Boyd - 6 months

Our baby is 6 months old (as of August 14)! I know D and I aren't perfect parents and we make our share of mistakes, but Boyd seems pretty healthy and quite happy, so we must be doing something right!

Recent milestones:

• Fine motor control - lately he has been digging his thumb into anything he can - mostly my skin! Continuing the hand waving, and putting his thumb and middle together while moving his hands around.
• Grabbing & showing preference for toys.Actually, he is swiping anything within reach - our clothes, my hair, fingers, our food and drinks - you get the picture. He's SO fast and strong too - one moment of inattention and he has grabbed something
• Sitting up longer and sometimes is able to push himself up from a propped position.
• He loves the sound of his own voice and is getting LOUDER. Quite the chatterbox.

I realize that I'm behind on blogging some past out-of-town trips that we've taken...will try to post those soon!

Friday update

I am so happy to report that Boyd has had a couple of really great nights! After going to sleep around 9 p.m., he was able to self-soothe all night until at least 5-6 a.m. Yahoo! He went without a nursing session during the night too (aka night weaning). Going to bed is still a major challenge. Sometime soon we will have to do some major sleep training, which means lots of crying. :-(

Milestones: 

• Reaching out
• Sitting independently
• Possibly starting the teething process again - upper front

My birthday weekend in Homer was a blast and it was so great to spend lots of time with family. Unfortunately D had to work on Saturday so he wasn't able to make the 4-hour drive down. I'll post photos and have a recap shortly.

Privacy

Hi readers -

I'm thinking about making my blog private because of little baby Boyd. It sort of makes me nervous to have so many photos of him in such a public venue.

If you visit my site and want to continue doing so, would you please shoot me a note at my blog email (audryalaska @ gmail.com) to have me put you on the list? Or you can leave your email in the comments section of this posting.

I'm more than happy to share our adventures and accompanying photos, but with people that I actually know and care about.

Thanks!

Boyd - 5 1/2 months

Boyd is 5 1/2 months and I just scheduled his 6-month check-up for August 24th which is 10 days past his 6-month birthday but who's counting. I'm hoping he is able to sit up unassisted and can roll over from front to back by that time. Come on baby!

This morning I noticed he transferred the Sophie teether toy from one hand to the other - a big milestone! He's been showing a raking grasp lately and banging/shaking his toys. More babbling - we have interesting conversations sometimes. :-) He also just started tilting his head to one side and leaning over slightly, like he's looking at something around the corner. It's the funniest thing.

We need to get him additional learning aids. Everything is either a stuffed animal or teething toy. He's learning cause & effect now, i.e. bang on the toy piano, noise comes out!

Boyd news update

Summer always zooms by, but it seems like this one has gone faster than normal. Too much work and not enough play, I guess. Now for your regularly scheduled Boyd update:

• The teething process is continuing. Boyd started sprouting the second bottom tooth shortly after the first one came through - within a week, I think?. We gave him some Children's Tylenol (after I called the 24-hour Nurse Line to double-check the dosage) for a couple nights but it really didn't seem to do much the second night. Lots of drooling, gnawing on everything and general fussiness. Sleep went downhill for 3-4 nights - he wouldn't go down until 10:30 or 11 p.m. Ugh, but it was better Sunday night. He seemed to be in a pretty good yesterday evening (Monday).
• He has begun to make a "bbbbb" sound, which is new, and I think it's because of his new teeth!
• Still fascinated by his hands - has been holding them up and twisting them back and forth.
• His legs are super strong! Stands upright with some assistance. Sits upright but not quite by himself yet. We need to practice that more. This morning as I got ready for work and my mom played with him, he propped himself on his forearms rolled onto his back. I think he was as surprised as we were!
• Although we lay him down to sleep on his back, he invariably finds his way to his tummy sometime in the night and for naps. Although, if he's sleeping somewhere unusual (like on a bed at someone's house) he stays on his back or side. 

Playing around with Grandma Ann and his piano - and his feet!

 

What a goof!

I haven't left town since last fall so it was AWESOME to head out to the Kenai River and meet up with D's parents at Centennial Campground in Soldotna. It was a quick trip - just Saturday night. We left Anchorage at 5 p.m. and Boyd slept for a little over an hour. He was a little fussy after waking but did pretty well during the trip. Putting him down for the night was another story though! Finally slept at 11 p.m., ate at 3 a.m. and up for the day at 7 a.m.

We all had a great time just hanging out and eating lots of good food! Grandma Mim watched Boyd while the rest of us went fishing. D caught 2 and I brought in one red (sockeye salmon) during the space of an hour. We both hooked and lost a couple but that's the fun of fishing. My waders sprung another leak so a new pair may be on the horizon if D isn't able to fix them.

We all overnighted in my in-law's camper, and baby Boyd slept on one of the pull-out beds with me. We barely ever co-sleep so it was a nice change for me. Much easier to nurse like that in the middle of the night!

 

Happy to just hang out with Dad...

 

My birthday is Sunday so EVERYONE (D's parents, mom, Risha, Gabe, me, Boyd & D) are heading to Homer for a long weekend. Wish us luck!

Afternoon in the sun

Last week we saw some beautiful, sunny weather with temperatures in the low 70's, which is HOT for Anchorage. On Friday, D and I sat on the deck before dinner with the munchkin, who was sporting a neat hat that my friend Susie bought for him. I love it because it covers Boyd's sensitive little baby neck and has a wide brim to shield his eyes.

He loves playing around with Daddy! 

Boyd photos

...

First tooth!

Mr. Giggles here has sprouted his first tooth! It's his bottom right and I felt it a couple days ago when he grabbed my finger and shoved it in his mouth. Our boy is hitting all of these milestones and it makes me realize that he won't be a baby forever. Sometimes I get so caught up in the difficulties of day-to-day parenting, and I have to remind myself to slow down to enjoy this adorable little guy.

Other Boyd news:

• He has found his feet and is especially entranced by the left one. Grabs it every chance he gets. Also likes to grab his -ahem- boy parts when the diaper is off.  
• Just discovered he is ticklish under his arms - so funny! He giggles and giggles when we tickle him there. 
• D has been making sure Boyd and Drift spend more time together. Last night I held Boyd next to Drift - he was petting the dog's fur and face, and laughing. Really adorable. Drift seems to like Boyd a little more which is great. 

Don't know if I mentioned this but Drift seemed sick while I was pregnant and then the day Boyd was born the dog took a turn for the worse. Turns out he had prostate problems and then was diagnosed as diabetic! He has since lost his eyesight and is pretty much blind. He has no energy and sleeps all of the time. Poor puppy. So now we give him insulin 2x per day. He has started to gain a little weight back but it's really heartbreaking to see Drift as a shell of what he used to be.

Baby lifejacket

This is mostly just a reminder for myself to purchase a baby/toddler life jacket for Boyd next year before boating season. Just talked with a friend who says an Alaska outdoor expert recommended the Salus brand of PFD's for kids. They're very highly rated and will last more than just one season.

Found one here that should fit Boyd next summer: Salus Marine Wear Nimbus Child Life Flotation Vest (30-60 LB)

Boyd - 5 months

We fall more and more in love with this little goof everyday! By now he is beginning to sit up by himself for very short periods, reaching towards our faces, trying to eat my hair (!) and passing stinky gas like a 50-year old man. Twice now we've fed him rice cereal in a bottle of breastmilk at night to improve night sleeping. We didn't do it last night and he slept just as well (waking at midnight for a feeding, then up at 4 - no feeding - and up for good at 7 am. Definitely an improvement!

5-month photos:

Had a nice weekend with my in-laws. They took a break from their busy fishing schedule to visit with us and Boyd. AND they babysat while D and I had our first away-from-baby date since before Boyd was born! We went to the movies and perused our favorite book store, TitleWave. Pretty exciting stuff for us. :-)

New camo outfit from Uncle Doug!

Never too early to appreciate a cocktail as big as your head.

 

 

Ski update in July

Daddy has been back home for more than a week now and is a HUGE help. I'm getting a little more sleep now so I'm not so brain dead and frustrated. I figure I've been getting an average of 6 hours a night, in two 3-hour chunks - which is an improvement over one hour stretches!

Lets see, not too much to report - I bought a used Chariot Cougar from Craigslist. It was a screaming deal for the carrier and two attachments (bike & cross-country ski). These are so popular in Alaska because of the versatile nature of the carrier - you can also purchase stroller wheels, a jogging attachment and a hiking harness in addition to the ones we got. They're just ridiculously expensive - just the 2012 base model with no attachments is $550 - crazy! I got a really good deal on ours - it's from 2007 but in pristine shape and the 2 attachments. I did have to drive out to Eagle River way up in the mountains for it, but the trek was worth it. I may look at getting the jogging wheel but for now our BOB stroller is perfect for outside walks.

We won't be able to use the Chariot as a bike trailer until next summer probably - kids really get knocked around inside those things so it's best to wait until they're at least 1 year old. BUT, we can use the x-c skiing attachment this winter! I'm super excited about it.

Stole this photo from the internets - gives you the general idea of how it works on the trails. Kiddo gets harnessed in and sits cozy warm in the pod. My boss had one and would bundle her daughter up inside with a warm Nalgene bottle at her feet while skiing.

I'm sort of back on my diet, just not as restrictive. It seems like Boyd still has a mild reaction (fussiness, gas) to some of the foods I eat, so I'm limiting certain foods again. Dairy, raw veggies and fruit, spicy stuff, etc. It's tough, especially since I thought we were in the clear! But if it's better for Boyd, I'll suck it up and deal.

He has started to bear weight on his feet - and likes to stand up! Really gets fussy when laying down like a baby.

Helping mama vacuum. I either stick him in the swing or wear him on my front in a Baby Bjorn.

So happy! He smiles all of the time.

Wanted to get one last photo in this hat - his noggin is getting too big!

Baby loves bath time (if he's not too tired). Otherwise it's a bad scene.

GO TO SLEEP ALREADY!

To say the very least I'm frustrated to have a baby that doesn't sleep for consistent stretches of time. With that in mind, I decided to sacrifice my own sleep to try some basic sleep training (without the full-on, all night cry-it-out portion because I think he's still too young for that). My goal is for him to get at least a 4 hour period of straight sleep every night, and nurse once (preferably between midnight-2 a.m.).

Thursday night was tough - Boyd kept waking after 1-hour stretches. But Friday night was awesome! I got a 6 hour period out of him and then a 2 hour nap on Saturday morning to boot. We've been getting up at 6 a.m., which is excruciating for me after limited sleep at night. He slept a little worse on Saturday night - 2.5 hour stretches, but then a 2 hour nap on Sunday morning. Sunday night (last night) was seriously awful. He got up 7 times between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. And back to a 40 minute morning nap.

A big part of the problem is him wanting to practice rolling over from back to front CONSTANTLY. He wants to sleep on his side and then roll forward. And then he proceeds to get super mad about being on his belly. I don't mind if he sleeps on his stomach, but he usually just screams at night until I flip him over and then screams some more. I'm having my mom do lots of tummy time during the day so hopefully he'll just fuss and cry himself into rolling over the other way too. I lay in bed listening to him cry for at least 5-10 minutes before getting up at night, but most times he gets so worked up I'm afraid he's going to choke.

Everyone tells me that it's just a phase and will be over soon, but I've been hearing that for 4.5 months now! First colic and now this. It's pretty demoralizing. And I'm exhausted at work everyday. I know, lots of complaints in this post but I feel like I need to vent or else it'll just eat me up inside! I visit this site a lot: ASK MOXIE. It helps keep me sane. Good to know other moms are going through exactly the same thing as me.

I hope everyone enjoys Boyd because he is quite possibly the last baby I'll be having. 

Friday update

D and I have been married for 2 years as of June 26, 2012. We celebrated separately since he is spending time with his visiting family, and I am currently working and tethered to a squirmy little baby. So he fished on our anniversary and I went to dinner with Boyd, my mom, Risha and Gabe. We went to Little Italy - yum!

Tiny little baby feet.

Boyd has learned to roll over from back to front (but not the other way just yet) so on the few occasions the he is not screaming on his belly, I find him like this...

My friend Susie bought this pair of baby sunglasses for us and I've started to use them more often now that it's sunny outside. I want to get him used to them early and not rip them off! They are slightly too big (attached with a strap & velcro at back) but will be perfect when he's a little bigger. 

Enjoying our stroller walk to Grandma Ann's house!

Boyd - 4 1/2 months

Little Man had his 4 month checkup on Monday, although he is closer to 4 1/2 months now. He weighs 17 pounds 10 ounces (we could have sworn it was way more than that!), is 25 and 3/4 inches long, and I think his head circumference was somewhere around 43 or 44 cm. I'll have to double-check that one. Everything is good and he's still around the 85th percentile for growth. Boyd is a big, healthy baby!

Everyone's sleep is pretty awful around here. I'm single parenting again and nighttime always stresses me out when it's just me and and the munchkin. Had to call my mom to come over yesterday morning at 6 am so I could get at least an hour of sleep before work - Boyd had been waking up almost every hour for the whole night.

 I believe that day sleep begets night sleep, so my mom is really trying to make sure he takes longer naps during the day while I'm at work. I want to limit his 4th nap, which occurs anywhere from 4-7 pm, and start sleep training him to go down for the night between 8 and 9 pm. It's so hard! He just is a bad sleeper and has regressed from going to bed drowsy but awake, to needing to be rocked to bed. Darn sleep regression. I like our pediatrician but he wasn't too helpful with Boyd's sleep issues, so I spend a lot of time reading books and scouring the internet for advice.