Dream Come True!

Transitioning to his own room has gone GREAT!! The first night required hourly pacifier checks and every three hour feedings (just had to step away from the computer for one!)! But he slept soooo silently. No little grunts.. no learned whining to get in the bed.. just silent sleep (even scary-silent at times!) Night number 2 went even better because I put him to bed without a pacifier! He went 6 hours... ooooh how I missed those days! Last night was night 3 and I thought I'd let him off the hook for the night because of all of the thunder and lightening. It was so loud it was scaring me so I held him while I watched TV for a few hours then put him in our bed with Jeff and me. Immediately he made little noises and kicked so I took him to his room and put him in his crib and perfect little sleeping angel!! Yay! And now he is on night #4 so I put him to bed while he was tired but still awake and he put himself to sleep!! Yay.. all without having to cry! Crying was my biggest fear. I'm sure not letting him cry will cause annoyances down the road since he learning that I respond to every little whine.. but I'm just not ready for that yet. Maybe eventually.. but maybe never.

I think he likes sleeping in his crib because of all of the room. EVERY time I check on him.. he has moved. I like to call him a clock when he sleeps because he literally turns in circles all night.. so fast too!! Last night I put him down and less than an hour later he had completely 180'd!

Anyway.. so far so good. It has only been 3 nights though so it could be beginners luck. :)

We got his last photo CD back.. that's what the pics are from. OH!! And another thing! He ate a whooole 2 oz container of baby food tonight!! And 1 oz earlier today! Of green beans.. hopefully those calories get us 8 hours of sleep..

Empty Bassinet Syndrome

It exists! Maybe not as prevalent as empty "nest" syndrome, but I walked into my room after putting Reilly in his own, and cried upon the sight of the empty bassinet. It's just crazy how fast time flies! I swear I JUST put him in that thing, and somehow in a flash we've gone from setting a timer to wake up every 3 hours to feed him, to sleeping through the night, to NOT sleeping through the night, through being picky and wanting the sleep positioner one night and not the next, obsessive breathing checks, telling Jeff more than he wanted to know about SIDS leading him to obsessive breathing checks, creating a bed time routine, and now.. he has been kicked out!

I wasn't planning on doing this today, or.. ever for that matter. I could definitely handle a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory style of sleep sans grand-parents! My goal for tonight was actually to simply not let him sleep in my bed, which I am way too guilty of. But then I thought maybe he doesn't like his bassinet because if he moves around enough in his sleep his toes touch the end, he has outgrown it. Jeff didn't have time tonight to bring the playpen upstairs, which was what I had wanted, so I figured- what's the point.. he's 4 1/2 months anyway. At 8:00 we started his bedtime routine, because I knew it wasn't going to be as quick as it usually is. Afterward he was sleepy eyed so I let him lay in his crib for a little while, until I knew he wasn't going to sleep on his own. We rocked for little while, then once he was asleep I put him back into the crib, he woke up pretty quickly. I rocked him again, and again placed him back in the crib. He slept there for about a half hour before waking up, which then I just repeated- rock.. crib. He woke up once more (so far.. it's only 10pm) but only wanted his pacifier replaced. So far so good and not one tear shed [from him]! Not ready for the crying approach. Does he really need to be a self soother? I'm just fine doing it myself, really!!

On other news.. he has mastered carrots!! He had them twice a day, for 3 days and last night he ate a whole ounce.. from my mom, the great eating accomplishments are never from me. We took today off from eating because his sleeping has been kind of weird lately. However, it could be from the whole bassinet issue, or the carrots, or because he was working (dang he's awake..just a pacifier alarm-duct tape anyone?!) up to rolling back to front (which he did today!!). Tomorrow we'll do apples twice, then Tuesday do apples and carrots to add a little variety, because how thrilling can eating the same thing 6 times be? No thanks.

And yes.. he did roll from back to front today! I missed it, but woke up from a nap to "Yay!! You're such a big boy!" coming from Jeff downstairs (THAT loud, he was THAT excited!!). He missed it also.. haha, he was reading a book while Reilly was on his playmat and heard the music go off, which is under one part of the mat and only goes off when pushed, and looked down to see the child he had just placed on his back.. on his stomach!! So that's exciting.. not really, because now there's a whole new level of middle of the night checks for rolls.. but I'm glad that Jeff got to experience a first for Reilly, he doesn't get many of those being at work most of the day, so he also got to put it in his baby book.


(And after all of this.. I just noticed I'm typing in the dark! HELLO! The baby is out of the room, turn the lights on Sarah!)

Four Month Well Check.

"He is the red-headed, blue eyed, light skinned type"- Dr. Blaze Gusic! HA to Jeff and all of his friends that said my kid better not be a ginger. He is pretty much diagnosed.

Reilly had his 4 month well check yesterday! INSANE!! Just yesterday we were practically living at St. Rose Pediatrics. It's astonishing how many doctors appointments a baby has in the first weeks of life, not to mention mine also! Between the two of us, the only time we ever got out of the house was for doctors appointments! It went well.. he is loving his pediatrician, it was so funny!! He kept smiling at him and.. hard to explain on a blog, but Dr. Gusic went to roll him over and Reilly turned his head all the way around just to keep smiling at him the entire time as he rolled. It was the cutest!

Side note- the pediatrician and the nurse kept saying "she". Jeff and I would drop hints like saying "he" or calling him "little dude". In hindsight, I think it would have been funny to let the pediatrician go on with it until he did the under-diaper check. That would have been a shocker!

We told him about the three endless nights of gas and zero sleep after the rice cereal. He said go ahead and just forget about rice cereal and sees no point in giving it to Reilly, so we are starting fruits and vegetables.. and eventually meat.. NOW! Today Jeff and I went to get the babyfood processor and then went shopping for Reilly's firsts! We got carrots, apples, and green beans. I've already pureed and frozen them all, it's SO much fun! The basenji's seem to like the vegetables too. Tomorrow morning we will start with.. one of them. I want to do apples because it seems more appropriate as a breakfast food, as opposed to carrots or green beans, but we'll probably end up starting with carrots.. then do another for lunch, keep those same two on the menu for three days and then switch it up.. maybe. Ahh, or maybe I'll just do one tomorrow, haven't quite decided, but either way- breakfast it is! Hopefully he doesn't decide to spit up at his Gymboree class. Does solid foods spit up have a color? Or is it still white? Eh.. I guess we'll find out. Hmm.. weird.

I think that's it for now. OH! His stats. He is now 17lb 10oz, 25 3/4in tall, and his head circumference is 47cm. He is in the 75-90% for weight, 75% for height, and 95+% for head circumference. So he is a short, fat, bobble head.

Feeding Frustrations!!

I don't really get this whole.. learning to eat thing. Shouldn't that just be something you're born knowing how to do if it's so necessary for survival? It's never ending and seems like every time we accomplish something, it's time to transition on to the next!

For instance.. Reilly took 6 weeks to latch! That is a very long time, but we were determined and I refused to give up because I figured it was the first difficult thing that I had to go through for my child and giving up would set the tone for our entire life and make me a bad parent. That's how I felt about it, I'm not saying that if you give up breastfeeding or are unable to do it you are a bad parent, I'm just referring to the challenge. I didn't want to give up just because something was too difficult when I knew that it was very possible too accomplish breastfeeding, regardless of how much time it took for us. Anyway.. he would not latch, so naturally he was bottle fed for most of his feedings and then we would make attempts to latch or use a shield (which is probably way too much information.. but, oh well.). At 5 weeks old we started to transition off of the shield, which only took a few days! Yay!! However.. I had an oversupply so I had to reduce my supply, which was painful. We don't need to go into more details than that. Naturally, getting him to transition off of the shield meant no more bottles until he was the perfect latcher. So he was, and then when we went to reintroduce bottles (we were allowed 2 a week until I went back to work just so he was used to them) he wouldn't take the bottle anymore. He is.. 18 weeks old and I can now give him a bottle.. almost. He still throws little fits about it. A few people can, I've never witnessed it because if I'm even in the room he would rather just breastfeed. SO YAY!! I gave him a bottle.. buuuutttt.. now he is 4 months old, so it is time to transition OFF of the bottle! Are you freaking kidding me? And combine that with starting solids. So as of Tuesday he would take a bottle from me, and starting Wednesday he takes my milk off of a spoon for one feeding a day! Not to mention I just finished cleaning his weaning cups and will probably give him one of those today. And then once he is used to that I'm sure we will start the next stage of bottle weaning. It all makes no sense to me!!

Day #2 of solids.. he didn't like it so we stopped.

My dad told me to put the rice cereal in a bottle with a faster flow nipple. However, he is a father of the stone age and everything now says NOT to do that because it could 1. choke them and 2. make spoon feeding that much more difficult later or 3. frustrate them and ruin all of the work that I've done to bottle train and now unbottle train. He told me to "keep it simple".. this is no time for personal change and growth. Who does he think I am? I have not done one simple thing in my entire life and I'm pretty sure that my kid is following in those footsteps considering this whole feeding conundrum!

Maybe it is simple, billions of people do this everyday.. but.. I'm tired so I'm allowing myself to be cranky! So that's my little rant for the day, thanks for listening. :)

Watching his movie. Baby Genius nursery rhymes.. sweet stuff. He gets a few minutes of it a day.. certainly not an entire DVD!!

It's 1:00am, but I'm staying on top of this!!

The last couple of days have been pretty rough. As most of our readers may have already heard, Jeff's Grandma Stewart passed away yesterday. It is an incredible loss, she was such a sweet and loving lady. I loved her and Grandpa's relationship, always making cute little jokes at each other, also the interest she took in people. Even last week while we were visiting with her at the physical therapy rehab center, she made fun-loving jokes at Grandpa about other gentlemen. She never forgot anything we would talk about and genuinely cared. Throughout my pregnancy she would mention that she was not going to have the chance to meet Reilly, and that would break both Jeff and my hearts. Reilly getting to meet his beautiful Great Grandmother was something that was so important to us, and we couldn't wait to take him over to meet her and Grandpa on our first trip out with him, and we are proud of the meaning that his middle name holds.

Rest in Peace Grandma, we miss you already.




As for Reilly's development, he had a HUGE first today. HIS FIRST SOLID MEAL! :) It was not a success honestly, and I question how much of it he actually got. He did amazing at taking food from a spoon.. was a complete natural, but with his massive size.. eating was never something I doubted would come easy to him. He seemed to take it pretty well, although it was still more breastmilk than anything.. 1 tbsp of rice cereal to 4 tbsp breastmilk. I fed him in his bouncer because he cannot yet sit up well enough alone for his high chair, so of course he was kicking his feet everywhere and despite my attempts to dodge him the entire time, he kicked the bowl, which splashed all over my hair, face, and clothes. Then once I had cleaned up and went to finish the feeding, part of his bouncer hit the bowl spilling the rest of it on the floor.. the dogs enjoyed it. Ew. So it looks like we will have a couple more nights of every 3 hour feedings, but I'm glad he doesn't mind the spoon!! For now we are just doing rice cereal and will probably start meats, fruits, and vegetables at 6 months, aside from pureeing vegetables from time to time just to add a little excitement to the boring rice cereal.



Another first he had this week was swinging at the park. He was getting a little fussy at the hospital, so we took a ride to the park just to get out for a while. I put him in a bucket swing and he loved it! It was adorable! Unfortunately I do not have a picture at the moment, it's on the memory card in my phone though- however, that's a pain to deal with, and definitely not a 1am activity. He ended up falling asleep in the swing so I took him out and we walked for a bit and then had some tummy time on the grass once he woke back up.. he also loved that. So glad the weather is finally decent and we can start spending more time outside!!


photo courtesy of his Leram, who came to hang out with us as the park!!

So that's that!! Jeff keeps complaining at me for doing this in the middle of the night and Rei should be ready to eat in an hour, so off to bed I go!

refusing to give up on this blogging stuff..

so.. from now on i'll just do lots of mini posts and not have to update this every month for two years because i have now gotten to the point where i dread blogging because it's been so long since the last time that i have too much to say so would rather not.

let's see.. Reilly..
-rolls from front to back and is getting uncomfortably close to back to front. i don't want that to happen because then my obsessive middle of the night baby checks will go up a level. no longer will i feel the need to constantly make sure he is breathing but now he must be breathing and on his back still. fortunately he is still in his bassinet so he can't roll too far.. perhaps just tip the whole thing over. maybe it's time to put the wheels on so it doesn't rock.. we don't rock him in there anymore anyway. and despite sleep position warnings i'm still keeping him in his because without it he thinks it's a fun idea to have his face as close to the side of his bed as possible. not allowed little dude.
-giggles at everything.. mostly faces. which is awesome.. nothing better than doing absolutely nothing and just having your face laughed at. it hasn't happened to me.. but i feel a little bit embarrassed each time he laughs at a face for no reason. like he is laughing at someone? yeah.. no. but still. it's a funny concept.
-is almost sitting up.. but he has got a LOT of weight to hold up and is super tall which makes it that much more difficult.
-takes a bottle!! woohoo. i think at least.. had a great bottle weekend so i'm considering him a bottle accepting baby. not from me of course but i have no desire to give him a bottle anyway.
-will grab anything you hold out in front of him out of your hand. he especially loves to grab the cup i use to pour water on him at bath time and feel the water go through his fingers.
-has two little teeth coming in.. but they've been visible for a month now so no big deal i guess.
-says "mama". :)

he is now 4 months and i keep going back and forth about whether or not i'm going to let him eat food. i definitely want to give him rice cereal.. i think. mostly for the iron but am not too set on vegetables or fruits yet. i'm not opposed to starting them now i just don't see a purpose yet.. he is doing just fine and we don't mind waiting until 6 months on that. maybe i'll puree a few vegetables or fruit to put into his rice cereal to add a little flavor. i guess i will know for certain after his 4 month visit on the 11th.

we started gymboree recently! he seems to like the parachute when it goes up and down over his face but doesn't really care for it going in a circle. and he likes the bubbles.. the rest of the time he is his usually grouchy-out-of-his-own-house self. :) i swear.. if we could just stay home all day and somehow socialize him he'd be the happiest little thing in the world because he is such a different baby at home than anywhere else.

i guess that's it for now.. he is sleeping so i'm going to go have some alone time with the dvr. :)