Baby King

Since it’s half way through February, I guess it’s time I finally get to this post, since I promised I would…and then got busy with things like chasing around a crawling baby and all of the Facebook Nurse-In stuff.

In our house we celebrated three winter holidays: Chanukah, Yule/Winter Solstice, and Christmas.

For Chanukah I continued the tradition that my parents started: a book (well, he got a set of Dr. Seuss books) on the first night and that’s the only present. He seems to like the books.

Yule/Winter Solstice is our family holiday. All of the presents were from us to each other. Ok, most of the presents were from Darius and I to LP, but that’s how it should be, right?

Christmas we do as an extended family day. This year for Christmas, my father and step-mother came into town. On Christmas, there are presents from extended family (the In-Laws got us “revenge for getting their kids loud toys” presents ) and gifts from Santa.

I’m pretty sure that LP had no idea what was going on most of the time. He sometimes seemed to like the paper and the boxes more than the gifts.

Lastly, for NYE we were in New Orleans, since tante’s birthday is NYE. We got LP in his tux onesie and he slept through the whole party until it was almost midnight. We brought him outside and I forgot they always set off fireworks until they were going off. I was worried he would freak out, but he loved them! He would track them up in the air and then watch the colors in the sky. He was actually kicking his feet impatiently when none were going off.

And now, since I know y’all are really here for the pictures, here is a slideshow of all of the holiday pictures:

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I’ve been reading a lot of articles and responses to the articles about the February 6th “Nurse-Ins” at the various Facebook offices around the world. I’ve noticed one question that people keep asking in the comments is “Why is it so important for you to post these pictures of such an intimate moment?” I’m going to do my best to try and answer that question here.

I want to start by changing one word in the question. I want to change “intimate” to “normal.” Intimate implies an done privately between two people in a closed setting in a cherishing way. For any mom who is trying to feed a screaming one week old at 2am and trying to find her nipple shield because he’s having latching trouble, and it’s dark and you’re over-tired, this act is anything but intimate. Frustrating is what comes to mind. For any mom who’s out and about and who has a hungry kid, and decides to feed him right there in public, while sweet, this is not intimate. Natural comes to mind. For any mom who is sitting for over an hour while her child nurses himself to sleep, but she knows he’ll wake up screaming if she tries to stop the nurse-nap, this is not intimate (at least not after half an hour). Lonely comes to mind (if no one else is there for her to talk to) or distracted (if she is watching tv or surfing the net). But all of these moments are normal. Because all of them happen in the normal course of a breastfeeding mother’s life. Are there private moments where she looks at her child and is overcome by love and affection and amazement at how she can feed a tiny thing with only her breasts? Of course. But in my experience they are a lot rarer than some literature would have us believe.

Now, why would someone want to take pictures of such a normal activity and why would we want to post it on the internet? Because it is a part of our normal activity and we want to share it with our family and friends. The quotes in this article explain it even more eloquently than I can, so I’ll pause for a moment so you can go read it. Done? Ok, let’s move on.

Looking back on it, out of the over 400 photos of LP I’ve put up on Facebook (this is what happens when you don’t live near your family and you have the first grandbaby) only about 16 pictures are of me actually breastfeeding LP. That’s less than 4% of the pictures. I’ve posted a large number of pictures of him sleeping blissfully post-nurse in a “milk-drunk” state, but very few (comparatively) of him engaged in the act of nursing. After the event on Monday I’ve posted two more.

I want to explain the story behind five of the photos, why they were taken, and why I chose to post them.

I believe this to be the very first breastfeeding photo I posted:

This is the very second time I ever breastfed my Little Prince. He was no more than 10 or 11 hours old. It was right before we were about to take him home from the Birthing Center. That look on my face is a look of relief that he is nursing at all. We had trouble with his latch and my nipples in the beginning, so this good nurse was a very important part of the day for me. As you can see, there are at least two other people around us (my sister’s legs are in the photo, so she must be watching, and someone had to take the picture). Plus right before this there was at least one midwife around helping us. And another midwife came in the middle of this feeding to say hi. So, not sure how intimate it is. Also is part of the “First Day” set of photographs, as it was something that happened on day my Little Prince was born. As you’ll notice from that set, there are a lot of times my nipple is showing in a photo and I either blurred it out or covered it up with a big purple dot. Why was my nipple showing in so many pictures? Because I gave birth naked in a tub (you can even see the edge of the tub in this picture). However, there is a lot less skin showing in this picture than in many of the others.

So why did I post it? Because it was a natural part of the day my son was born. Because it was a moment that happened in that day, along with holding him, making silly faces at him, bathing him, and falling asleep with him in my arms. I didn’t even think “should I or shouldn’t I post this.” It just made sense to, along with everything else.

As almost any breastfeeding mom can tell you, sometimes you end up nursing in really funny positions.

In this case, my little prince had just started to figure out how to sit up (he was just shy of 5 months). So what happens? He latches on while sitting up, without me having to hold him. I tell my hubby to grab the camera and do a “look-ma-no-hands” kind of thing. I think the look on my face is priceless. It’s a pretty far cry from many of those intimate breastfeeding images we see.

I posted it because, well, it was funny. At least I thought it was funny. Looking back now, I’m actually more impressed that I was willing to post a picture showing my post-pregnancy belly much more than I was at showing my child breastfeeding. In fact, most of the skin you see in this picture is a baby in a diaper and my belly.

This next photo was posted for educational/desiring for kudos purposes. It is of me successfully nursing in my Moby wrap:

While I love love love my Moby wrap, one of the things I’ve never been good at is figuring out how to breastfeed LP in one. Oh I watched videos and tried a bunch, but I never could get the hang of it. Until one day it all clicked. So once he was settled, I took a picture to prove that I could do it. I’m still not great at Moby nursing and now that LP is older, if I have to nurse hands-free, I tend to use the Ergo instead. But at least I can say that I did it.

I posted this picture because I was proud of the fact that I finally got something that had plagued me for so long. Also so that other moms could see how it was done. BTW, if I hadn’t told you he was nursing in this photo, would you have even known?

Ok, I’ll admit it, I do have one “political” picture that I posted before the Nurse-In:

This was taken back in August, during World Breastfeeding Week. I took it and posted it to show my support of breastfeeding and how important I think it is. Although all the caption said was “Happy Breastfeeding Week.” I like how LP’s nose is all smushed against my breast in this picture.

Lastly, this is my favorite picture I’ve taken (so far) of breastfeeding LP:

Ok, I’ll admit it, this looks a lot like an intimate moment. It actually started out as a funny moment. LP was nursing to sleep one evening and placed his hand on my other breast, as if to say “I’m using this one now, but I’m saving that one for later.” I wanted to get a picture of that. Then I decided that I should be looking at him and not the camera. Somehow I caught this. I think it’s absolutely beautiful. The composition is nice, the lighting is just right, and the look on my face is a cross between loving and amused. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if I could have someone turn this into a painting for me to hang in my house, I would. It reminds me of many of the beautiful pieces of art of breastfeeding mothers that I’ve seen over the years.

I’ll also admit that I wasn’t sure about posting this one to Facebook at first. Because it is such an intimate moment. Because only for the grace of LP’s hand is it within their terms of service. Because I’m naked and my boobs look huge. But I did it anyway, not to make a statement, but because I thought it was so beautiful and would make a good painting. I was actually nervous that I’d get some negative comments, of the type I am seeing in the comments in news article after news article about the Nurse-In, after I posted it. I guess I’m lucky that my friends and family are so supportive because I got nothing but “lovely pic” and “it would make a good painting” comments from them.

And just to prove a point, here is a picture of my Little Prince falling asleep at the dinner table after sort of eating avocado:

Other than I’m not in the picture, I’m not really sure how this is any different than one of him nurse-napping or dream-feeding from my breast.

Yesterday Little Prince and I protested the way that Facebook handles breastfeeding pictures by attending a Nurse-In in front of the Facebook office in downtown Austin.

It started almost like any other weekday. I got up before LP, showered, and ate. But this time I also spent time checking the internet for news of the nurse-ins that were happening all over the world and also seeing if there were any last minute planning things to get done. Eventually LP woke up and I giggled and played with him in bed for a bit before changing him into a cloth diaper/cover and putting him in his outfit for the day. We played around for a while and I slowly got things ready. Eventually he had his morning poop (he’s a morning pooper) and it was almost time to go, so I changed him from cloth to a disposable. I was getting the last few things ready and LP was on the kitchen floor torturing the boy-cat, when I heard the unmistakeable sound of another poopsplosion. I scoop the boy up and head upstairs with him to change him. Without thinking about it, I put him on my hip. Next thing I know I feel wetness through the three shirts I’m wearing. Oh yeah, I’d squished the poop out of the diaper and through his pants, onto me. It was all over the special shirt I’d ordered just for this. Clean up baby, clean up mommy, change our outfits, bundle us up and we’re finally out the door (still on time).

We head downtown and I’m actually pretty nervous. Find parking close to the building the Austin Facebook office is in, put time on the meter and head over to the building right at 10am. I pick up a reporter from the Statesman on my way over. There are two moms out there already. They’re surprised that the building wouldn’t let us in, but that’s how the Austin rules go. Very soon after a few more moms show up. We had about a dozen moms/supporters come through throughout the time we were there. We just hang out in the chilly weather (it was about 45° F out) talking about being a mom and what we’re doing. We talk to the reporter too. Another reporter from KVUE shows up. He says that they want to come back with other people and put us on the 6pm news. I promise that we’ll be around at 11am. I’m trying to talk to people and take pictures and tweet/Facebook and keep up with other events and take care of my baby all at the same time. It’s a little hectic and I’m no longer nervous to be there, but proud to be supporting a cause I believe in so strongly. I did manage to nurse him a bit while we were out there .

At some point some nice women from Facebook come down with water bottles for us and Facebook hats for the little ones. My co-organizer gives them the letter she wrote explaining why she is doing this. We also make sure the news people get copies of the letter. At 10:45 many of the moms want to leave, but I explain to them that another news crew is coming and to please wait just a bit. At 11am the other news crew shows up. They take some pictures and interview three of us (myself included). We all leave around 11:30am.

My pictures:

Stop by Darius’s work to say hi and find out that there was already a segment on about us on the 11am news! Head home and LP totally passes out. Eat lunch and check the networking sites. I see on one of the protest Facebook groups that a news reporter from Austin is looking to talk to a mom who was at the protest. I give him my number. He calls me right after LP finished his lunch-nurse. I try to sound more articulate with some of the answers that I came up with for the first interview after I was in the car heading home. I hope I do.

I head out with LP and run some errands. On the way home from the last one, I actually hear a quick sound bit of my interview on the radio. A bit about how breasts are sexual, but they are also used for feeding babies, which is their primary function. The DJ then goes on to talk about the overly sexy/sexist Super Bowl ads.

I watch the 6pm news. Sure enough, I’m on it. It makes me really happy that we’re newsworthy enough to be getting this kind of attention!

Local news reports of the Nurse-In:

• KVUE 11am News (you can see my back)
• KVUE 6pm News (I’m being interviewed here)
• KLBJ News Radio (A different bit of the interview than what I heard on the radio is posted)
• Austin Statesman (very short, no pictures )

My absolute favorite piece of coverage that I’ve read about the Nurse-In comes from the Houston Chronicle. It explains in much better words than I ever could exactly what were doing and why it is so important.

In ironic news, the picture of my friend L smiling at the camera while nursing her daughter, who is wearing a Facebook hat, has already been removed from one of the groups that I posted it to.

Our Little Prince turned 7 months right before NYE. At his Doctor’s appointment the day before, he weighed in at around 17lbs (they didn’t take his length).

I feel like LP is currently existing in a state of in-betweens, not-quites, and almosts.

He’s almost crawling. He has flipping both ways, getting on all fours, and moving from sitting to all fours and back down pat. He’s doing the rock back and forth and the push the his butt into the air (a la downward dog). He’s also really good at going backwards. Unfortunately, he really wants to go forward so this will eventually upset him. He hasn’t figured out that he could turn around and go backwards and get to where he wants.

LP is almost pulling-up, standing and walking. He can pull up with fingers and his daycare has said that he can pull-up in his crib there. But he’s not pulling up on furniture at home. When standing, he can stay up for a little while and sometimes even balance for a few seconds with one hand. And in this past week he’s actually taken a few steps forward when we hold his hands, which seriously surprised both Darius and me.

Because of this our LP is in between the Infant A and Infant B rooms at daycare. He’s still officially in Infant A, but he spends time in Infant B (with the crawling and walking children) getting use to that room and the teachers there.

LP is not quite eating solids. So far he’s not a fan of sweet potato. He likes avocado, but mostly as an item to play/make a mess with. He has gotten some in his mouth and seemed to enjoy it. He also likes to suck on apples, either ones I’m eating or if I put a chunk in a mesh baby feeder, but he’s not interested in apple sauce. He also takes sips of water from a cup if Darius is drinking, because he wants to be like daddy. We’re not worried. We’re letting him explore at his own pace.

LP is currently in-between clothing sizes, diaper cover sizes, and disposable diaper sizes. Hitting all of these at once is annoying me. The clothing he was wearing (0-6/3-6/6 month sized for the most part), fits fine with a small tug over disposables, but needs a few tugs and sometimes a bit of pulling to be put on over cloth diapers. The 6-9/9 month sized clothing is too long for his arms and legs, but fits torso and around cloth diapers. When it comes to pajamas, the 6 months are pulling on him, but he’s swimming in the 9s. As for our diaper covers, the Thirsties Duo Wrap size ones are starting to not fully cover the pre-folds and the sometimes the velcro pulls off a bit. So we got some of the size 2s (snaps) and snapped all the way down, they fully cover his pre-folds with a bit of extra room. Talking about diapers, the size 2s are getting small, but not too small, on him (he is getting a bit of a plumbers crack in them sometimes, but there is so much room in the size 3s that it’s ridiculous. So you can see why this is all very frustrating. I wish he’d just grow already so I can put away all of the smaller sizes.

Over the holidays, LP had his first big cold with a wet cough and a runny nose (of course he got it when he wasn’t at daycare). He had it when he went in for his shots, so the doctor listened to his lungs and declared it just a cold. However, driving 10 hours in a car with a baby who has a cold and got his shots the day before was not fun. We got through it though. And it was nice to be at my mother’s house where there were extra people around to help take care of LP and our sanity. Also, around that time LP and I developed thrush. We’re treating it and seem to be doing much better, even if he hates taking his medicine for it.

Lastly, here is my favorite picture that I’ve taken recently. I call it “I’m using this one now and I’m saving that one for later.”

Darius and I have officially survived over half a year with a tiny human being in our care! While this beats my track record with plants (let’s not talk about my poor plants), it is not any where near our record with animals (the cats are over 7 years old!).

Our Little Prince continues to grow and develop in amazing ways. At his sixth month check-up last Monday he weighted in at 15.75 lbs and was 25.5″ tall. That’s in the 20% range for height and weight so he’s nice and proportional. His head is in the 10%, up from being in the 6%! The pediatrician said he looks “perfect.”

Lately he’s been flipping over from belly to back, sitting on his own for ages, and yesterday he pulled himself into standing at daycare when he was in his crib. This is his favorite game:

When we showed it to the pediatrician she said that he was “freakishly strong.” ~Big proud mama grin here.~ Our midwife said one of her sons was like that and became a light weight wrestling champion. I just tell LP that he can’t play for the Falcons.

He’s also babbling more and more. He’s started saying, “Dada da da da da.” Not a “ma ma” in sight. This makes Darius happy.

Over the weekend he enjoyed sucking on an apple that I was eating, so we decide to try solids.

We started with sweet potato on Sunday night. He was way more interested in putting his hands in the food than in trying to eat anything. When I tried to give him the spoon with some sweet potato on it, he kept his mouth mostly closed. When I did get him to try a bit, he made a funny face. He liked chomping on the spoon, though. We tried again on Monday and got pretty much the same result. Our verdict is that he’s not quite ready for solids yet and we’ll try again in a week or so.

As our Little Prince is turning 6 months in a week, Darius and I have been starting to look into and acquire items for starting solids. We’ve had a highchair for a little while already (Thanks Grandpa and Grandma A!). Now we have some sippy cups with handles, a whole bunch of baby size spoons, and a set of baby sized no-slip bowls.

I’m not going to lie to you, Marge, I’m really nervous about this whole feeding my baby something other than breastmilk thing. I’ve been doing a lot of research into it. I don’t want to push LP to start solids before he is ready. While he’s starting to exhibit some of the signs – good at sitting on his own, losing the tongue thrusting reflex – there are still others – developing the pincer grasp, being really interested in our food, mimicking chewing – that he’s not doing yet. I am a little worried that I’m so nervous about this that I’ll purposefully misread the signs, but everything I’ve read said that when a baby is truly ready, it is hard to miss.

As for how to feed him, I’ve been really conflicted. I really like the idea of Baby Led Weaning. Letting LP explore food on his own instead of feeding him. But I doubt that daycare will be willing to go along with this (I haven’t actually asked though). I realized over the weekend that this is okay. That I can make mashes, purees, etc for daycare to feed him and do BLW at home. In fact, if LP enjoys food, it may make daycare feel better, since with the reverse cycling, he just doesn’t take a lot of milk while he is there.

I did offer LP smells of banana, strawberry, blueberry, and raspberry over the weekend. He wasn’t overly impressed with any of them. But, he did seem more interested in the raspberry than in the others. He is his father’s child. I also let him lick an apple slice, but then he made a funny face and wanted to nurse. I’m guessing he was trying to get the taste out of his mouth.

My little prince has quite the busy weekend.

On Saturday we went to a potluck for our Centering class. Our babies are all getting so big. It’s interesting to see who is hitting which milestones first. The girl born the day after LP has 2 teeth already as do a few of the others. Most are rolling at least one way, if not both, but of the babies born in May, I think LP is the best at sitting unassisted. Of course the one born in March is already crawling and pulling up, giving the rest of us an idea of what is coming.

LP totally has a new girlfriend. F, the 7 year old daughter of one of the other moms, took a liking to LP. She held him for ages and he was quite happy to be held by her. Too bad she’s a little young to babysit.

After the potluck, we went to Target to get me more wipes for my pump (the Mother’s room at work doesn’t have a sink, so these work really well). Got a new toy and some socks for LP, but they were out of wipes. LP was so tired from the potluck that he slept the whole time we were in Target.

On Sunday I took LP with me to help volunteer at Austin Comic Con. That was an experience! He was tired, but wouldn’t fall asleep in his wrap, because there was wayyy too much to see. Also, everyone kept cooing over him in his Jayne hat. I did get him to nurse in the Moby. It was awesome because no one could see what was going on. After he fell asleep, I tried to shift him, but that woke him up. Made selling awesome Browncoat items a little tricky.

We surprised Josh of Hijinks Ensue with wearing the onesie that he had drawn for LP last December. The best part, though was getting our picture taken with Adam Baldwin with LP in his Jayne hat. Adam was very nice and seemed very excited to hold the baby.

After a while I could tell LP was tired, but overstimulated. So I resisted buying him a geeky onesie (Superman! Star Trek captain!), since he has enough already and we went home. He was so tired that he fell asleep as soon as I put him in his car seat.

The other interesting part of the weekend was that I ended up with a clogged duct (or two) on Sunday. I tried everything: nursing like crazy on that side, a hot shower, pumping, even hand expressing. That night in bed it was still so painful. I checked the Internet and saw the comments to this post. I got out of bed, went into the bathroom and looked at my nipple. Sure enough, there was a little hard white spot on it. I picked it out, almost like a pimple, gave my breast a squeeze, and milk started shooting out of that spot. I’ve never felt so relieved! I went back to bed with no pain and a much happier breast.

Finally, here is a video of the newest thing that LP does:

Finally, my long-promised (mostly to myself) post about cloth diapers.

For the first few months of our Little Prince’s life, we used a diaper service for our cloth diapers. We were able to do so thanks to the generosity of our families. Diaper services are awesome! They give you a stack of diapers and at the end of the week they take away all of the nasty ones and give you clean ones! They also lent us a Snappi and some covers. We quickly learned that we needed more Snappis and covers and so we bought some of our own.

However, we soon realized that with daycare not willing to use cloth diapers (boo. This is the only thing I don’t like about his daycare) the diaper service was no longer worth it. So we (meaning my mom and I) started looking into different kinds/styles/etc of cloth diapers.

My first resource was these set of blogs from my ex-co-worker Laura. She goes into a lot of detail of different kinds of diapers and how to clean them and all of that.

We ultimately decided to stick with prefolds with a snappi and a cover. My favorite prefolds are from Green Mountain Diapers. They can be pretty expensive, and I was super thankful that my family was once again willing to pitch in and start us off with two dozen GMD yellows. As we were getting ready to move from the yellow to the reds (you know what size a prefold diaper is by its stitching), we got lucky as GMD had a seconds sale so I was able to get a dozen that way. Then I found another two dozen via Diaper Swappers. I couldn’t tell you why most of the seconds were seconds and the ones we got from Diaper Swappers were in amazingly excellent condition (I think only two or three had even a hit of stains). So now we have three dozen of the reds. We also have about 2 dozen regular infant sized chinese prefolds, which make FANTASTIC burp cloths and are pretty much all we use them for (well, that and putting them on the changing table in case LP decides to  pee or poop while being changed).

LP in a red GMD with a Snappi

Side not: yes, that is a Pee Pee Teepee in the background. I thought they were silly too…until I learned how far his stream can go. Now I think they are awesome.

I have found my favorite covers to be the Thirsties Duo Wraps. We bought the size 1s when LP was just born and because of the way they size up, he still fits into them. They come in cool colors and patterns (owl pattern, I have my eye on you!) and as long as you make sure everything is tucked inside, they almost never ever leak anything out of them. No, really. We’ve had poops that I’m sure would have been total blow-outs in disposables that leaked around or up and over the prefold and were caught by the cover.

LP in a shirt and yellow Thirsties diaper cover with the Happy Apple

For a diaper pail, we use a large Thirsties Wet Bag inside of a simple trashcan. We have two of them so that if one is in the wash, we still have another one. These wet bags will actually tumble all of the diapers out of them in our washing machine, so I don’t even have to touch the dirty diapers! We put a deo-disk at the bottom of the pail to help with the smell. It works ok. I’m thinking of finding an alternative solution.

For washing the diapers, we use Rockin’ Green. We have hard water so we use the Hard Rock “Rage Against the Raspberries” formula. We start out with one wash on cold with no detergent. Next we do a hot/sanitize wash with about 1 and a bit scoops of detergent and an extra rinse. Sometimes I do another rinse and spin after that just to make sure all of the detergent is out.  Then we dry them in the dryer on high/anti-bacterial. The only time we had a problem with LP’s butt reacting is when we forgot the extra rinse. I know some people like to hang dry their diapers, but I don’t have a line in my back yard and the dryer works just fine.

As for the disposables, we use Pampers Swaddlers at daycare and Pampers either Swaddlers or Baby Dry overnight. At first we were doing cloth overnight, but LP hated to be wet at all and so by going to disposables at night, we don’t have to get up and change him, especially since he’s pretty much stopped pooping overnight.

Lastly, I came up with this last night as I was trying to get a diaper on a wiggly post-bath baby and posted it on FaceBook. I called it the Fugue For Diapers:

I got the diaper here,
It goes over right over your rear
And it’ll help to keep your bum quite clear.
Can do, can do, this diaper it can do. Can do can do.

I got the Pampers, why
Cause it’ll keep ya dry
Though sometimes the stink can attract a fly.
No leaks, no leaks. All night with no leaks. No leaks, no leaks.

I know most parents like to brag about their children, but I have to say that my son as an amazing disposition.

Most mornings I’m able to sneak out of bed and get stuff done (showering, teeth brushing, eating, putting together everything that has to get out the door) before my little prince wakes up (although sometimes this is interrupted by a call to nurse, after which he usually falls back asleep again for a bit) and I get him dressed and get us out the door.

This morning, right after my alarm went off for the third time (LP totally sleeps through alarms. Hurray!), LP decided he wanted to sleep nurse for about 30 minutes. Being a chilly morning and him all cuddly was fine by me. When he was done, he fell back asleep and I took the opportunity to jump in the shower. Getting out of the shower I thought I heard some movement, so I poked my head out of the bathroom door. There he was, eyes open, just taking in the day. He greeted me with a big smile when he saw me. He continued to just look around and then smile when he’d see me as I brushed my teeth and dealt with my hair. As I was getting dressed, he was trying to sit up, so I sat him up (in his sleep sack, so it’s extra cute!) and handed him his ball to play with. He played with the ball and talked to it happily.

After I was dressed, I got him out of bed, and brought him into his room to change him and dress him. He was all smiles, giggles, and babbles the whole time. I brought him downstairs and put him in his exersaucer while I got the bottles to pump into, his bottle for daycare, and my lunch together, and scarfed down some food and my vitamins. He played happily in it during that time (and squealed at the cat).

When I picked him up, I smelled a poop (I thought I’d heard it when I was eating). Sure enough, when I got the diaper off, there was a lot of poop, but it wasn’t an explosion. LP is a morning/daytime pooper, which is great for me because most of the time daycare has to deal with it. However, the downside is that the disposables for daycare don’t catch the poop as well as the cloth diapers he’s in at home. One diaper change later, and I’m ready to head out of the door with my super happy baby, who decided to randomly “talk” to me throughout the ride.

When I get to daycare, he’s all smiles for Ms. S, the lead teacher of the Infant A room. He barely notices I’m leaving because he wants to play.

Yeah, my kid is pretty awesome.

First I would like to thank daylight savings time. My child is sound asleep and it’s not even 9pm yet! And since he’s Mr. Get-Up-With-The-Sun, it’ll be easier (for a few weeks at least) to get him out the door and to daycare so that I may actually get to work before 8:30am!

Our little prince turned 5 months the Friday before Halloween. While they didn’t weigh him at his 5 months shots-only visit (we’re on an alternative schedule, so he goes in more often for shots, but there are less at a time), my me-on-scale then us-on-scale weighing has him at over 15.5 lbs!

For Halloween, we were Toby, Jareth, and Sarah from Labyrinth. Darius made my vest!

For Halloween at daycare, LP was Jayne from Firefly, because I didn’t want him to ruin his Toby pajamas at daycare.

I’m pretty sure that’s just about the cutest picture of him ever.

While he’s still not interested in rolling over (he’d much rather try to crawl!), he’s very good at sitting. He’s even getting good at sitting, reaching for something, grabbing it, and going back to sitting. Here he is with his absolute favorite thing to play with/try to eat: a book.

He also loves to bounce. At daycare he loved playing in a Exersaucer so much, that we got him one from Craigslist. He adores it.

He also adores the cats. He squeals with delight when he sees them. The girl-cat doesn’t care much for him, but the boy-cat will tolerate having his fur pulled, at least for a little while. We’re working on gentle, but I hear that concept can take a while.

I’m not really sure what else to say. Sometimes it feels like LP has always been part of our lives, and sometimes it feels like we’re still adjusting to him. I do know that I love him so very very much.