Evolution of the Avocado Baby

Okay, let's try this out.

Huh. I don't think so.

Again?

Nooooo.

Ewwww, please!

Fine, I'll try it one more time.

Whoo hoo! I love avocado.

First Meal

Last night, Jason, my mom and I fed Ian his first solid meal. Being only three months old, I had my reservations. The American Pediatrics people recommend starting no earlier than four months, but Dr. Curry said that as healthy and fast-growing as Ian is he can start at three months. It was soooo cute. He got messy but loved it. He pushed out about half of the food and ate quite a bit for his first time.

Tonight J and I fed him for the second time and he went after the food with such enthusiasm. He loves his rice cereal! Earth's Best organic mixed with my breast milk, naturally...

The Fists Have It

Ian's new favorite chew toy? His balled up little fist. He tries to jam that sucker in his mouth like it's a fist-eating contest. Experts say this is an early sign of teething. That his gums are itchy as they get ready to cut teeth.

Oh. And the drool. Lots and lots of drool.

One-Sock Ian

Whoa, this blog has gotten stale! Here're a few updates:

He is now on a fairly decent nighttime sleeping schedule. He sleeps around 10pm, and wakes to nurse around 1am, 4am, and 7am. It's gotten so much easier. He feeds for about 15 minutes then falls right back asleep. So efficient!

Also, I've nursed a few times w/o the nipple shields with some success. He still does better with them on - gets more milk in less time, which is good for us both. I have set a goal of exclusively breastfeeding until 3 months at which time I will return to work and my mom will step in as caretaker. I plan tp pump at work but hear that milk supply greatly decreases this way so chances are he will need to be supplemented with formula. If that happens, my next goal is to provide as much breast milk as possible until 6 months. At this time we'll introduce solids so there won't be a big need to milk/formula. I hope to give him my breast milk as a snacky until he's 1 year old. After that, it's whiskey all the way.

He has gotten so big! His hair is coming in reddish-blond, but he still has the dark hair on the top and around the bottom of his head. My mom says he looks like a friar. He smiles a lot, too in reaction to my, Jason's, and my mom's voices. He even laughs a little and talks a ton. Lots of "eh eh eh" and "oooooh." Yesterday, for the first time, he nearly turned himself over in the crib. As I understand it, this is a huge development that happens around this time. And today he's 7 weeks old!

He remains One-Sock Ian - always kicking one off snd leaving the other on. So strange. But, he is wearing some of his 6-month clothing. My! We'll have to start calling him Ian the Gentle Giant. Ho ho ho - gentle giant!

Cloth Diapers - Hurrah!

Jason and I are loving the cloth diapers we got Ian. His butt rash cleared right up when we switched to cloth yesterday afternoon and he's less fussy when he makes a boom-boom in the cloth as compared with the disposable.

And they really aren't that hard to clean up. We have a spray nozzle that attaches to the comode that we use to hose off the solid stuff. Then, we just dump the cloth diapers into the wash and presto! Super easy. And so much better for the environment and Ian's bum.

Right now he's asleep in the swing. That should last about 3 minutes.

Best News Ever

Confused about when to let Ian sleep through the night, I posted this in the La Leche League forum and also emailed Linda Worzer, the woman who taught our Bradley birth class:

"My month-old baby son is gaining weight well and I think our supply-demand relationship is getting very close to established. I no longer get way engorged at night and can go 4 hours at a time at night feeding him.So how do I know when I can go longer? Do I wait for him to wake us up to feed or do I continue to wake him every 3-4 hours?

His pediatrician said he can even go 5 hours w/o feeding at night, but he was thinking solely of his good weight-gain. What about my milk supply? I'm scared it will diminish. But if my lo is sleeping so soundly through what used to be a feeding, my instinct is to leave him alone and let his hunger pangs wake us up.

Help!! I'd love more sleep for all three of us, but I don't want to screw up my milk supply or his weight gain. btw - He feeds a ton during the day, about every 2 hours."

Here is Linda's response:

"He is mature enough to wake and let you know when he needs to eat. You can allow him to sleep as long as you wish at night. Many babies "cluster feed" (as you mentioned) during the day to ensure they receive all the calories and nutrients they need.

At 6 weeks of age, most babies experience a growth spurt during which they return to more frequent requests for feedings. After that, it's not uncommon for a baby to sleep longer at night and possibly to nap longer during the daytime.

Your milk supply is firmly established by three weeks postpartum, so no worries there.
Relax, enjoy, and get more sleep - before you know if, he'll be teething and waking frequently at night again ; )

P.S. My second child (who was exclusivey breastfed) slept consistently 12 hours at night from the age of three months and took one two hour nap in the daytime. She topped the growth charts in height and weight."

Big Scare

Just now as I was showing Jason my new way of putting on a cloth diaper (we've been using a mix of disposable and cloth since last weekend). Ian was on the diaper table and J and I were standing over him. As he is wont to do, Ian threw up his strong, long arm and knocked over a tube of Aveeno butt cream right into his face. It toppled into his eye and he went ballistic. I was scare poopless since I didn't know if his eye-closing reflex was fast enough to protect his eyeball, or if the sharp end of the tube scratched his eye. He was so red and crying so hard that I was really freaked out. Jason, who was way more calm than me, took over and was able to calm Ian. Apparently he'd swallowed a lot of air with all the crying and Jason was able to burp him a few times and stop his crying.

THANK GOD. I was already imagining a baby eye patch and future blindness, etc. You know how it goes. Just the sight of seeing my son in pain and wailing was enough to just kill me. But he's better now and asleep in his father's arms. I'll keep an eye on his eye overnight and see where we're at tomorrow morning. I'm not 100% convinced all is well. We'll "see."

Footprints

At his 10-day visit last Tuesday, Ian got his footprints permanently added to the walls of the Birth & Women's Center. All babies born at the Center get their feet stamped along the borders of the doors, windows, and floors. It's so neat to see all the footprints when you walk through the Center.

We chose the upstairs birthing room where it all began. That's where I got my first dose of Cytotec and then Jason and I got a nice 2-hour rest in the bed while the drug did its job. Then our second dose there later that afternoon, and another couple's rest together in the bed. Bada bing bada boom - a handful of hours later and the contractions started!

Life with Ian continues to be a glorious challenge. I can't get enough of him and he can't get enough of me and my attention! I'm getting real used to these 3-hour maximum doses of sleep and have already forgotten what a full night's rest feels like. The human body has an incredible way of adapting to just about anything. I plan to begin pumping soon, so I'll be able to leave Ian with one of his grandmas, aunts, cousins, etc. overnight one day soon and get a full night's rest. Of course, if I go too long without nursing, my breasties get engorged and then I'm miserable. Perhaps I can get a full night's rest once Ian is weaned...in about a year!

My Stump, My Lovely Little Stump

Check it out! Here are two pics of my abuela throwing my umbilical cord stump into the ocean in Colombia - a place called La Guajira (wa-hee-da), which is the peninsula that juts out into the Caribbean and faces Venezuela. In one picture you see my abuelo cheering her on.


These were taken in August 1975. This is a tradition in my mom's family to ensure a long, healthy life for the baby. Now I'd love it if someone would go on and purchase 2 round trip tickets to, oh say, the Bahamas so Jason and I can throw Ian's stump into the ocean. He's worth the trip!

My Mission: Feed, Feed, Feed

Jason and I took Ian to his 10-day visit at the Center and he weighed in at 8lbs 7oz. The weight loss is normal and Cherie was happy with that but would like to see him get up to his birth weight very soon. That, she said, will keep him from crying all night long.

Apparently the little guy is hungry and I haven't been giving him enough. Well, I thought I had since I let him nurse until he either pulls away for good or falls asleep at the nip. But my mistake was feeding him from one breast per feeding. My new regimen is to nurse him 10 minutes on one boob, then burp him and let him finish up on the other one. He needs milk fat from both breasts in order to gain his weight back, and then some. I didn't know that! So now we have some making up to do. In fact, it's time for Ian to get his nom-noms on pretty soon here...it's neverending!

New Developments

We are so proud of Ian. In the 9 days that we've had him, he has already grown in leaps and bounds. He no longer cries when we diaper change him, and he's nursing magnificently. He feeds for about the same amount of time (30 minutes) and just about the same space of time in between (3 hours).

His neck muscles are really strengthening, his arms and legs are wiggling about like crazy, and the rest of his body seems to be catching up with his monstrously large hands.

Last night the colic tried to get ahold of him, but I managed to get him to calm down in about 45 minutes and we slept for a couple of hours until I woke us both up for a feeding. It was nice to let Jason sleep the night through and Ian cooperated perfectly. After the 3-4am feeding, he went right back to bed and slept until 7am. To ensure this keeps up, I'm hitting the aisles at Babies R Us to buy a Swaddleme and Colic Massage Pad. Let's hope these help!

A Trip Outdoors

On Tuesday morning we went to the Center for a breastfeeding consultation with Beverly. When I called they did not hesitate to tell us to come in anytime for help. There was no appointment, no payment, none of that. Such a wonderful place.

Once there, Beverly got straight to work showing me how to get my nipple back into his mouth so he could suckle. She got me all set up with pillows and water and stayed there for an entire feeding. What a relief to watch him feed for a good half hour! In between the feeding session, Jason changed Ian's diaper and we all got to witness Ian's first "spray." Urine everywhere. It was pretty cute.

After watching Ian feed for awhile, Beverly determined that my nipples were not long enough to reach his soft palate so she suggested a product called a nipple shield. She was so confident it would be the answer to our struggles, and we could not have been more pleased and relieved. We went to Babies R Us straight away and once we got home and opened the packaged we realized we'd gotten a size too big. Crikey! I was devastated.

Enter Grandma Pat (aka Mimi), our savior! She came to our rescue that night and brought over the correct size nipple shield and dinner - delicious roast chicken, fresh bread, and veggies. Sooooo yummy. The nipple shield was an instant hit and Ian's been feeding like a maniac ever since. My nipples are so very ouchie as they acclimate to the reshaping wonder of the shield, but it's a small price to pay to watch my little one get the nourishment he needs. I guess the "Martyr Mom" thing starts early!

Rewind a bit: Jason took Ian for his first Well Baby visit that afternoon while I stayed home and enjoyed a long, quiet nap. Ahhhh. Jason reported that the visit went really well. Dr. Curry was so pleased with Ian's color, reactions, alertness, strength, and um, large thingie-thing. In fact, he was surprised at how endowed our little man is! He did want to see Ian gain more weight and Jason explained how we've been having difficulty feeding him but that we'd gotten some help earlier that day and were hopeful he would begin eating well.

We were right! He began feeding anywhere from 30 minutes to one+ hour at a time with an average of two hours in between feedings. Incredible!