Thursday, December 17, 2009
A Short Update
Ok so I know I have been REALLY BAD at updating this blog lately! Life has been crazy, between Jeff being way too busy, my job being what it is, getting ready for Christmas, Eli getting sick... ugh. So here is just a brief update :-)
Eli is almost 6 months old! His most recent achievement is learning to sit. He can't sit up by himself from the floor, but if I sit him up, he will sit upright for quite some time before eventually toppling over. It happened out of the blue about a week ago. Before that, he learned to roll from his back onto his belly, but he still hasn't figured out how to roll back onto his back so he rolls onto his belly, plays for a while then gets pissed off and starts crying/screaming. I tell him that he shouldn't roll over if he doesn't want to be there but he won't listen (stubborn like his daddy). One of his biggest achievements lately has been sleeping 12 hours straight at night! For the past few months, he would sleep 6:30 pm - 6:30 am but we would feed him before we went to bed. A week ago I cut out the night bottle and it didn't bother him at all, it's wonderful! I hope this doesn't change, I know it could but it seems like he may just be a good little sleepr.
He loves his feet and plays with them all the times, including when he is sitting up which causes him to topple over, it is pretty cute. He also loves to grab his feet while he is sitting in his high chair. We have slowly started him on solid foods but he doesn't really like them too much for now, I'm hoping in another month or so he comes around. He does seem to like pear and banana baby food. I keep meaning to buy whole fruits to mash or cut up for him to chew on but that would require going to the grocery store, something we haven't done in a while! He is getting really good with his hands and will reach for things he wants. We also think he is teething, we can see white bumps on his lower front jaw and EVERYTHING goes straight in his mouth. A few days ago he chewed a hole in some of my coupons after he grabbed them out of my hand.
Eli also had his first ear infection on Monday :-( He woke up with a fever and was fussy. I got him into the pediatrician's office that morning and we got him on antibiotics immediately and he is fine now, but he was a pretty miserable baby that first day. But while at the doctor office, we found out he is now 16 pounds 9 ounces! Chunker! So by the time he turns 6 months old he will have put on around 10 pounds since birth! Geez. He still doesn't look too chubby though, he is really tall so the weight spreads out on his frame. And we think he has a huge head, big brain I guess.
We head home Saturday for a week in Virginia, we are so excited! And of course the day we fly in, there is a winter storm warning, they are calling for a snow storm, great! Hopefully we can even make it there. We are going to freeze, it is in the 70s here!!!!! Wish us luck!
Eli is almost 6 months old! His most recent achievement is learning to sit. He can't sit up by himself from the floor, but if I sit him up, he will sit upright for quite some time before eventually toppling over. It happened out of the blue about a week ago. Before that, he learned to roll from his back onto his belly, but he still hasn't figured out how to roll back onto his back so he rolls onto his belly, plays for a while then gets pissed off and starts crying/screaming. I tell him that he shouldn't roll over if he doesn't want to be there but he won't listen (stubborn like his daddy). One of his biggest achievements lately has been sleeping 12 hours straight at night! For the past few months, he would sleep 6:30 pm - 6:30 am but we would feed him before we went to bed. A week ago I cut out the night bottle and it didn't bother him at all, it's wonderful! I hope this doesn't change, I know it could but it seems like he may just be a good little sleepr.
He loves his feet and plays with them all the times, including when he is sitting up which causes him to topple over, it is pretty cute. He also loves to grab his feet while he is sitting in his high chair. We have slowly started him on solid foods but he doesn't really like them too much for now, I'm hoping in another month or so he comes around. He does seem to like pear and banana baby food. I keep meaning to buy whole fruits to mash or cut up for him to chew on but that would require going to the grocery store, something we haven't done in a while! He is getting really good with his hands and will reach for things he wants. We also think he is teething, we can see white bumps on his lower front jaw and EVERYTHING goes straight in his mouth. A few days ago he chewed a hole in some of my coupons after he grabbed them out of my hand.
Eli also had his first ear infection on Monday :-( He woke up with a fever and was fussy. I got him into the pediatrician's office that morning and we got him on antibiotics immediately and he is fine now, but he was a pretty miserable baby that first day. But while at the doctor office, we found out he is now 16 pounds 9 ounces! Chunker! So by the time he turns 6 months old he will have put on around 10 pounds since birth! Geez. He still doesn't look too chubby though, he is really tall so the weight spreads out on his frame. And we think he has a huge head, big brain I guess.
We head home Saturday for a week in Virginia, we are so excited! And of course the day we fly in, there is a winter storm warning, they are calling for a snow storm, great! Hopefully we can even make it there. We are going to freeze, it is in the 70s here!!!!! Wish us luck!
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Pictures Update - Weeks 16 - 23!
Here are some pictures from the past few weeks, I will add another post to give a good update on Eli when I can find time!
We ran our first 5k as a family in October. We ran the 2009 Tucson Aids Walk at the University of Arizona campus, Jeff pushing Eli in the jogging stroller and me doing my best to keep up. We all made it without having to stop! I was pretty happy to be able to do that 4 months after having a baby, although it was hard!
Of course we had to get a picture of Eli with the Gecko
The next weekend we went to Buckelew Farms to pick pumpkins. Yes, pumpkin picking in the desert is quite different from pumpkin picking in Virgina. It was hot and very dusty, and of course we forgot to bring a hat for Eli so he had to borrow daddy's.
The pumpkin farm had a 4-H petting zoo. Momma was excited to introduce Eli to livestock, but Eli was not impressed.
Daddy and Eli at lunch at Hooters.
Yes I am holding Eli up while I stick my head through also -- how long are my arms?!?!
Daddy and Eli at lunch at Hooters.
Testing out the new high chair. I got this at a base yard sale for $10, it was hardly used and retails for about $80 new!
He fell asleep with his toy in his mouth.
He fell asleep with his toy in his mouth.
We have had some cold mornings here in the desert this winter!
Jeff and I won tickets to go to a masquerade ball on Halloween night! Our friends Lindsey and Joe watched him for us and they took this picture. The party didn't turn out to be much fun, but it was fun getting dressed up.
I thought it would be amusing to try to put Eli in the outfit he wore coming home from the hospital when he was 3 days old. Then it was huge on him, now it hardly snaps! What a chunk monkey.
We have started trying to eat solid foods. He doesn't care much for rice cereal by itself, plus we are worried about wheat-related allergies, so we are pretty much starting him on fruits and veggies. Our first try was with sweet potatoes, which I hear most babies love, but Eli wasn't too sure about it.
He can't pull himself up yet, but if I stand him up by the edge of his crib, he will stand there for a while and look around.
The couple who lives across the street had a Christmas party for the neighborhood and another couple who lives a few houses down came dressed as Santa and Mrs. Clause. They actually do this as a job, the beard is real! Eli did really well with Santa.
The mesh bag he is chewing on has a piece of avocado in it, he seemed to like it!
This baby is getting enormous! He is almost too big for his bouncy chair! I can't wait to see how much he weighs and how long he is when we go for his 6 month appointment, but I'm guessing he has to be at least 16 pounds by now and I think he has grown several inches just since his 4 month appointment.
I thought it would be amusing to try to put Eli in the outfit he wore coming home from the hospital when he was 3 days old. Then it was huge on him, now it hardly snaps! What a chunk monkey.
We have started trying to eat solid foods. He doesn't care much for rice cereal by itself, plus we are worried about wheat-related allergies, so we are pretty much starting him on fruits and veggies. Our first try was with sweet potatoes, which I hear most babies love, but Eli wasn't too sure about it.
He can't pull himself up yet, but if I stand him up by the edge of his crib, he will stand there for a while and look around.
The couple who lives across the street had a Christmas party for the neighborhood and another couple who lives a few houses down came dressed as Santa and Mrs. Clause. They actually do this as a job, the beard is real! Eli did really well with Santa.
The mesh bag he is chewing on has a piece of avocado in it, he seemed to like it!
This baby is getting enormous! He is almost too big for his bouncy chair! I can't wait to see how much he weighs and how long he is when we go for his 6 month appointment, but I'm guessing he has to be at least 16 pounds by now and I think he has grown several inches just since his 4 month appointment.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Saturday, October 10, 2009
16 Weeks
Eli will be 16 weeks old tomorrow. As I say in every post, time is flying by!
Eli had a cold for about 2 weeks. He seems to have gotten over his cold, but Jeff and I are sick now. I'm feeling almost better, but Jeff now thinks he may have the flu! I'm glad I went ahead and paid to get a flu shot before I went back to work, although of course it wasn't the H1N1 shot so I'm not fully protected. Jeff is quarantined in the guest room for now. It may just be from the chicken wings he ate last night though, we will see. We were planning on going to a pumpkin patch and corn maze with Eli this morning but hopefully we can do it next weekend, I think Eli would enjoy it. Tomorrow is a 5k run we do every year, hopefully we will both be feeling well enough to do it. Eli has been developing a lot lately! He is using his hands a lot more, and last night for the first time I saw him grab a toy (and chew on it) while he was laying on his tummy. He will do tummy time for quite a bit longer now before getting mad, and he holds his head and upper body up pretty well. He rolled over twice about 2 weeks ago but nothing since then, little stinker. He often will roll from his back onto his side though, so that is a start.
As of yesterday he will put his entire body weight on his legs and hold himself standing up! We have to balance him but he holds himself up, I can't believe it. I think he will be an early walker. He doesn't use his hands and arms as much as I thought he would at this age though, but we are working on it. We have this small yellow blanket with a duck head on it and he likes to hold it and stuff it into his mouth. I figure that will help improve his hand coordination.
He still can't seem to figure out his sleep routine. For at least a good month he would go to sleep between 6:30-7:30 pm and sleep until around 6 am, only waking up slightly around 9:30 pm when I would wake him up before I went to bed to top him off with a small bottle. This of course was wonderful for me, especially going back to work. However, during his second or third week at daycare, he decided to start waking up once in the middle of the night again! Sometimes a binky is all he needs to go back to sleep, but often he won't go back to sleep until I give him a bottle. Then he seems to eat less during the day because he had an extra feeding at night, which seems to cause the pattern to keep repeating because he didn't get enough to eat during the day. We have had some nights where he will sleep all night, but not enough! I thought I had it figured out for a while: he got his last bottle at daycare, which was usually a pretty big bottle, around 4 pm, so then he wasn't hungry enough at 6 pm to eat a fully bottle before sleep, then would be too drowsy at 9:30 pm to eat much either, so he would wake up in the middle of the night hungry because he hadn't eatenmuch since 4 pm. So I started putting him to bed at 6-6:30 pm without feeding him (this is fine because he isn't hungry), then feeing him a bigger bottle at 9:30 pm, and he began sleeping through the night again. This stopped again last night though, I did the same thing and he still woke up at 3 am and ate a full 3 oz bottle! So I don't know what to do, I guess he will just outgrow it at some point, maybe he is going through some weird growth spurt. I'm afraid though of letting him get into the habit of waking and eating in the middle of the night when he doesn't really need it, I don't want this to become "normal"... I know I'm extremely lucky to have a baby who will only wake up once in the night, but still, not waking up at all is better! I'm hoping Jeff's work schedule will slow down some soon so he can start giving Eli his 9:30 pm bottle so I can go to bed earlier, we will see though.
The daycare people think Eli may be starting to teeth! He drools all the time and usually wears a bib all day for this, and everything goes straight into his mouth to chew on. Sometimes he gags himself with his hands! I can see two little bumps in the front of his lower jaw but I have no idea if they look like they are starting to move up or if that is what baby jaws just look like. We go to the pediatrician for his 4 month appointment and shots in 2 weeks so I will ask her then. I'm also excited to see how much he has grown!!!
Apparently Eli is an extremely happy baby compared to others. The daycare ladies say he just smiles and smiles all the time and hardly cries. He is a smiler at home too, and a giggler, he always giggles when I change him -- his arms and chest and neck are ticklish -- and he loves to smile at me and at himself in a mirror, although sometimes he seems to be shy of his own reflection. He especially loves to smile really big when he is practicing his standing on my lap, he just loves it. He has also started making more noises, often he sounds like a dolfin! He makes high pitches squeaking noises when he gets excited and sometimes when he wants my attention. He apparently does this to Jeff when he picks him up from daycare, but mommy only gets a smile. I guess daddy is more exciting than mommy :-) However it appears that he won't go to sleep at night until I am home and put him down myself, last week Jeff picked him up so I could run at the gym and tried putting Eli to bed but he wouldn't go to sleep until I got home, held him then put him to bed again. I guess daddy is exciting, but mommy is comforting :-)
As for me, work is going well, it is nice to be back. It is different now though, because I can't come in early or stay late anymore because I feel bad leaving little man in daycare any longer than necessary. I have been working on exercising when I can, which is hard to do, especially with Jeff's hectic and unpredictable work schedule. I have been running at the gym about 2 times a week, each time running a 5k (3.1 miles) on a treadmill. It feels great, and I am getting faster, this past Tuesday I did it in 32 minutes which is under an eleven minute mile, which for someone who didn't run for about 11 months, that's not too bad! I also have started going to the gym at work a few times a week during my lunch break and lifting weights. I still haven't lost a single pound in over a month, but my pants seem to be getting looser so hopefully I'm just adding muscle and burning fat and soon the weight will start coming off. I really don't want to have to spend any more money on bigger sized clothing!
Here are pictures from the past two weeks.
At the zoo for the GEICO picnic
Yes, I am the coolest baby EVER.
How I get work done in the kitchen:
This is the duck blanket:
Modeling the new bib
Preparing for a nap
Eli had a cold for about 2 weeks. He seems to have gotten over his cold, but Jeff and I are sick now. I'm feeling almost better, but Jeff now thinks he may have the flu! I'm glad I went ahead and paid to get a flu shot before I went back to work, although of course it wasn't the H1N1 shot so I'm not fully protected. Jeff is quarantined in the guest room for now. It may just be from the chicken wings he ate last night though, we will see. We were planning on going to a pumpkin patch and corn maze with Eli this morning but hopefully we can do it next weekend, I think Eli would enjoy it. Tomorrow is a 5k run we do every year, hopefully we will both be feeling well enough to do it. Eli has been developing a lot lately! He is using his hands a lot more, and last night for the first time I saw him grab a toy (and chew on it) while he was laying on his tummy. He will do tummy time for quite a bit longer now before getting mad, and he holds his head and upper body up pretty well. He rolled over twice about 2 weeks ago but nothing since then, little stinker. He often will roll from his back onto his side though, so that is a start.
As of yesterday he will put his entire body weight on his legs and hold himself standing up! We have to balance him but he holds himself up, I can't believe it. I think he will be an early walker. He doesn't use his hands and arms as much as I thought he would at this age though, but we are working on it. We have this small yellow blanket with a duck head on it and he likes to hold it and stuff it into his mouth. I figure that will help improve his hand coordination.
He still can't seem to figure out his sleep routine. For at least a good month he would go to sleep between 6:30-7:30 pm and sleep until around 6 am, only waking up slightly around 9:30 pm when I would wake him up before I went to bed to top him off with a small bottle. This of course was wonderful for me, especially going back to work. However, during his second or third week at daycare, he decided to start waking up once in the middle of the night again! Sometimes a binky is all he needs to go back to sleep, but often he won't go back to sleep until I give him a bottle. Then he seems to eat less during the day because he had an extra feeding at night, which seems to cause the pattern to keep repeating because he didn't get enough to eat during the day. We have had some nights where he will sleep all night, but not enough! I thought I had it figured out for a while: he got his last bottle at daycare, which was usually a pretty big bottle, around 4 pm, so then he wasn't hungry enough at 6 pm to eat a fully bottle before sleep, then would be too drowsy at 9:30 pm to eat much either, so he would wake up in the middle of the night hungry because he hadn't eatenmuch since 4 pm. So I started putting him to bed at 6-6:30 pm without feeding him (this is fine because he isn't hungry), then feeing him a bigger bottle at 9:30 pm, and he began sleeping through the night again. This stopped again last night though, I did the same thing and he still woke up at 3 am and ate a full 3 oz bottle! So I don't know what to do, I guess he will just outgrow it at some point, maybe he is going through some weird growth spurt. I'm afraid though of letting him get into the habit of waking and eating in the middle of the night when he doesn't really need it, I don't want this to become "normal"... I know I'm extremely lucky to have a baby who will only wake up once in the night, but still, not waking up at all is better! I'm hoping Jeff's work schedule will slow down some soon so he can start giving Eli his 9:30 pm bottle so I can go to bed earlier, we will see though.
The daycare people think Eli may be starting to teeth! He drools all the time and usually wears a bib all day for this, and everything goes straight into his mouth to chew on. Sometimes he gags himself with his hands! I can see two little bumps in the front of his lower jaw but I have no idea if they look like they are starting to move up or if that is what baby jaws just look like. We go to the pediatrician for his 4 month appointment and shots in 2 weeks so I will ask her then. I'm also excited to see how much he has grown!!!
Apparently Eli is an extremely happy baby compared to others. The daycare ladies say he just smiles and smiles all the time and hardly cries. He is a smiler at home too, and a giggler, he always giggles when I change him -- his arms and chest and neck are ticklish -- and he loves to smile at me and at himself in a mirror, although sometimes he seems to be shy of his own reflection. He especially loves to smile really big when he is practicing his standing on my lap, he just loves it. He has also started making more noises, often he sounds like a dolfin! He makes high pitches squeaking noises when he gets excited and sometimes when he wants my attention. He apparently does this to Jeff when he picks him up from daycare, but mommy only gets a smile. I guess daddy is more exciting than mommy :-) However it appears that he won't go to sleep at night until I am home and put him down myself, last week Jeff picked him up so I could run at the gym and tried putting Eli to bed but he wouldn't go to sleep until I got home, held him then put him to bed again. I guess daddy is exciting, but mommy is comforting :-)
As for me, work is going well, it is nice to be back. It is different now though, because I can't come in early or stay late anymore because I feel bad leaving little man in daycare any longer than necessary. I have been working on exercising when I can, which is hard to do, especially with Jeff's hectic and unpredictable work schedule. I have been running at the gym about 2 times a week, each time running a 5k (3.1 miles) on a treadmill. It feels great, and I am getting faster, this past Tuesday I did it in 32 minutes which is under an eleven minute mile, which for someone who didn't run for about 11 months, that's not too bad! I also have started going to the gym at work a few times a week during my lunch break and lifting weights. I still haven't lost a single pound in over a month, but my pants seem to be getting looser so hopefully I'm just adding muscle and burning fat and soon the weight will start coming off. I really don't want to have to spend any more money on bigger sized clothing!
Here are pictures from the past two weeks.
Eli in his Real Tree camo bib:
We are getting better with the bumbo chair!
At the zoo for the GEICO picnic
Yes, I am the coolest baby EVER.
How I get work done in the kitchen:
This is the duck blanket:
Modeling the new bib
Preparing for a nap
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