9mo pics & video

Been too long since I updated - again. Sorry. I suck.

House is on the market, but no action yet. The sellers of the other house did accept our offer with the contingency, so hopefully we can sell this one before that time runs out. We'll see. In the meantime, I get to enjoy my new powder room and my faboo granite counters.

Ok, onto baby updates. Tristan is a very speedy belly crawler, but not yet interested in getting up on hands/knees. That is ok by me, I can still outrun him this way. Swim class is going great, he is such a fish! Top teeth on their way, but no breakthrus yet.

Pics:

What an angel.

Without that gunky eye, his baby blues just jump right out at you.

Videos: (I went back and added video to the 8mo old post too.)
9mo old chatterbox

Video: Tristan 9 months old

Crawling video

Video: Tristan's army crawl

8 mo pics

Sorry it has taken so long, life is crazy busy. We put a contingent offer in on a house and they accepted so we have until next Tuesday to get this house ready to list. We had a bunch of painting done (window trim and floorboards from natural wood tone to white) and a new roof put on and we are waiting on granite countertops. Calgon, take me away!!!!


Anyway, here are some updated pics.

As you can see from the pic above, his clogged tear duct has cleared itself up! We are so unbelievably excited about this because we were really starting to get worried that he would need surgery to open it up. Whew!

He also got his first two teeth in the last few weeks. He is such a cutie pie I could eat him up with a spoon.

Hoping to have some videos uploaded soon too.

Finally, here is video from 8mo.

Video: Tristan at 8 months old

ETA: In response to Alli's question in the comments, yes those are dachshunds, but it isn't a diaper cover, that is the diaper itself. My friend Dana makes them over at Little Luxe Organics. They are awesome! This is the very first dachshund diaper she sold!! Here is another cute picture of Tristan in it.

Cloth Diapering gets a bad rap - again.

Parents Magazine recently published a piece on one father's limited experience with the world of cloth diapering. To say that it was incomplete is an understatement.

The article can be found here.

This is what I posted in the comments:

This perspective is unfortunate. It is unfortunate that this tale is probably what many 'new to cloth' parents have experienced. Cloth diapering has become so unusual in recent decades that the knowledge base has been significantly diminished. Until you seek out information from reputable sources, you might think that this is what a typical cloth diapering experience is like. That cannot be farther from the reality for many cloth diapering parents, myself included.
With my first son, I used 'sposies' because I didn't know any differently. I did give CDing a try when he was about the same age as the child in this article. The diapers I got at the baby boutique were the same basic style and I too was turned off from them pretty quickly and gave up. I wanted so badly to 'do the right thing' by the planet, but it was just not working out.
While pregnant with my second son, I started investigating the vast array of choices in the CD world and felt overwhelmed and said "Forget it!" more than once. But I kept coming back to it because I just didn't understand how anyone could actually WANT to use CDs. Then I started using them - the good kinds - and yes, there are several "good kinds" out there. CDing is fun. Yes, I said it - fun!
I touched WAY more poo in my years of sposies than I have using cloth. I don't do ANY dunking in the toilet. I wash 2 extra loads of laundry a week. When I used sposies, they leaked a LOT and I was washing baby clothes a lot more often than I do now. I also use a HE front loader that uses way less water to get the diapers clean. It takes me just as long to get a diaper on my squirmy baby using a sposie as it does with a CD.
In short, if this article was meant to be anything other than a fluff piece (no pun intended) based in humor then it failed in its objective. This article should not purport to be any sort of factual resource for what the reality of cloth diapering is and it would be a good idea for Parents magazine to do more than publish a few contrary opinions in the front of a future issue. Go to the real cloth diaper users and find out what we experience every day and I bet you would find that many Parents out there would be grateful for the effort.

We have a tooth!

He has been drooling buckets for weeks, maybe months, with nary a chomper in sight. Then today, I am looking in there and Whoa! a tooth has broken thru. It is one of the bottom teeth and I expect that it's mate will be here soon too.

He is soooo ready to crawl! Tonight, I had him spend some naked time on his activity mat (poor guy had a red bum, so I wanted to air it out) and he was getting around so well. Not in a straight line, mind you, more in circles, but he was moving around a lot. He can turn around while on his belly and after one or two loops, finds himself farther away from his starting point. I think he will be officially crawling before Hubby's birthday in March.

He is also sleeping on his tummy these days and I think it is going to be the final piece in the sleeping-thru-the-night puzzle. Last night, for example, he did not stir at all until 4:30 and went right back to sleep afterwards until almost 8:00 this morning.

Got the videos working - I think

My wonderful hubby helped me get the videos to work - with sound! I have added a few more too for the fun of it.

Tristan is 7 months old!

Video: Tristan is Seven Months Old!

This one was a couple of months ago, but one night Tristan just got the BIGGEST kick out of me startling him. It was going on for at least 5 min before Hubby got the video camera out.

Video: Baby Giggles

This one is of Ryan when he was about 2. He got into the habit of asking me over and over and over and over, "Mooom, whatcha doin' Mom??" So I got him back. Cracks me up everytime.

Video: Annoying (a) 2.5 Year Old

And because laughing babies are always funny, here is Ryan at a year old in the backyard pool on a VERY hot summer day.

Video: Funny Baby Laugh

7 mo update - where does the time go?

Tristan is 7 months old now. Already. Good grief time is flying. He has started sleeping better now and usually doesn't wake up until right before 4am to eat and then goes back to sleep until about 7am or so. Boy, I could get used to this. Unfortunately, after all that trouble we had getting him back to the breast, he now looks like he might be trying to reject the bottle! Ah, the irony. I had a home owner association meeting the other night and Hubby was putting the boys to bed. Tristan absolutely refused the bottle and I ended up nursing him at 10:30pm when he woke up so he could get through the night (well, until 4am at least). I still give him a couple of ounces of formula or breastmilk in a bottle every night after I nurse him and he takes it from me just fine, perhaps it has just been too long since Hubby tried offering him a bottle. He only sort of eats well for the babysitter.


Rolling is happening on occassion, but not with any regularity - still so happy hanging out on his tummy that he isn't motivated to roll over much. He has figured out how to scoot around on his back by lifting up his hips and pushing off. Ryan did this too, so cute! It does mean that the bald spot on the back of his head will not be regrowing hair anytime soon. He is sitting up quite well on his own now. I keep a pillow behind him just in case, but he doesn't need it to stay upright anymore.


Here are some pics taken today and a couple of video clips for your enjoyment.

have to get to the videos later, blogger is hanging on me.

well, until I can get blogger to do the videos, here's a link to them.

http://s12.photobucket.com/albums/a203/nickiea/videos/?action=view&current=MVI_3410.flv

http://s12.photobucket.com/albums/a203/nickiea/videos/?action=view&current=MVI_3412.flv

Feeling better now - thank goodness.

The joint pain is gone, the pneumonia is gone, but the cough still lingers. I have a new primary doctor that I like and he is pretty sure that I am not developing rheum.atoid arth.ritis - yay! I am so grateful to be well again. I hope this is the worst I get for a very long, long time.

The one side benefit of being so sick is that I lost some weight. I had been hovering at about 2-3 lbs under my pre-pregnancy weight which was pretty cool, but somehow my body decided it was time to let go of about 10-12 more lbs. Sweet! I haven't been at this weight since long before we started trying to get pregnant with Tristan. Now, to get my butt back in the gym so I can keep it off!

Tristan really really wants to crawl. Really. He likes being on his belly so much that he hardly ever rolls over and just spends his time spinning around in circles to get to other toys and he is starting to scootch backwards some too.

We have started waterbabies classes and last week he went underwater for the first time. This kid is so mellow and easy going (PLEASE let that last!) that he hardly even changed his expression when I dipped him under the water. Can't wait for the next class.

I have really been enjoying getting into wrapping Tristan to wear him. Over on thebabywearer site someone came up with the brilliant idea of picking a carry (way to use the wrap to carry baby) each week to learn/practice. We vote as a group on what we'll do next. Here are some pics of us this morning doing the SHBC (secured high-back carry). Excuse the pjs, it was pretty much first thing.

I hate being sick.

So, that flu that I mentioned the other day turned out not to be influenza, but some other nasty virus that hit me pretty hard. I was starting to feel better on Sunday/Monday and that's when I started up with a secondary bacterial infection - pneumonia. This one really knocked me down hard. Not only have I had the typical cough, shortness of breath and weakness, but I have also had to deal with this unbearable joint pain that even narcotic pain meds could not fully take care of. I have been to the ER twice in the last few days and yesterday's treatment seems to be what I needed to get me over the hump. Now, the key is to finish healing and not push myself too hard too early.

6mo pics and update

No 6mo pediatrician appointment yet, that is next week. But he did turn 6mo old on Sunday - already. How in the world is that possible??


Updates:

-he finally rolled over from tummy to back by himself on Christmas Eve in front of Grandparents and Aunt/Uncle and Mommy/Daddy. Big Brother missed it, but I think he is ok with that. He did it several times that night but has since forgotten how. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

-he can sit up somewhat well by himself. I still can't sit him down and move away at all, but he does go for several seconds at a stretch before he topples back onto me or I catch him before he face plants. Getting there.

-we started waterbabies swim class on Sunday and Tristan LOVED being in the water. He did not object at all when I laid him back with his ears under the water - he just pulled his feet up and proceeded to suck his toes. My little fishy.

-I am on day 5 of the flu. Yuck. I did get the vaccine which is why I think I don't have it as bad as you would expect. I am down to the dry hacking cough and headaches at this point. Hoping to be over it very soon because my husband might be coming down with it now too. Of course HE chose NOT to get the vaccine again this year, even after coming down with the flu last year and swearing that he would get it this year. And he refuses to go get meds too. He better not get pathetic in the next few days. So far, Tristan does not seem to be coming down with anything, he is too young for the vaccine but seems to be getting enough antibodies thru the breastmilk. Thank goodness!


Ok, now on to the pics. Oh yeah, his clogged tear duct is getting really gross (will talk to Dr about it next week again) so please excuse the redness around his left eye - poor guy. I will be sending a link to family so you can order copies if you want.

5mo3w - Space Needle visit

We have some family in town this week for christmas and we took everyone into the city to see some sights. Not great weather, but very fitting for Seattle - cold and rainy.

I wore Tristan in one of my wraps almost the entire time and he loved it. I got him into a cradle position to nurse him when we got to the Space Needle and he had his 2nd breakfast (my little Hobbit) on the elevator ride up to the top. He ended up falling asleep in the wrap and took a nice long nap while we explored the EMP (Experience Music Project) and the Sci-Fi Museum (I wanted to nap in there too).

Here's a pic of us battling the wind and rain out on the observation deck in Simon (the name of the colorway of the wrap).

And here is a pic of us from inside the observation deck that Ryan took. Notice the obligatory Starbucks in my hand.

5mo1w - We have started solids

I was originally going to wait until 6 mo based on the AAP recommendations. The only reason I relented and started a bit early is that Tristan has been wanting to nurse every 90 min during the day. I figured at first it could be a growth spurt and that he'd even out in a few days, but he's still wanting to nurse that often and shows several other 'signs of readiness' so off we go.

Started with bananas (Ger.ber organic) and he was not really very fond of them. I decided to thaw out one of the overripe frozen bananas I have in my freezer for doing banana bread someday (hahahaha) and see if he liked it better. His reaction was still so-so. I got maybe 6-10 spoonfuls (small ones at that) in him before he was turning his head away telling me he was done.

Tonight, I decided to break out the sweet potatoes (again, Ger.ber organic) but since these don't come in the smaller 1st foods size container I had to open one of the larger 2nd food size ones. I figured we might not get thru it before it goes bad, but might as well try. Oh boy! We have ourselves a winner here folks! Tristan not only liked it, but he kept opening up his mouth wide and getting all excited about another spoonful coming at him. I kid you not, he ate nearly the entire container! My little piggy.

And as I type this, he is having some tummy time on his playmat and I swear he's trying to figure out how to get his knees under him so he can crawl. This kid hasn't rolled over on his own yet, but he wants to crawl? Huh?

5mo video

Thought this might be fun. His squeals are too funny!

http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-us&vid=a90750fa-7b13-481c-81ef-dddcfe65558e

5 mo old today

And cute as ever!

Babywearing action shots

I have had this gorgeous gauze wrap since before Tristan was born and haven't had the nerve to start using it. Was using my Moby more at first. Anyway, I finally got the nerve to practice with it more and Ryan was more than happy to assist.

The wrap is from Gypsymama and is a Bali Baby Breeze in the Haumea color/pattern. The carry is called a rucksack. Please ignore my bad hair, no makeup, tired eyes etc. Oh, and the bad picture in general from my camera phone.

Later on, I tried it with Tristan and he seemed to love it. Today, I tried a variation on the rucksack called the Tibetan with him and that one went well too.

4mo 2wks - Nursing update

You may or may not recall that ever since about 2 months Tristan has been refusing to nurse during the day and I ended up pumping full time for a few weeks there.

Well, I've been patient and hoping that things would turn around and they seem to be doing so, finally. I haven't pumped in 24 hours and he took nearly all his feedings today straight from the tap. His only bottle was the last feeding - he was so tired he didn't want to nurse on the right side so I gave him 4oz in a bottle which he sucked right down and then he acted hungry still so I nursed him more on the left side which he sucked down eagerly.

Yesterday he even nursed in the middle of a noisy restaurant - no sling, no coverup, nothing. His eyes were looking all over the room, but he didn't break his latch once until he was done and he ate quite a bit too.

I'm so happy that I'm FINALLY headed towards the sort of nursing relationship I had with my first and that I was most looking forward to during the pregnancy. Finally.

No excuse - just been busy

sorry for my long absence. I've looked at my last post so many times and thought, "Ugh, I need to update that" but never got around to it.

Tristan's sleep is still rough, but we do get a good night here and there. His 4mo check up was great, he's growing nicely up to 15lb 11.5oz and 26.5 in. His weight percentile has dropped from off the charts at birth to about 70% now. His pediatrician is not worried though and this is the trend Ryan took as a baby. T is now more long and lean which is good because all of Ryan's old clothes were things that fit that body type better.

He'll nurse about half the time now, but we still don't have much luck unless it's right after a nap and in his room. I'll take it though.

We've been battling colds around here that we seem to be passing around like the rolls basket at Thanksgiving dinner. Speaking of which, we're headed to Oregon next week to visit family so if I'm AWOL again, that's why.

Hope everyone out there is doing well and that babies are sleeping well and growing well and well...that's about it from here.

Halloween 2007

Both of the boys have been sick recently and Ryan is still sick, poor guy. He woke up Saturday night with croup and then Tristan was a little bit croupy the other night too. Luckily, both of them seem to be past that part of their colds.

We still took them out trick-or-treating last night though, just not for very long. They were so cute! Tristan wore Ryan's old costume -thinking he'll be doing that for the next several years at least.

This morning, Ryan asked me to put his bucket of candy where he couldn't reach it. Huh? I asked him why and he said that he wanted me to get things out for him when it was ok. Huh???? Who IS this kid and what did he do with my 4 year old boy? Who does that??? I remember being told I could only have 1-2 pieces a day and it seemed like pure torture to know I had all the candy sitting there and couldn't go nuts with it. This kid is ASKING to be kept from his. Uh, ok. We'll see how long that lasts.

Here's my boys in their costumes, so cute.

3 month pictures

I've got copies for grandparents and aunts/uncle, need to get them into the mail soon. Got these done last week and I love them. Of course it helps that the subject is so darn cute!

I put Ryan in these red overalls all the time and I'm so excited that Tristan gets to wear them now too.

The Seahawks have been stinking lately, but he's still cute in the jersey. Why is it that this side-lying pose they do at this place always makes me think of a Play*girl centerfold?? LOL

My future quarterback.

3mo1w - I think I see a light at the end of the tunnel

After Tristan had one of his worst sleep nights ever (waking at 4 am to 'talk' for an hour before going back to sleep, this after being fed twice already in the night) I decided that something had to change or I might not keep my sanity.

I got Dr. Richard Ferber's book (Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems) and gave it a quick read to get the basics (I'm still working on the rest of it) and decided to give it a go last night. Tristan had gone down for a nap at 5:30 and decided it was bedtime. He woke up at 9:15 to eat and wouldn't go back down. Ugh.

The basic idea is to allow them to cry/fuss for short periods of time which you keep increasing so that they learn how to put themselves to sleep and break a dependance on you/bottle/boob/etc. You check on them, but don't pick up or feed in between these progressively longer times. Anyway, I put him back down for the night at 10pm and he cried for 3min, I went in to reassure him, gave him his pacifier (we'll wean off of this later) and he went right off to sleep. He woke at 1am (I had decided to not feed him until 2am based on the book and how long he's been able to go between feedings in the past) and cried for 3min, 5min, 5min, 5min and then went back to sleep - probably w/o the pacifier in his mouth. He didn't wake up again until 4am! That proved to me that he wasn't truly hungry at 1am since hunger would have caused him to wake up sooner than 4. I fed him at 4 and he 'talked' to himself (no crying) for about 10 min before going back to sleep w/o a pacifier in his mouth and woke up happy as a clam (so was I) at 7am!

I'm using the same program for naps and the most he's needed today is one check after the 3 min. I know lots of books say that you're not supposed to sleep train until 4mo, but frankly he's already over 15lbs and eats pretty well during the day and was only snacking at night to get back to sleep so we decided to start now to save my sanity and keep him from getting any more dependant upon eating/rocking to go back to sleep.


In other news, Sunday was a great day for nursing. I'm not even sure I've mentioned much on here how he's stopped nursing in public and hardly wants to nurse during the day at all, preferring to take his milk from a bottle. That makes for a lot more work for me since I have to do all the work of nursing (pumping) and the work of bottle feeding/washing. Well, Saturday he nursed in a restaurant at lunch for the first time in weeks. Then, Sunday, we didn't really go anywhere and I got him to nurse for all but 2 feedings. Yay!! I think we'll get him back on the boob in the next few weeks.


Lastly, today was my first day back at yoga. Ryan had been taking swim lessons at the gym that coincided with yoga so I had not been able to get back yet. Being a typical 4 year old, he was preferring to play and goof around in the pool and I realized that it could take months for him to improve enough to get to move on to the next level which would allow me to do yoga. I asked him last week if he wanted to prove to me that he was going to do a better job of listening to the teacher or if he'd prefer to take a break from swim lessons and spend time in the Kids Club at the gym while I do yoga instead. He eagerly asked to go to Kids Club so we pulled him out of swimming and both of the boys went to Kids Club this morning while I was in yoga. Ahhhhh, if felt wonderful to be back. I'm not sure what part of me enjoyed it more, my mind, body, or spirit. All I know is that I feel like a new woman today.

3mo3d - What a guy!

Sorry I haven't updated in a bit, been busy and tired still. Sleeping isn't much better but at least last night he went right back to sleep after a feeding. He had started a nasty little habit of wanting to be up for about 30-45 min after a feeding which is simply ridiculous at 1am. Last night was better - whew!

Took him to the ped on Thursday to check his ears because he had been waking up screaming every once in a while. Ears are fine. He weighed in at a whopping 14lb 8oz and I had them measure him as well since I think he's getting too long for his infant car seat. He was 25.5 in and the seat goes to 26in. Then he had a classic growth spurt over the weekend and now his pjs fit tighter so I'm assuming he made it to 26in by now. I installed the big convertible carseat yesterday (planning on using the smaller one in Hubby's car) and Tristan absolutely HATED it. He screamed the entire time in it. So, I've put in the smaller of the convertible seats we have in for today and hoping for a different outcome.

Now to the meat of my post. Ryan is such a precocious little guy and this morning he gave us another great story for the blog. Hubby got up with Tristan at 6:45 and the two of them were in the office playing and cooing. Tristan has found his scream/squeal voice and prefers to use that mostly in the mornings. Anyway, at about 7:15 the two of them came in to wake me up and Ryan came out of his room to join the crew. With such excitement and joy in his voice he proclaimed that mommy and daddy HAD to come see this! Hubby followed him back to his room and I expected to hear about a cool layout of cars on his streets rug in his room, but I hear Hubby say that I really should get up and see this so I extracate myself from my warm comfy bed and investigate. Ryan had opened up his blinds and NEEDED to show us the pink and orange sky outside his room. "Look mom! It's the sunrise! The sun is waking up! Isn't it pretty???" Yes, my little man, it sure is. I just wish we had a camera upstairs to take a picture of it to include with the story because it really WAS a beautiful sunrise.