Baby King

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.

I am a milk donor.

My little prince has decided that the breast is a much better source to eat from than the bottle (smart kiddo!). This means that he has decided to reverse cycle (very common with infants in daycare). So while he is at daycare he only takes enough milk to keep himself from getting hungry. In fact, he usually doesn’t even take his first bottle until about noon, and he generally nurses around 6am or sometimes 7:15am. However, I’m pumping twice a day at work. I end up pumping more than he drinks. For example, today he took about 7.5 oz at daycare and I pumped about 12 at work (12 is a low day for me). This means I have a nice little surplus built up. Hurray. Unfortunately I have a small freezer and no room or money for a deep freezer. Boo. So I decided to give some of my milk away to others in need. Hurray!!!!

At first I started by contacting the Mother’s Milk Bank. However they took a while to respond and then they wanted me to take a blood test and donate 100 oz at one time. I’m not sure my freezer could store 100 oz. Then I found Eats On Feets. Through my local Eats on Feets Facebook Chapter (gods, I LOVE social networking!) I met a mom in my area with a little girl just slightly older than my little prince who can’t produce enough milk for her baby. So at the end of September I gave her over half of my “stash.”

A few days ago I noticed my freezer was once again filling up with frozen milk. A few Facebook messages later and she came by this afternoon to pick up more for her daughter. I actually got to meet the little girl this time and she is even smaller than my LP! It already felt good to know that I was helping a little girl in need, but to see her and here how she’s finally gaining weight made me feel even more awesome.

In some sense, I am a 21st Century wet nurse, and it feels amazingly good.

It’s hard to believe it, but my little prince is already four months old. At his doctor’s appointment yesterday he was over 24″ long, weighted in at 13lbs 15oz (which is more than twice his birth weight), and has a head that is 40cm around. This puts him in the 30-something percentiles for height and weight and 6% for head size. Tiny heads run in my family, so I’m so not surprised by this. Also, he’s moving well on the chart curve, so that’s good.

He’s starting to get so big. He’s growing out of many of the onesies and pajamas that we have for him. He can still wear the infant cloth diapers, but he’s now in the size 2 disposables.

Little Prince’s newest tricks are grabbing his feet (and trying to suck on his toes), rolling from back to side, and the stealth pee on the changing table (which apparently he only does for me), all of which make it much harder to change him than it use to.

He also giggles and smiles and talks a lot. He’s also getting really good at grabbing things and putting them in his mouth. He loves to nom on his Elephant Mingo, balls, rattles, the Happy Apple, and our fingers, knees, and even feet.

He also will grab our hands or arms and try to eat them while we are changing his diaper… yet another thing that makes diaper changes take longer.

LP still loves tummy time and still really wants to crawl. He’s also getting better at sitting up (lately he’s been trying to pull himself into sitting from semi-reclining) and will stand if we balance him.

He’s been doing pretty well at daycare also. The teachers say that he is all smiles for them (most of the time). He was doing much better taking a bottle last week, but not as much this week. ~sigh~. Since I’m generally pumping more than he is eating in a day, I was able to donate a bunch of my “stash” to another mom in need and I still have a good deal in my freezer.

LP had a little cold the other week, but we got through it. Now we have a humidifier in the bedroom and saline for his nose. OMG, it’s amazing how a little baby can fight two adults when it comes to using saline solution!

Overall things are going well. Darius and I are still adjusting to being two working parents with a baby and housework and cooking and cleaning and two cats that also need attention. But I think we’re slowly getting there.

This post talks about my baby and poop. You know you were waiting for a post about this.

This morning my little prince woke up all smiles. I brought him over to the changing table and took off his diaper. It was a disposable (we do disposables overnight and at daycare) and was full of both pee and (slightly green) runny poop. I bent down to throw out the diaper. When I turned my attention back to him, his feet were slightly wet. Ahhh…the stealth pee. I clean up his legs, put the cloth diaper he was laying on into the diaper pail, and put a new cloth diaper under him. I clean him up. Part way through, he poops on the cloth diaper. Put that one in the pail; put another one under him; start the clean up process again. Part way through that he poops again. Wipe him up and throw that diaper in the pail. As I’m going to put yet another diaper under him, he pees all over that diaper and it hits the cover that I set out for the afternoon, a snappie, and the waterproof pad he was on. Put that diaper in the pail (so glad I have 2 dozen chinese prefolds!) and finally get him cleaned up and a disposable on him without any more incidents. Of course he was smiles and coos the entire time this was going on.

And now, here is a picture of him from last night before the Saints game:

My little prince is 14 weeks old! He’s hit the three month mark. He continues to delight and amaze Darius and I.

He’s getting so much bigger. On Friday he went in for some shots ( ) and he weighed in at almost 13lbs! That’s about half a pound from doubling his birth weight.

He’s started to giggle. Especially if I give him kisses all over his belly. It’s just about the cutest, most awesomest noise in the world.

He is also, for the most part, a very calm baby. They say that he is “self-contained” at daycare. This was really good when both Darius and I got sick last weekend and LP was calm and happy and took it all in stride.

He’s started to be able to sit up more (still supported), reach for things, and grab them. He’s started the “I want to put everything in my mouth” stage, which I hear lasts for a loooong time.

His green poop has mostly cleared up (finally) although it still has a smell to it. And we’re still having problems with him taking a bottle both at daycare and from Darius. We’re in the process of trying other bottles to see if they work. I also go in at lunch when I can and nurse him. I did come home the other day to this adorable sight:

I’m adjusting to being back at work. It’s not always easy, but I’m doing my best.