far we've been following the plan by Elizabeth Pantley, who does a 'no-cry' sleep solution. I'd say it has been working with moderate success, the failure being that we haven't been super strict about following it. It's not that I'm against 'crying it out', and I think I'm prepared to do it, if and when it comes to that. But until he is eating something besides breast milk, I'm cutting the kid some slack in the sleep department. Anyway, Grant took the initiative to read this book about how to get your baby to nap better and he kept a nap diary to track Noah's sleeping habits from Friday through Sunday. Completely anal, but it helped so much! I guess Noah did have a sleeping pattern, but we just hadn't really been paying attention to it. Once we saw what the pattern was, it made putting him down so much easier! And look how adorably happy he is in the picture!

6 hours, I'm feeling good!

Yay Noah-Big-Boy-Five-Month-Old! He slept for 6 hours without eating. I actually heard him wake up twice, but he put himself back to sleep. I needed this. I've been hurting a bit for sleep lately, and I need to do some serious thinking at work, so a clear head is nice to have. I hope this is the start of a new trend and not a freakish blip on the Noah Sleep-o-Meter.

Noah's 5 month-iversary

Happy 5 months, Noah Silly-Face!

Daycare updates

The 9-month old baby at Noah's daycare left yesterday. So now it is Noah and the two toddlers. Grant said he saw the baby's parents saying good-bye to our daycare woman and she seemed really sad. I will say, it is clear to me that this lady really cares about the kids she watches, which makes me feel better about leaving Noah with her.

The baby left because they finally made it into the UCI daycare system. Noah is also on this waiting list. We have been on this waiting list since I was 8-weeks pregnant. That means we have been on the list for 1-year. I just went in the other day and there are still about 20 people ahead of Noah. Twenty people! Twenty people have to leave UCI before Noah can go there. And this doesn't include the fact that really poor people and people who already have children going to a UCI daycare facility get priority, i.e. get to skip over us. So, I'm guessing we'll finally reach the top of the list sometime next fall or winter...when we will likely (and hopefully) not be at UCI anymore. Fantastic! This situation infuriates me because UCI just redid the Infant/Toddler daycare center last year. If the waitlist is nearly 2-years long, why wouldn't they have accounted for this and hired more staff?! Arg! Daycare, again, the bane of my existance.

Movie, Mistake, and Time Change

Noah experienced his first baby-sitting session outside of daycare this weekend. Our awesome friends, Greg and Vivan (who braved cat allergies to watch Noah), took care of him so we could watch The Watchmen. Even before Noah was born, Grant had set this movie as the first baby-free date we would have.

Greg and Vivan said Noah was good, so I'm glad about that. He didn't sleep well by himself, per usual, thus it looks like they had to hold him to make him sleep (see evidence below). But they said they would baby-sit again, so I'm hoping that means the experience wasn't traumatic overall.
Even though I knew Noah was in good hands, I still held onto my cell phone the entire movie so I wouldn't miss it vibrating. I need to be eased out of my paranoia, give me some time.

Movie was good. Some lady brought her approximately 10 year old son and 5 year old daughter to it. They sat behind us. At one point Grant stood up and told the lady that he had read the comic and that it is super violent. That caused the lady to take her daughter out of the theater, but not her son. I'm not judging, because I feel I was allowed to watch quite violent/sexually suggestive stuff as a kid and have grown up not to be some weird deviant, but definitely I was more uncomfortable during the sex scenes knowing a 10 year old boy was behind me.

In other news, I made a mistake this weekend. I accidentally put a disposable diaper (a clean one, thankfully), into the washing machine. This makes a big mess, do not try at home. Grant spent quite a while cleaning up my mistake. Note-To-Self, try not to put diapers too close to the dirty clothes pile. Or better Note-To-Self, try to put dirty clothes into a hamper and not on floor in the first place.

Finally, Noah had to adjust to Spring Forward. He handled it pretty well. Luckily for us, he was super tired last night and went to bed at 5:30 pm (which would be like 4:30 pm pre-time change for him), so maybe this will help with the transition. We'll see over the next couple of days. This is yet another reason why I wish there weren't time changes, it's hard on children and adults alike.

Noah rolled over!

Yay! Noah rolled over from his back to his front today (on purpose)!

Favorite things: Stroller frame

I am copying this blog idea from  Kateri's cooking blog where she writes about her favorite tools. I thought long and hard about what to write my first one about, and I decided that the one piece of baby equipment that I use a ton and have the fewest complaints about is the frame to my baby stroller (Graco SnugRider infant car seat stroller frame).

I am terrible at maneuvering anything on wheels, so I didn't want a huge stroller that I would end up running Noah into bushes with, or falling off curbs with, etc. Additionally, we have no space to store a million different types of strollers. So we ended up asking just for a frame that you attach your infant car seat onto. Thanks to our friends Lorin and Natalia, we got the frame.

The frame is not much to look at. In fact, it looks like a piece of junk. It's super light-weight, so it feels like it is going to break apart at any moment. But it is awesome! In fact, it is great because it is so light. It folds up flat and fits into the trunk of our Civic. The best thing is that it has awesome turning radius and I find it really easy to push (this is key since Noah is so heavy). I've logged so many miles on that thing, and it is still going strong. I plan on using it until Noah outgrows his infant car seat, and hopefully by then he'll be able to sit up and we can use the umbrella stroller.

Night time hilarity

For the last week, Noah has been waking up between 1-3 in the morning and won't go back to sleep for a couple of hours. He isn't crying, but he is wide wide wide awake! He is actually pretty hilarious when he wakes up in the middle of the night. Lots of talking and shrieking (happy shrieking, but shrieking none the less). He also does what we call 'donkey kicks,' where he brings both of his legs straight up in the air, at a 90-degree angle from his body, and then will kick them straight down into the mattress, which makes a really loud, hollow sound. If Grant or I go to the side of his crib and tell him to go to sleep, he give the biggest smile, like he is so happy to see us and wants to play. It's so cute.

I can't decide whether we should just let him play in the crib by himself until he goes back to sleep on his own or if we should pick him up and help him to go back to sleep as quickly as possible. If we didn't have to get him up at 5:45 a.m. to go to work/day care, I wouldn't care if he played in the middle of the night. But since we can't let him sleep in, I worry about him getting enough sleep at night. I need to do some internet research for my internet baby regarding what to do. (My mom calls Noah an 'internet baby' because Grant and I are always running to look up online how to raise our child). Anyway, hopefully this phase will pass and he'll go back to sleeping most of the night soon.

Noah chuckles

Noah giggling with Grant. Sometimes when he giggles he gives himself hiccups, which is why he looks so concerned in the middle of it all.

Nose aspirator

Noah still has a bit of a stuffy nose. Luckily, he hasn't been so stuffed up that he can't nurse, as I have a great fear of the nose bulb sucker contraption. I get freaked out because he's usually squirming like an alligator while I'm trying to do it and I have visions of accidentally sticking the tip all the way up into his sinuses. But Grant has gotten awesome at using the sucker! He just goes for it like a pro. I am so happy and proud of him! I will happily let Grant suction away from now on!

Noah in bouncer

Not really much to this video, just want to show the grandparents Noah in action. Thank you to the Ash, Karen, Clancy, and Nate for this bouncer. Noah really likes it.

Bane of my existence: Part II

The much awaited second installment...day care is the second bane of my existence. The number one problem I have with it is that, frankly, I don't want to have to send Noah to day care at all. I wish I was rich and had a nanny by my side so that I could still work and have Noah with me all day. Unfortunately, Noah is not a good napper and I can't get anything done when I stay home with him, so off to day care he goes.

That said, I do like our day care person. She is an older woman who raised 5, now grown, kids. I have always felt that she seems like a very nurturing, motherly lady, and I think that she genuinely likes Noah and that Noah likes her. She takes care of Noah, a 9 month old, and two 2 1/2 year olds. I think this is a pretty good ratio of kids.

But of course I also have my complaints:

1) Very expensive. I don't want to put price tag on the care of my child, but the truth of the matter is that we are paying nearly as much for day care as we are for rent. We interviewed other options, which were cheaper, but we didn't like anyone else as much.

2) Distance. I drop Noah off in the morning and Grant picks up after work. It takes me 1 hour to walk my giant baby in his car seat, in a stroller, with all of his stuff (at least 25 lbs. total) to the day care place. The other day I got caught in a torrential down-pour and had to walk 30 minutes while it was pouring rain. Noah, please note that again I expect Mother's Day presents because of this. I don't drive, so I feel this complaint is kind of my fault, but then again, with as expensive as day care is, we couldn't afford a second car anyway. 

3) Language barriers. Our day care lady is Persian and her English is passable, but it is definitely not as easy to communicate with her as Grant or I would like. For most situations, it is okay, but I often worry about unusual situations popping up and how we'd get what we need across. 

The latest drama that made me write this blog is that, evidentially this past week Noah has wanted to be carried constantly. So she basically asked us not to carry him so much over the weekends because he gets used to constantly being in someone's arms. I do understand her point, because she does have another baby she needs to deal with. And I will admit that lately Grant and I have been carrying Noah more than previously because Noah likes to lay on his back, but we're so freaked out about the back of his head being smushed on the ground, that the second alternative is to hold him upright. But still, the fact that we are having this conversation at all makes me feel really bad. Really bad. Plus, (and I am going to sound like one of those annoying parents who thinks their kid can do no wrong), I don't believe that she has to carry Noah ALL day. Even with the additional carrying we have been doing, we still leave him alone sometimes and he is fine. Maybe this week he just wanted the attention. Poor little guy.

Dissection of Noah's Features

Happy Valentine's Day!

Since Noah is a mixed-race baby (officially, he is 1/2 Japanese, 1/4 German, and 1/4 other European mutt), one of the common things people do is comment on whether he looks "more Asian or more White." This is a fun game. Interestingly, Grant's parents seem to think he looks absolutely like me, whereas my parents think he looks entirely like Grant.

Here is what I currently think. Look at the picture of Noah (taken today) and you can play too.

Hair: Currently dark brown, thus an even contribution from both of us. For some reason, in some pictures his hair looks red. I think that it is lighting, because in person it is definitely brown.

Forehead and eyebrows: Definitely Grant. He has adorably dainty little eyebrows just like his dad. Most women, including me, would be jealous.

Eyes: I feel definitely takes after me. I don't know how much white people talk about 'single vs double' eyelids, this might be a uniquely Asian person thing. Anyway, I have one single eyelid and one double eyelid eye. Noah does as well. As an aside, I once tried to explain single vs. double eyelids to Grant, and was trying to compare and contrast his eyes with mine, but interestingly enough, Grant also has single eyelids. We have always said that that is the Asian part of him.

Nose: Hybrid. Nose is interesting because the Grant's family nose is a very strong trait. All of Grant's nieces and nephews had the same nose as infants and to some extent, still do. I think baby noses change quite a bit, so only time will tell on this. But while I see some evidence of a Grant's nose, I also see some evidence of my nose too. I personally hope Noah gets Grant's nose.

Mouth/chin: Undetermined. I think baby mouth and chins change too much to make a call on this quite yet. I will say that both Grant and I have pretty square jaws, so this might be a non-issue.

General head shape: Also a non-issue. Grant and I both have gigantic heads, so I'm guessing Noah will as well. Sorry kid.

Finally, I will end with this. Grant was discussing with his boss what percentage Noah looks like me versus him. This is what she wrote to him in an email:

"Or 100% Noah. You will appreciate that he is his own self when he throws parties at your house while you are gone, crashes the family car or gets really bad grades. That way, you won't have to blame yourselves too much."

Amen.

Bane of my existence: Part I

Pumping breast milk for Noah is currently one of the banes of my existence. I fully expect Noah to get me things for Mother's Day simply because I had to pump breast milk for him during the first year of his life.

Reasons pumping is awful:

1) It makes me feel like a cow. I realize that this is what I am for Noah in general, but having a machine hooked up to you really drives the point home. And while I think breast feeding is a beautiful thing, for those of you who haven't heard it before, a breast pump in action sounds exactly as gross as you'd imagine. 

2) I feel tied to it. I try to get a pumping session in at least every 3-4 hours when I'm at work. It's stressful to make sure I am not doing an experiment or in a meeting or having lunch, etc. with this schedule. Additionally, I spend 1-1.5 hours each work day pumping. That's a lot of time, I think. 

3) I put the bottles of milk into a refrigerator. The refrigerator is in front of a lab where a fellow we call 'Roid Rage Pete works. 'Roid Rage feels it necessary to come and talk to me every time I am by the refrigerator. He tells me asinine stories about his lab that I don't care about. He also seems to think that every time I am by the refrigerator (which is 3 times per day) that I am eating something. He told me the other day something to the effect, "Karla, you don't seem to realize you're not eating for two anymore." This didn't come across as mean as it sounds. It did come across as stupid as it sounds. I have taken to hiding from him.

4) Tons of bottle components and pump components to wash. With no dishwasher, this means I wash them all by hand. I've told Grant not to be afraid to help out with the washing, but alas to no avail. Noah's feeding, and everything related to it, falls squarely in my domain and I don't think Grant feels comfortable entering this domain. One of Grant's domains...cleaning the lint out of Noah's toes. Fair trade, right?! (I am being tongue-in-cheek, as I will be the first to admit that Grant does do a lot, and it is not his fault he is currently lacking the equipment to help more with feeding).

Even with all this complaining, I intend to pump for as long as I can. I think it is important and I want to be able to breast feed him exclusively during the weekends (no dishes!). My goal is to make it through 6 months for him. If I can go the full year, I will. The saving grace in this situation is that I have promised myself that I will only pump 3 times a day and that I won't do it on weekends, for my sanity. Eventually Noah will eat more than I can produce (which I think is going to happen in the next couple of weeks), then I will supplement with formula. I've made peace with this decision. 

Done grumbling for now. Wait for Part II....ending with a cliff hanger!

Sleeping through the night, or not

The #1 question I am asked by people is if my baby sleeps through the night. (Noah doesn't yet, he usually gets up twice, on a good night, to feed). Once I say that he isn't, I am bombarded with suggestions on how to get him to do so. The thing is, I secretly don't want him to sleep through the night. I like getting up with him. I nurse him next to a night light and the way he looks in the middle of the night is so cute and perfect. Sometimes he'll stop nursing and just look at me, really peacefully, and it makes me cry a little. I'm tearing up just writing about it. Anyway, I'm not sleep-deprived enough to want to stop having this every night. Call me crazy.

2/7/2009

Now I am officially starting this blog. I had been planning on keeping a journal to give to Noah, and even got a very fancy one, but only wrote in it two times. This will be better, I think. 

We had a doctor visit yesterday. Noah got his second round of immunizations. He also is in the midst of his first cold. The combination made Grant and I completely paranoid of him getting a fever and us having to take him to the emergency room, but I think he's doing okay.

Prior to the doctor's visit, I have been obsessing about whether his head is too flat or not. Grant thinks I'm being ridiculous, but that is because we determined he has a flat head himself. I have a nice round head. Anyway, the doctor said every baby has a flat head at 4 months because they are always laying down. Supposedly it's going to pop out. Hopefully, at least his hair will grow in and create the illusion of a rounder head. 

Stats: 

2 month check-up: 14 pounds, 9 ounces (95th percentile), 24 inches (75th percentile)

4 month check-up: 17 pounds, 4 ounces (90th percentile), 26 inches (90th percentile)

Noah 1 month

Month 1 highlights:

As a baby, Noah was an incredibly noisy sleeper. Much noisier sleeping than awake. Lot of grunting and struggling. See video of him sleeping, I swear he was sleeping (November 28, 2008)

Noah is a very mellow boy. He is not much of a crier. We are very lucky. I knock on wood every day in the hopes that this trend will continue. 

1 month doctor's visit: 10 pounds, 3 ounces

Noah's first week

Very good, sleepy baby. All you did was sleep and eat, which is what you are supposed to do, I suppose. You barely cried during the first week and got cuter every day. 

Birth story

To Noah:

We were expecting you to be born on November 6, 2008, but you decided to come early, and that was fine with us. On Saturday, October 11, 2008, your dad got up to go workout. Your mom woke up and found her water had broke.

We were a little in shock driving to the hospital since you were earlier than we expected. Your mom was thinking that it might be a false alarm. It wasn't.

We checked into the University of California Irvine Medical Center around 9:30 a.m. Around 2 p.m. they induced contractions in your mom to get labor going. Around 7 p.m., your mom decided that she had had enough dealing with the contractions and got an epidural. (As a wise friend told her...you don't get a medal for being in more pain and you end up with a baby either way). Anyway, then your mom, and therefore your dad, were in a much better mood. Much better. Your mom tood about an hour to push you out. And then you were here! At 9:51 p.m., we said hello Noah! Your dad cried. We were both so so so happy. You weighed 6 pounds, 14 ounces and were 19 inches long. That's not bad considering you were early and your mom didn't gain much weight during her pregnancy (maybe 25 pounds total). 

The first thing you did after you came out was pee all over everyone. Funny boy.

Another thing you did right away that made Mom laugh...your dad does this wrinkly forehead thing (I'm sure you'll see it many times as you grow up). I always tell him to stop doing it because it will give him wrinkles, and he always says that he can't stop because he can't help but do it. Anyway, within minutes of you being born, you wrinkled your forehead JUST like your dad. I guess he was telling the truth, he really can't help it. I guess it's genetic and he passed it on to you! I will continue to bug both of you about it for the rest of our lives. Get ready.

You were perfect and so cute. Very pink. We love you so much. You made us a family.