Oli at 6 months

Oli is just over 6m now.  At 6m he was 20lbs and switched into a huge carseat which I was just told can be turned to face forward now.  I don't really like the new carseat because the clasp is difficult but it's nice not being tempted to carry the darn thing everywhere.  Yes, when Oli is taken out of it he awakens, but he's at the point now where he'd wake up anyway as soon as he got outside because oo new place, oo new stuff to see, etc.

Baby Class

He's been taking a starland baby class with Lisa Zarov for a couple of months now and we've loved it.  Phil even came one day.  Today he was old enough to start a Chicago Park District class across the street too.  We went for his first day and I was not impressed.  The room was small, smelly, claustraphobic, and we only got 5 songs the whole time cuz it was mostly play time and Oli was very over-stimulated.

Oliver at 6 Months

6 Month Checkup

Oliver had a great checkup with Dr. Hercylek.  She is so good with him!  She was happy with him-- he smiled at her, he was cute and sat up like a big boy all by himself for most of the visit.  But I guess the skin on his penis wasn't pulled far enough back so she lifted it back and removed some white crud that was under it.  The white stuff didn't LOOK bad but I guess it was.  Anyway his penis got a little bloody looking and purple-red-ish.  Poor little guy has been crying every time I've changed him since!  Of course Phil was bouncing about all last night pleased as could be with the new penis look.  "Your penis, " he said in his The Ladies' Man voice, "It will please many women!"  I hope only one woman if he doesn't become a priest or something.

Oli's Looks

Oli's hair is finally coming back in after having sort of thinned over the last few months.  Now it's more like hair-hair.  Oli's teeth still look like they're about to come in, but he still doesn't have any.

updates on month #4

PHIL'S MOM

Phil's mom has become totally transformed from having this baby around.  She lights up now, has so much more energy, moves, tries different things to keep him happy.  He's keepin' her on her toes alright, as he does with all of us.  But with her it's so noticeable because at the beginning she'd just sit there while he cried and ask him why he was crying!  Now she tries everything, moves around, dances, sings, talks, plays with him, and often her instincts are right about when he's hungry or needs a change.  It's wonderful to see her like this.  She's so much more of a pleasure to talk to.  I don't remember ever seeing her this way before, but she must've been like this at the beginning when I first met phil; it's just that so many sad things have happened since then she's become sluggish so this new revitalizing of her is just amazing!  She's so beautiful and happy now and fun to talk to and is so good with Oliver...  it's great!  We had been worried about her drinking and smoking and staying in and napping or watching tv all day.  We didn't know what method of intervention to use to get her back to the happy person we wanted her to be...  well Oliver was a perfect method of intervention!  All's well now!

TRANSFERRING FROM CARSEAT SLEEPING TO BACK SLEEPING

Oli's been sleeping in his carseat in his crib for a month or so now.  He has slept in his carseat for almost as long as I can remember (or on me)-- he never liked being on his back and side wasn't a heck of a lot better.  Even when we elevated the bassinet it didn't seem to help.

Well the other night Oli slept in his carseat from midnight till 5:30a.m. without waking even to nurse.  That's almost 6 hours.  And when he did wake he was just nursing and getting changed and that's it.  Weeeell on his back or side he is up like every other hour and it's killer!  During the day he naps 1/3 as long too.  Sucks.

Today I put a huge pillow under his crib mattress and swaddled him tightly though so hopefully that'll help.  He went down tonight at 10:30, woke at 11:15 to be changed, and it's now 12:42 and he's still asleep on his back and that's already better than yesterday.  I'm praying he'll sleep!

BEDTIME PRAYERS WITH OLIVER

Actually speaking of praying, we pray every night.  But I'm rather ashamed to say that my prayers are usually "Please God help Oliver to sleep" or "Please B.V.M. you know how hard it is to have a baby cry please please ask God to just let him sleep!" or when I think that God and Mary are sick of me, I'll go to his guardian angel and beg the angel to keep him secure and happy in there.  I know there are so many more important things to be praying for, but I can't help it!

Ok now I realllly have to go to sleep.

4 Months!!!

HAPPY 4 MONTH BIRTHDAY OLIVER!!!

I can't believe that it's been 4 months already.  Man what a long 4 months.  It seems like ages ago he was new and screamin all the time and quiet even when screaming.  Now he's got a scream on him that you can hear downstairs!

4 MONTH VACCINATIONS

Today he got his shots, the 2nd round of what he already had last time.  He was so miserable after the last shots I was dreading this like the plague.  But nurse Kelly on the block had said that now that his body is older and a little more used to the shots since eh's already had them once, maybe he'd handle them better this time.  And he did.  I also am a little more wise and experienced of a mom too, and I know now that when he has shots we have to treat him like he's sick and keep everything really low-key, don't invite guests over, darken the rooms, lots of tylenol, and lots of sleep.  At 2 months maybe part of the problem was that he was over-tired and over-stimulated, ya know?

DOCTOR

We booked it a month in advance to get Dr. Hyrcelak but she wasn't the one who showed up.   It was a doctor we've never had before who's really young and as Kelly said when I described her, she was a total "book doctor."  She denied that Oli was teething without even looking at him because "babies don't teethe till 6m", she didn't take much time with him at all to see if he was tracking or sitting or standing or anything...  Anyway I was so mad when we left!  Oh well.

MILESTONES

Well Oli's a good boy.  Just like he's supposed to, he's grabbing and holding onto things, swatting at his mobiles, tryin to hold his bottle and turn pages in his books, pushin buttons on his toys, and giggling and all.  He is also trying to sit up and is gettin closer to being able to crawl; he gets that he has to use his knees now and he's holdin up his chest, so he'll get there in good time.  He flips from his side to his tummy and from his side to his back, and from his back to his tummy.  but I've never seen him flip from his tummy to his back.  And flipping in general seems to require energy and effort Oli prefers not to exert anyway.

WORK

I'm going back to work these days.  I've been working for 2 weeks now, and I leave at around 3pm and get home at around 8:15p.m., so I'm gone 5-6ish hours.  I couldn't have done it before now, and I couldn't do it more than I'm doing it, but this is just the right amount at just the right time.  It sure doesn't make much money, but since we don't have to pay a babysitter cuz Grandma Carol's watchin him, we do come out on top financially at least.  And I enjoy the job and the people so I feel like we're coming out on top anyway even though it pays so little and the commute kinda sucks.  I do love starland.  At times it drives me nuts but really on the whole it's a great place.

MOVING?

We want to move into a bigger place and I wanna leave Chicago.  Actually i wanna leave illinois cuz of the weather and man it's just a boring landscape here-- but for now this will do.  It IS nice having in-laws downstairs so I can leave Oliver with them when needed.  Phil's mom has sooo turned around since he's been born!  It's a remarkable transformation.  I mean she used to be so...  glum.  She'd just sit there like a slug and hold him and say "why are you crying?" when he cried.  It drove me nuts.  Now she walks him, reads to him, plays with him, and yesterday I can't believe it-- she actually did the Oliver airplane!  She got down on her back and put Oli on her knees and did an airplane with him.  It was amazing.  Phil's dad always encourages us to send Oli down to be with her and now that she's better at making him happy, I am happier (and more likely) to do it.  And now I like my free time to do other things...  usually relating to Oliver anyway haha scrapbooking, making youtube videos, cleaning the apt of all of his clothes that he's so rapidly outgrown...  He's over 18lbs now!!!

SLEEP TRAINING THE BOY!

Now that I think about it, Oli's gone through a whole slew of different sleep routines; we have really tried everything.  At first, I wouldn't have dreampt of him sleeping in our bed-- he was so tiny!  He refused to sleep on his back and when he was able it was always a horrible restless sleep ending in choking, gagging, and then crying, on his spit-up.  So he slept in his glider, then after the one month checkup when the pediatrician suggested it, he started sleeping in his carseat in the cosleeper.  Eventually, he started sleeping after nursing in the side-lying position, sleeping in bed with Phil and me.  I discovered that at...  oh he must've been maybe...  14 lbs?-- there was no way I could roll over on him, besides his head was on my arm, right by my face.  I couldn't like...  forget about him, and rolling on him would be as silly as the prospect of rolling over a bowling ball.  How?  It's huge!  So we had a family bed for a while.

I loved the family bed, and so did Oliver, and Phil seemed to really like it too!  I am pleased that my husband likes when our son sleeps with us, and that Phil's not possesive of me or his bed or anything, and likes the little guy being a part of every aspect of our life including sleep.  Sleeping with Oliver was sooo sweet.  But there are 2 problems with having a family bed:

1. I found that if I slept with Oli at night he also wanted me to sleep with him in the daytime.  For a baby who naps every 2hrs, that made it impossible for me to get anything done.  I couldn't go anywhere, I'd start to cook or clean and I just couldn't because when Oli was up he needed entertainment, nursing, or changing, and when he was asleep, he wanted to be in my arms on the bed.  Welll that makes me a very useless housewife and wife in general.
2. The final straw was when I got sick.  With a family bed, the baby doesn't learn to sleep on his own-- he has to sleep with you, and he doesn't understand if you go away one night that you're sick.  He'll just scream and cry because you're completely screwing up his routine.  Not fair to the baby, and it's not gonna make you feel any better either since you're already sick and now you're sick with a screaming baby?  

Well Oliver, it seams, is afraid of the sound of nose-blowing, sneezing, and coughing.  He was 3m and 2 weeks old when I decided, screw it, I don't mind giving up my daytime and nights to sleep with my baby.  I don't mind getting nothing done during the day if it makes oliver happy for me to devote every waking AND sleeping minute to him.  BUT there is just no point if I'm gonna get sick and need to leave the bed and screw him up anyway.  he's eventually gonna have to learn to fall asleep on his own.  I called Amy Simon and she said she trained her kids at 2 or 3 months (Oli wasn't ready at 2 I'm sure) and she had a much easier time training them than her friends had with their kids who waited till 6 months.  I'd rather oli cry now for 2 weeks, say, than later cry for 4 weeks.  4's worse than 2 no matter when it happens.  

That did it.  Between the me-getting-sick-and-screwing-up-oli's-sleep-anyway thing and the "it'll be worse later if you wait" thing, I decided to start the training NOW.  Apparently I did it right because according to Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Baby, 3m is when they start "getting" the bedtime routine.  It's when they start noticing it and understanding it.  

I began my routine this week.  It took 40 mins the first and 2nd day.  Today I think I only spent a half hour maybe.  Our routine is this:

1. Read books, as many as he'll tolerate--  2-3 usually.
2. Dance holding him, to soft music, one or 2 songs (cut not entire songs)
3. Pray the rosary.  The first night I said a whole rosary-- 3 decades holding him, 2 with him in the carseat.  Last night I only said 2 decades holding him, and the rest in the carseat.  Tonight I made one decade holding him and a couple more in the carseat.

The first night, Oli cried for 45 mins.  He'd catnap on and off, but basically cry.  Then he'd wake up like every 3 hrs after that...  but he'd go back down into his carseat without argument which surprised/relieved me.  

The 2nd night (last night) Oli cried for only 20 mins (THANK GOD) and he slept an hour later in his first increment, and 3 hrs later in his 2nd, and then chilled with me in our bed until like 11:30 so I could rest! (I'd had insomnia)

Tonight I put him down when he was tired at 11 and he cried for seriously less than 5 mins!  Oh Halelluia praise to Jesus!  I don't know how long he'll sleep but in general he seemed MUCH happier tonight going down and cried less and eeeverything.  I wonder if there'll come a time when he won't cry at all?

My only fear now is that I'll have to start all over again when he transfers from sleeping in his carseat in the crib, to just in the crib on his back.  Yuck.

3 MONTH MILESTONES that I haven't had time to post yet but am doing now...

2 days after his 3m birthday, Oli flipped over (!!!).  Aaaaand I missed it.  I was in the shower, came back, and there he was in his crib, under his mobile, on his tummy and looking around like a turtle who'd been flipped like "now how did I get here and how am i gonna get out of this??"  It was sooo cute.  2 days after his 3m b-day he also started becoming interested in sitting facing outward, looking around, and reading books!  That makes me VERY happy because I enjoy reading books with him.  A lady saw us at Buca on New Years and she asked me if I was a teacher and I said "Yes how'd you guess?" and she said that she used to teach and has noticed that teachers all talk to their infants like they're already 12 years old!  Haha she said that our kids have good verbal skills.  I'd been showing Oli the statues at Buca and explaining them to him.  It was fun.  Anyway tangent complete...

3 days ago Oliver found his thumb.  He doesn't always suck his thumb; usually it's a few fingers.  But he found his thumb and it makes him very happy.  He's teething hardcore now; his smile's shape has changed and you can see the teeth comin in under the gums.  Some days are worse than others but it's not as bad as it was at 2.5m when he started teething.  Maybe the pain is just as bad but now that sleep habits are better and stuff it's better?  Who knows.  Anyway so the teething sux but his smile's really cute with teeth under his gums!

PUT ON A HAPPY FACE

It is so much easier being a mommy now that Oliver's smiling!  Things that make him smile are usually standing him on my thighs and slowly pulling him toward my face and hten pushign him back up...  and of course tickling him from tummy to chest.  Sometimes funny faces make him smile but often they scare him so I don't make them to make him smile.  He likes noises though.  Percussive noises.  When he cries while getting strapped into his carseat, clicking my tongue and snapping my fingers and clapping work wonders and sometimes he'll just dead-stop crying and look at me in happy wonderment!  In the car, I've learned another trick.  I sit in the back seat with him (when phil's driving) and let him wrap his hand around my finger (so cute!) and I make all the consonant sounds of the alphabet without using my voice-- just the sheer consonants.  He really likes that!  We're learning to make him happy!  Even Phil's mom is getting so much better and appeasing him!  She walks around now, is more pro-active when he cries...  it's a relief since I'm working now and I don't have to worry that he'll scream the whole time I'm gone.  She's good with him now.  Yea!

Ok it's 12:15a.m. and my eyes are drooping and I'm exhausted.  Totally goin to sleep.  Like Oliver. :)

First Christmas in Chicago Married with a Baby

So the gas people were still here all day.  Oliver and Daddy and I went to 11a.m. mass at St. Mary of the Angels after Oliver awoke very groggily at 10:30.  I nursed him in the church lobby and then he was very good all through mass.  We sat behind a family of 7.  They were well-behaved and there was a 2-year-old from their family romping in the aisles adorably.  After mass we came home and I made ornaments for Nolan, Sophia, Isabella, & Anthony.  Then we left for the Delises' house.  

Oli's First Christmas Eve

It is now Christmas Day at 3:38a.m.  I'll explain why I'm up now, later.  

Phil had to work today, so Oliver and I were upstairs all morning by ourselves.  Ma and Pa had their hands full downstairs getting everything ready so I couldn't send him down, even though I was up to my ears in work myself.  The kitchen smells foul with every dish and pot known to man in the sink, dirty from 2 days before or maybe more...  and Phil's present was still not finished and that was my top priority.

Oh and I forgot to mention, I have clogged ducts again-- this time in the other breast.  I just got over mastitis, in fact I finished my meds like 2 days ago, and now breast number 2 is clogged-- but I don't have a fever yet so maybe I can avoid it?  So all day I was tired and in pain and trying to clean and work on the present and occupy Oliver myself.  My only hope was that Bradley would come in and take Oli from me and occupy him...  but his flight was delayed until mid afternoon.

So Oliver was really clingy today and only wanted to sleep with me.  Oh no comp running out of battery.  More later.

Dec. 25th 1:29 p.m.

Now where was I...  ok so yesterday I had tons to do and oliver was clingy and just wanted to nap with me so I couldn't get anything done, but he wanted to nurse while he napped and that was actually inconvenient but good for my mastitis so I spent like half the day nursing him.  The rest of the day I spent making Oliver's gift.

continuing, dec. 27th 12:05 a.m.

Ok so here we try again to finish the post...  welcome to life with a baby, right?  never get anything done.  Ok moving on then.  So Oli and I nursed half of xmas eve and didn't get much of anything done.  But after some scrambling I did finish what I needed to of Phillip's gift-- a warhammer game board-- and Phil came home and helped me bake broccoli squares for Carol's birthday "cake."  Of course I did it wrong; totally forgot about the cheese until the end, so I had to melt the cheese on top and it ruined the whole texture of it.  But all's well that ends well and it turned out tasting ok anyway.

Christmas eve morning, phil's parents smelled gas so they called the gas company.  2 fire engines arrived and didn't find anything and Oliver was nursing so I couldn't go down and take pictures.  Then the gas people arrived and they were still there when I was posting this at 3:38a.m.  And they were there all day Christmas as well!