Thursday, April 25, 2013

Sleeeeeep!

Let it be known that Elijah officially began sleeping through the night at 7.5 months.  It's been nearly 2 weeks CONSECUTIVELY!  I am a new [well-rested] person!

Elijah's physical development continues to skyrocket forward.  He went straight from crawling to pulling up on everything.  He can now pull himself up to a complete stand.  Once in a while he even lets go of one hand (and gives me a heart attack in the process)!  He is an amazingly happy boy.  I think that has a lot to do with his new mobility, and his much better sleep habits.  Our evenings and nights, and mornings for that matter, are so much more peaceful.  We almost never see the tired, clingy, cranky baby in the evenings that used to visit once a week or so.  Most evenings he is content to crawl around the house, chasing Jackson or following us around as we wash his bottles from school and start preparing dinner.  His bedtime is now closer to 7pm so we have time to do things like take a walk to the park or stop at the store on the way home.  He loves to play with anything that isn't an actual toy.  Recent favorites include plastic bags, shoes, Jackson's dog bowl, any speck of dust or dirt he can find, and Jackson's bones.  It's really fun to watch Jackson and Elijah interact.  A couple nights ago, Elijah crawled after Jackson and picked up his bone.  Jackson very gently bit the end of the bone that Elijah wasn't holding, and turned around and walked to the other side of the living room.  Elijah crawled after him, smiling and babbling away.  He grabbed the bone away from the dog.  Jackson had this startled look on his face, and then gently grabbed the other end of the bone again.  This went on and on for 30 minutes!

Bath time is quite the adventure these days.  We had to move to the big bathtub because he was getting much too big and mobile for the little one in the kitchen sink.  It took him a few days to adjust, but now he loves it just as much as before.  He crawls around and around the bathtub, splashing and babbling.  He loves to use the side of the tub to pull up.  Most of the time he can only get onto his knees, but that is scary enough for me.  I grab his arms and gently sit him back on his bottom.  Over and over and over again.  Sometimes he even pulls up to standing.  And then he lets go with one hand.... and I die from shock.  Not really.  He also loves the hollow ringing sound of the side of the tub when he hits it.  Bathtime has turned into Elijah's drumming time.  We filled the tub a little fuller than usual last night, and Elijah loved the extra splash he got.  I was soaking wet by the end.  We've evolved our bedtime routine so that I pump around 6pm, then I do Eljiah's bath and bedtime routine while Daniel cooks dinner.  It's usually ready shortly after I put Elijah into his crib, around 6:50pm.

He has gotten very good at falling asleep on his own.  It is such a relief.  And once he's asleep, we can relax knowing that we are off-duty for a full 12 hours.  He sleeps all night long without crying.  I imagine he probably does wake up occasionally, but he must go back to sleep without making enough noise to wake me up.  Sometimes I hear him around 5:45am, right before my alarm goes off, but somehow by 6:00 he is back to sleep.  Usually he wakes up on his own between 6:30 and 7am.  He hasn't been eating nearly as much milk lately.  Since he's sleeping through the night, it's 24-25 oz each day.  And his first bottle of the morning has been a struggle lately.  I push him to finish, even if he doesn't seem interested.  Even though my supply is still a little lower than it used to be, I'm making more than enough milk.  I've frozen enough to replace the couple I had to thaw a few weeks ago, plus some!  I wonder if I should start cutting back on my pumping to match his appetite.  If I don't, I may end up with Elijah fully weaned but my body still producing a full supply.  That sounds horrible.  I can't believe we've made it almost 8 months breastfeeding.  I'm still happy to continue until the 1 year mark.  We'll see if my supply makes it that long.  So far it seems that I will have no problem!

At that 1 year mark we may have a good reason to stop breastfeeding.  Daniel admitted this weekend that he's starting "to feel more than 5% ready" for another baby.  He wants Elijah to have a playmate.  So I think right now we will shoot for another little Rosen around Elijah's 1st birthday.  I think finances are our biggest hurdle to overcome.  We could make it work, but we may not be able to meet our other financial goals (like moving into a nicer house by the time Elijah starts Kindergarten).  The biggest reason I want another child is because I just loved that newborn stage so much.  I want to experience that again.  I'm sure it will be completely different the second time, but I'm excited to see what that will be like.  And I really want to give breastfeeding another shot.  I think that the second time around I can really do it.  Not exclusively pumping, but actually nursing.  I think it will be so much easier than what I'm doing now.

Spring and Summer have been a long time coming, but I think this weekend is it!  We had a big snow this week, but it's supposed to be in the 70s Saturday, so I'm hoping that we are done with snow until the fall.  I am so exited to do a bunch of fun summer things with Elijah.  Go to the farmer's market, let him crawl around in the grass, go to a baseball game, and go up to Estes Park!  It's going to be a great summer!

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Day in the Life at 7 months

I know there will be a time in the future that I will look back and wonder how my life was different at this stage- one baby, working full-time.  So I thought I would write down a typical day.

6:00am- alarm goes off, I drag myself out of bed and begin pumping.  Hopefully baby is still asleep.
6:15am- Daniel gets up and gets in the shower.  I'm still pumping.
6:30am- I finish pumping and take my milk up to the kitchen.  By this time Elijah is usually up.  Sometimes I'll go get him and bring him downstairs, sometimes Daniel goes to get him when he's done getting ready.
6:30-7am- I shower, get dressed, etc.  During this time Daniel is upstairs packing my pump bag, lunch, and Elijah's bottles for school while he eats his morning bottle in the high chair.
7am- I take over the Elijah care while Daniel gathers up his things and leaves for work.  I put lotion and clothes on Elijah if Daniel hasn't already, and hopefully he will play happily in the living room while I scarf down some breakfast, grab my things, and we're out the door by 7:20 or 7:30
7:45am- arrive at Elijah's school.  Put him down on the play rug and put his bottles in the fridge, fill out his information sheet with the times he woke up, was diapered, and fed.  Discuss any ongoing issues with his teachers (sleep concerns, spitting up, any illness, new milestones, etc.)  I sit down on the floor with Elijah and play with him and the other babies while talking to his teachers
8:15am- arrive at my desk at work.  Pump at 9am, 12 or 12:30pm, and 3 or 3:30pm
4pm- leave work, drive to Elijah's school, and play with him for a few minutes while getting a quick summary of his day- how did he eat (well!), did he nap well (mixed), was he generally happy or fussy (usually happy), any new milestones to report (lately, lots of drool and less spitting up- yay!)
4:15 or 4:30 until 5ish- drive home
5:00- arrive home, if Elijah fell asleep in the car (almost every day, depending on how well he napped) I try to get him inside without waking him.  This is successful about 10% of the time.  If he wakes up, I take him out and put him on the floor to play.  Then I fill up the sink with hot soapy water, disassemble all his dirty bottles and put them in the sink, dump my 2 sets of pump parts in the sink, pour the milk I've pumped for the day into empty clean bottles and reassemble those, put the bottles I pumped into in the sink, and put any dirty clothes in the laundry.  Oh and put the ice pack in my pump bag and the ice pack in Eljiah's bottle bag back in the freezer for tomorrow.  Then I wash ALL of those dishes.  I hate this part.
5:15ish- Daniel arrives home and rescues me.  Either he picks up a fussy (overtired) Elijah, or he takes over the dishes so I can play with Elijah.  We talk about our day, open the mail, tidy up the kitchen.  I also try to pick out Elijah's clothes for the next day somewhere in here.
6:00- start bedtime routine.  I give Elijah a bath while Daniel warms up his last bottle, picks up his toys, closes the shades in his room, fills his humidifier, etc.  When I finish the bath, Daniel cleans that up as well.  We let Elijah play in the bath as long as he is happy (usually about 10 minutes).  Take him out, lotion, fresh diaper and jammies, and then we sit in the rocking chair and read a few books while he eats his last bottle of the day.  When he finishes eating, I zip him into his blanket, turn all the lights off, turn the white noise on, and rock him for a few minutes until he settles down.  Then I give him a kiss, tell him goodnight, and put him in the crib.  Then I walk out and say a silent prayer that he doesn't cry.  For the past week or so, he hasn't.  Yay!
6:30- I pump while Daniel finishes dinner.  By the time I'm done, dinner is ready and Eljiah is asleep.
7:00- eat dinner, clean up
7:30-9- talk on the phone with family, take care of any chores, laundry, or work we need to get done; sometimes we watch TV or play on the computer
9 or 9:30pm- last pump of the day, put the milk away, wash the last few dishes, prepare as much as I can for tomorrow
By 10pm at the latest- go to sleep!
3 or 4am- sometimes Elijah wakes up to eat once.  Daniel uses the milk that I pumped at the end of the day to feed him (usually 3 oz), and then it's right back to bed

I remember thinking when he was 3 or 4 months old that there's no way I could write out a typical day, because there was no such thing!  I'm just now realizing that this is pretty consistent now.  Which I love because I love predictability :-)  But in another month I'm sure this will have evolved into something new.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

My Little Monkey



Elijah's motor development is on overdrive!  Last weekend he gained a lot of confidence in his crawling.  He still isn't really exploring or getting into trouble too much.  He mostly stays in the area that we put him in.  Most of the time, the living room or his bedroom.  He will crawl to get to a toy across the room that he really wants, but otherwise he is content to sit and play with whatever toy is in front of him.  He goes back and forth between crawling on his knees and crawling on his toes.  But more and more he favors his toes.  I think he can get more traction on the slick wood floor that way.  It's pretty adorable.


By the end of the weekend he was becoming more adventurous.  Daniel told me that while I was napping downstairs, Elijah crawled from the living room over into the kitchen area to be closer to him while he was working just outside the back door.  I'm still looking forward to the day that Elijah crawls to me when he sees me or when I call his name.  He also began climbing and pulling up on everything!  Our dining room chairs, the couch, the wall, his toys, and even us!

Anything he can use to get himself closer to standing is fair game.  Unfortunately, it's not always safe.  He fell on his head quite a few times this weekend.  I know it's all part of normal development, but that doesn't make it any easier.  I try to brush it off (at least outwardly) when he does fall, because I've noticed that he looks to me for a reaction before he reacts.  About half the time he doesn't even react, he just gets back up and keeps on climbing.  The other half he does the big gasp of air, long pause, and then WAIL.  On Sunday after church we went to Chipotle for lunch and he sat in a high chair for the first time.  His head was right at the level of the edge of the table, and he smacked his head right on the sharp edge.  It's just the beginning.  I'm bracing myself.


Elijah's sleep habits continue to be better than ever.  He is sleeping a solid 12 hours, from 6:30pm-6:30am.  He wakes up once to eat, usually around 4 or 5am.  Lately we've had a lot of fun singing together.  I showed Elijah a clip of Elmo on Sesame Street on Sunday morning and we've been singing "Elijah's Song" to the tune of "Elmo's Song" ever since.  Daniel thinks it's hilarious that I still can't seem to get it right, even though it's written for preschoolers.  I'll get it eventually......

Every single day I am thankful for my sweet baby boy.  I've been doing his bedtime routine more now that he just goes to sleep on his own without 30 minutes of patting, shushing, and rocking.  I absolutely love it.  I have never felt so much love in my life than I do while I'm in that rocking chair, reading to Elijah while he has his last bottle of the day.  I love to feel his silky hair under my chin, and smell his little baby smell, and feel his pudgy soft fingers wrapped around mine.  It is in those moments that I feel like I am living my dream.  Nothing else in the world matters as long as I am holding my baby boy.




Monday, April 1, 2013

Easter Weekend

We had the busiest weekend we've had in a long time, and I think we're all feeling it this Monday.  It started on Saturday with our Seder dinner.  We had one last year and it was such a success, Daniel wanted to do it again this year.  He continued his tradition of inviting non-Jewish friends.  This year one of Daniel's co-workers came with his wife (who coincidentally is about as pregnant as I was last year!).  It wasn't nearly as well thought out this year as it was last year.  You can blame the 6 month old boy for that.  But it was still beautiful and memorable.  Daniel cooked a delicious roast that we had in addition to the bitter herb dipped in salt water, sweet charoset and matzah, and other traditional seder foods.

It was quite a challenge getting dinner together because we still had all our normal Satudray chores to do (grocery shopping, laundry, house cleaning).  And for some reason we thought it would be a good idea to go to Ikea too.  We've been talking about getting new bookshelves for our living room for a long time.  The old bookshelves were very difficult to childproof.  The ones we had our eyes on at Ikea were naturally childproof with no additional hardware, would gives us much more storage in the living room, and look much nicer as well.  We also needed some blackout shades for Elijah's room now that it is still light outside well past his bedtime.  We put Elijah in the baby bjorn and spent almost 3 hours browsing the store.  We ended up buying the bookshelves, black-out shades, and a large umbrella for the backyard.  It was definitely a success!  When we got home we decided to go ahead and put the bookshelves together ("it'll only take a few minutes, right?")  We put one together and then discovered that a vital piece was broken in the second.  So back to Ikea we drove, to exchange the broken piece and also to exchange the window shades (that we bought in the wrong size even after I told Daniel to measure the windows to make sure we bought the right size- can you tell I'm annoyed?).  That ate up a good chunk of our day.  We found ourselves about 3 hours away from people arriving at our house for dinner with one complete bookshelf, one half completed bookshelf, dinner half cooked, and a very tired and cranky baby.  We had the bright idea to hang the blackout shades before Elijah goes to bed (because "it'll only take a few minutes, right?").  We were wrong again.  We had to cut them down which involved measuring with a tape measure, marking the right size, cutting the fabric, and then using a hack saw to cut the rod at the top.  Then realizing it's still too big and repeating the entire procedure to make it smaller. Meanwhile, Elijah had fallen asleep.  I had to wake him up so as to not interfere with his bedtime, but then he was cranky and tired so I had to try to keep him happy while Daniel finished hanging the blackout shade.  Sigh.  So I was on bedtime duty while Daniel finished the bookshelf and cleaned up all the tools and cardboard boxes and baby toys strewn around the house.  Oh, and finished cooking dinner.  I put Elijah to bed and he cried.  A lot.  I finished cleaning the kitchen/living room so that it was presentable for company just as Daniel hopped into the shower.  I had to pump before people came so I went downstairs, and then just as Daniel got out of the shower, his co-worker arrived with his wife.  Twenty minutes early.  With the baby shrieking in his crib.  And me pumping downstairs.  People.  If your hosts have a 6 month old baby, DO NOT under any circumstances arrive TWENTY MINUTES EARLY to dinner.  It was insane.  I went upstairs and tried to soothe Elijah, but he didn't seem tired.  Apparently I didn't wake him up early enough from his late nap.  So I brought him out to the living room and he was adorable and charming.  Our other friends arrived (Erik and Libby, also came to our Seder last year) and Libby scooped up Elijah and he gave her a big smile.  Erik reached for him, picked him up, and Elijah proceeded to cry very loudly.  I have never seen him do that.  It was actually pretty funny.  So then dinner was ready and I put Elijah in his crib and he fell asleep very quickly with hardly a whine.  Thank you, Jesus.

We had a lovely dinner and way too much wine and collapsed into bed at the very unreasonable hour of 11 o'clock.  Whew.

Sunday morning Daniel delightfully got up with Elijah at 6:30am and I got to sleep in until about 7:15am.  When I did get  up I discovered Daniel, Elijah, and the stroller were all gone.  When they got home, Daniel informed me that the Easter Bunny had come.  I went upstairs and Eljiah was on the floor in the living room gleefully playing with his Easter basket.  Which was wrapped in clear cellophane that made a delicious crinkle sound when Elijah grabbed it.


That kept him entertained for quite some time.  We put him down for his morning nap and used that opportunity to shower and get ready for church.  I wasn't extremely excited about going to church because the day before had been so hectic and Elijah's napping was all off.  I thought we should focus on making sure Elijah got enough sleep in his crib.  But I kept my mind open, and as it turned out, Elijah woke up from his morning nap a mere 25 minutes later.  Not enough sleep at all.  But we embraced it and got him all dressed up in his adorable outfit.  We snapped a few pictures, and off to church we went.
Rosen Family- Easter 2013

We had to get there about 30 minutes early to get decent seats (we learned this from last Christmas when we ended up way in the back).  Elijah played happily on the floor and practiced his backwards crawling.  We let our attention lapse a bit too long because the people behind us kindly tapped on Daniel's shoulder to let him know that our baby was now under their seat instead of ours.  It was a little stressful keeping Elijah quiet and occupied, but totally worth it to spend that time together as a family.  I have spent years dreaming about sitting in church with my husband on my arm and my baby on my lap.  And it was every bit as blissful as I imagined.  Daniel did a great job entertaining him for the first 45 minutes or so (including a 20 minute instrumental prelude before the service started).  It was Elijah's first time seeing a live orchestra so that kept his attention for an unprecedented 10 or 15 minutes.  He also enjoyed chewing on elmo (one of the only quiet toys we have- I didn't realize that almost all baby toys make noise!) and reaching for the back of the pew in front of him.  Finally I took Elijah onto my lap and he played with my pearl necklace- while it was still on me- for a long time.  He started to fuss, so I popped in the pacifier, held him close and rocked gently.  He was asleep in minutes.  I was in heaven.  It's pretty rare that I get to hold Elijah while he's sleeping.  I cherish those moments because I know they won't last long.


Ten minutes later was the Hallelujah Chorus and just like that we survived our first Easter church service with a baby (almost certainly not our last).  We managed to get Elijah in the car seat without waking him up and he slept for another 90 minutes in his bedroom, still strapped into the car seat.  Not ideal, but I was so glad that he got a decent nap.  We were able to have a leisurely lunch and finish the bookcase.  When he woke up, we finished his other blackout shade, and with him playing and trying to crawl in the living room, we put together the glass doors to the bookcases.  It was quite the productive day!  And we realized that we officially have a mobile baby when we turned around and discovered that Elijah had found his way to our pile of screws and had them in his mouth!  Yikes!  He still isn't extremely efficient, but he does find a way to move around.  And if he wants something bad enough, he will find his way there to get it.


Eiljah helping Daddy install the doors on the bookcase

During bath time Elijah sustained his first major injury on my watch.  He has a habit of leaning forward and standing up in the tub.  As he did this, I used the opportunity to soap up his bottom and legs.  I didn't realize that he was chewing on the sink faucet handle.  He leaned a little too far and his weight shifted forward.  So he basically fell onto the sink handle with his mouth on it.  Ouch.  He started screaming and all I could do was say "Oh no!  Oh no!  I'm so sorry!"  over and over.  Daniel asked me what happened, but I couldn't stop saying Oh No long enough to tell him.  Fortunately Elijah calmed down in a few minutes and I could see that there was no visible injury there.  It was scary and very sad.  We were both happy when he was finally in his crib.  He wailed loudly for 10 minutes before he was out for the night.  We collapsed onto the couch and ordered food for delivery.  Neither one of us had the energy to cook dinner after such a weekend.  And now, after typing this diatribe, I am exhausted again.  It was a great weekend even with the exhaustion.  I just love any time I am with my little family.  And I love that little boy like my life depends on it.  Or like his life depends on it, I guess.