Poopers in the Pool

Today was our first day for the baby/toddler pool class. As many of you may well know, when I was pregnant I took a pregnant lady yoga and pool class. I called it Preggos in the Pool. I thought Poopers in the Pool would be the next logical name for his swim classes.

Sadly, I am not taking the swim class with any of my Preggos in the Pool friends. I tried to get them to join me, but most of them are waiting until April to sign up, and even then they will be going on Saturday. As you also may well know, we tend to have weekend commitments that would prevent me from signing up for a Saturday class. As it was I only made about ½ of the Preggos in the Pool Saturday’s and rationalized paying it as Tuesday night yoga came with.

So, today we ventured by ourselves to “Poopers in the Pool.” I have to say, it was not the wonderful experience I had thought it would be. It is actually quite difficult to take him there. It is at 10:30, which is his usual nap wake up time, so I have to wake him up, get him dressed, and book it over there. We were on time I thought – but all of the other mothers were already there and almost in the pool. I hate being late.

Next observation. How freakin’ cold it is outside. Yes, his pool class started on the coldest day of the year. I had to get him all bundled, then unbundled for the 1 minute walk to the gym. I am trying not to bring the bucket with me everywhere anymore. 1, because it is really heavy with the 17 pounder in it, and 2 because I think he is just getting big for it now. None of my other friends lug the bucket around anymore, so I wonder if I am weird for doing it for so long. Plus, where is the bucket going to sit while we are in the pool?

So, he is in, ready to swim and the third observation, he is the youngest, by a lot. There was a 16-month old that was the next in age to him. Then 2 and 3 year olds. Ok, I thought. We went in and he was more interested in the other kids splashing around. He did really well. I put him on his tummy with his head up, and he kicked. He seems to be a natural in the pool. The teacher did some songs and there were some toys to entertain him, but most of it was lost on my little guy.

I think the good news of it all was that he was just becoming accustomed to the water. This is really important as we will be feet from the lake in the summer. But, I was not overly thrilled with the whole experience. We are locked in though, 7 more weeks. Perhaps it will get better? Maybe at least warmer? Regardless, next Fall I think we will be in the class.

MFA

Today LJ and I went to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. What a fun trip! Despite the rain and the one hour car drive, it was an incredibly pleasant experience. I have been a volunteer at the MFA for a few years now and I think I have gone only once to the Museum, without having to volunteer or go to an event. So, it was certainly a nice treat just to get to walk around the galleries.
It was an especially nice treat to take LJ. I thought he might like it, and I was right! He loved looking at all of the shapes and colors. We stuck to the Asian, Egyptian, Oceanic, African areas which were nice for him, sculpture at his height (in the stroller), colorful kimonos, the different textures of the headdresses. He loved it all and chatted as well (in his museum voice to boot!).
We went with friends from my preggos in the pool class, see Ava pictured above and below. Ava also seemed to enjoy the Museum, though she gave a few raspberries of disapproval on some of the not-so-impressive pieces. A budding art critic I am sure! My favorite moment of the day, the two babies drooling all over the demonstration mirror for the Sargent murals. Don't worry, it was just the mirror. They loved it!
The MFA is a great place to bring the little ones, they will love all of the colors and shapes too. Midweek there are quite a few people in the galleries still, but you are able to find an empty one here and there which is good for louder-than-normal museum level conversation. They had ample changing stations, though one of them was in a back hallway/ access area for staff. So, that was a little weird, but hey. And, they actually had a nursing station! Yes, it was a closet under the stairs, but you have to admit that is very nice of them. The cafeteria downstairs was a great place to bring the kiddos. High chairs were around and accessible. Strollers were allowed everywhere, they never worried about the size of our diaper bags, and elevators were easy to find. The valet parking was a life saver in the rain, and only cost $3 more than the garage. If you are a member it is severely discounted. So, all in all a really great time! Hope you guys get out to the Museum too!

To Swaddle or Not to Swaddle

As I mentioned, the Dr seemed very concerned that we still rely on the swaddle for LJ to sleep. We tried the no-swaddle two nights ago and he went down no problem, but two hours later woke up and screamed bloody murder for about 15 minutes until I had a meltdown (partially because I cannot handle when he cries, and partially because he was crying so loud I could not hear 30 Rock). So, I went in there, picked him up, gave him his binky and swaddled him. I think I broke every rule in all of our sleeping books. But he slept the rest of the night.
Last night Joel and I had a pep-talk. As you may remember, Big Joel is the one who dealt with the CIO the first time we tried it, when he was 4 months old. LJ cried for 3 hours straight that first night. I could have NEVER handled that. So, last night Big Joel was trying to explain that by letting him cry I am doing him a favor. He needs to learn to sleep with his arms loose. We are not totally changing his world here, his feet are still in a sleep sack, and he usually gets his arms out of the swaddle anyway. He is a big boy, and both he and I should be able to handle this. The pep talk came during the Haiti tele-a-thon, and so was compounded by the fact that I am crying about a swaddle and my little boy's uncomfortable sleep while a five year old boy is talking about he was trapped in a building for 8 days, and that 5 year old is not crying. Ok, I thought. Perspective. We can totally do this.
And, we did! He woke up three times. 10, 3:30, and 5:30. At 10 and 5:30 he went back to sleep rather quickly. But at 3:30 there was crying for 20 minutes. I was good. I did nothing. I laid in bed like a stone so as not to move because I was worried he would hear or sense me and then cry longer. But he did a good job and went back to bed.

Now he is in his sleep sack for his nap. I put the tv up and I am on the computer... I don't want to know but hope to see a refreshed and happy boy when I go in to get him in an hour.

Lots of excitement this week. Some New England Museum touring for LJ and I - the MFA on Monday and the Children's Museum in Stratham, NH on Tuesday! Yay!

Doctor's orders

Here are the last of the winter photo shoot photos. As you can see we had a good time. The Dr's appointment was a success yesterday though we learned a few things. One, the nurses do not know what to tell you... It took forever to see our Dr, so the nurse tried to stall us and answer any questions we may have. I had a ton about food so she went on an on, he can eat anything now. He should only be having 12 ounces of formula a day, he should be eating yogurt, and small pieces of whatever we are eating. I was shocked, but secretly excited since I really want him to start eating... Fast forward to our Dr entering, I happen to re-ask the food question and boy is it a whole different story. No yogurt or other food until at least 8 months, keep going with the path we are on now. 30 ounces a day still is fine, he might go down to 20 soon though. The good news, we get to start on some puffs or cheerios. Yay!
We also learned no more swaddling. The Dr told us just to be done with it in one fell swoop. It is time. And here I was hoping they made swaddles for 8 year olds. Last night Nana and Pa put him to bed so we had one last swaddle night. We will see how tonight goes.
Otherwise all is well. He is 16-1/2 pounds, and 26 inches. He has a big head like his mom and dad. He is 50% percentile for everything but for his noggin. Growing well, lookin' good. Charmin' everyone.
Today I am off to volunteer, and Nana and Pa are day care. I think they are going to have a good time!

Photos

We have photo back-up, so here are some shots of LJ with his brother, Angus.

Personality Right Now

Today we had a photo session. I try to do these every once in a while, spend about an hour photographing him - because I think it helps really capture his personality at this very moment - tears, smiles, and all! As you can see, right now we are not all smiles. We have so many priceless moments from this session, that you are sure to be seeing these photos for many posts to come.
Tomorrow he will be 6 months old. I have lots of questions for the doctor. When do we get to start finger foods? When can I start really feeding him instead of just giving him an ounce of rice or a fruit or veggie here or there? Why are his rashes still here? Should we stop using the binky? And, what do we do about my constant fear that if we do not swaddle him, he will not fall or stay asleep?
There are some certainties that will come with his 6 month birthday. The end of boobie juice. The frozen supply will be all gone by the end of the week. That's right, kids. I had that much frozen that 1/4 - 1/3 of his daily intake since 4-1/2 months old has been thawed boobie juice. I wonder if this is why his rashes are still here...
The other certainty is that things are going to get harder. I'd like to think that the past 6 weeks or so have been a bit of a cake walk. He can't really move around yet, he still takes three long naps a day, he has been sleeping through the night really well, and he is generally a really happy and wonderful baby. This is probably all going to change. He will start moving, and require 100% of my constant attention. He will stop napping, right? Once the swaddle is out, cry it out is back in, and teething is upon us, I just know it. The drool factory is working overtime right now and his cranky level is dialed up a notch. I wonder if a tooth is coming, or if I am just one of those parents who think it is coming but really I have two more months at least...
Either way I am trying to enjoy the time we are at right now. He watches me make dinner. He goes in his excersaucer and "works." Really, it is like his office. He is pretty scheduled with his naptimes, and he really is a ladies man, charming every girl he meets. I hope a lot of these things stay the same, but I also hope we get to add some fun things, like sitting up for an extended period of time (longer than 1 minute), some babbling, some crawling, some finger foods, etc.

Center of Attention

It's not easy being the center of attention. In fact, it is exhausting. This little bugger was the center of attention all weekend long with a Nana, a Pa, and Auntie Jennie and an Unkie Jeremy to fawn all over him (in addition to Mom and Dad of course). We all went to Sunday River for our Annual Family Weekend up there. Our new addition seemed to slide in perfectly! The only thing missing was a pair of skis his size.
Nana missed skiing on Saturday in order to watch the munchkin and I think they bonded big time. I am sure she is going to be mortified that I am mentioning this, but it needs to be recorded for history's sake. When I got back from the mountain after a few morning runs, LJ was missing (as was Nana). They were both gone, but present were all of his hats, all of his snow suits. "How did she take him out in the cold?" I wondered... Ah, yes, with two t-shirts, and two hoodie sweatshirts on top, and an adult pair of socks over baby socks and pants on bottom. Next time I will put out the clothes... The adult socks up to his thighs were very cute though.
As you can see above, we found the snow suit by Sunday. Below we also found new toys. Great Grandma Ann got him this fantastic "car" toy. He loves to turn the wheel and move the stick shift. But we should all watch out, because he drives a little bit like his daddy.
It was a very fun weekend with the whole gang. He did much better sleeping this time, I hopefully think he is used to the noises up there now. I cannot believe this week he turns 6 months old! We are looking forward to his check-up so maybe we can get the all-clear from the Dr. for him to start skiing... Well, maybe we have to wait one more year... Perhaps we can get the all-clear to start eating finger foods?

Chicks Dig Him

This past weekend we went up to Sunday River. We had been before, but it was a few months ago and he was really little (as compared to just very little right now...), so he slept a lot, didn't need much entertainment and I was still getting up with him through the night at times. This past weekend, now that he is almost 6 months old, it was a different story. Traveling is getting harder I am finding.
He had a hard time adjusting to the new place, as it took him about 45 minutes to fall asleep on Friday night and he decided 5 am was a good time to wake up on Saturday morning. At this point I had decided we would never go to Sunday River again. But, we stuck it out and Saturday night only I slept in the room with him. Two dogs, a snoring husband and an attentive Mommy just inches away from the pack n play was too much for our little dude on Friday. The paired down situation seemed to work better, though we still had an early wake-up. I wonder how other people sleep in the same room as their child? What if he wasn't swaddled, and he could pull himself up? Then he could for certain see us and it would all be over. I am thinking once this stage comes I will be out on the couch as well.
It was all worth it though to see him and Maddy have some fun. LJ sat up for the first time for an extended period of time (maybe 1 minute) which was also fun! Maddy is 6 months older, so she was crawling all over the place and him, walking a bit too. LJ would just look at her like, "wow, woman!" Every morning Maddy would walk up to LJ's chair and chat with him for about five minutes. Non-stop babble. It was so cute. We just speculated on what in the world they could be talking about. As per expected, Maddy seemed to love our little man, chicks do dig him. He also was enchanted by her! But we hear Maddy has a few man-friends so LJ may need to get in line!
The one thing that really worked, knock on wood, is the drive. Three hours is too much for our man I thought so we left at his bedtime on Thursday night. He slept the whole way. When we arrived we got him in his pack n play (after a long drama of needing to move the pack n play because they were replacing the windows in our room, who replaces windows in January?) - once he was in he went right back to sleep. He did the same going home! The only downside is that we do not get up there until 10pm...

Bad Mommy?

This week I did a lot of things for me. And this makes me feel like a bad Mommy because what I really did was transport LJ from one safe place to another. Get sick of the excersaucer? Move him to the bouncer. Sick of the bouncer? Move him to his chair. Sick of the chair? Naptime in the swing. In between time sure I was smiling with him - and even when he was in his chair I was talking to him the whole time... But, I needed to get stuff done...
I cooked! Used the bread machine for the first time in years. Made homemade meatballs. Cleaned a bit and completed some projects. I had a cold so I didn't leave the house, and was able to get all of these things done. I got almost-caught up with all of my volunteer work, the Conservation Commission and the MFA. I will need some more time though for it next week.
I have come to find out that it is hard getting a mountain of stuff done with a little one. He can sometimes entertain himself in his excersaucer for about a 1/2 hour, but today it was like: "No, Mom, I know what you are doing, and you WILL pay attention to me." His favorite thing is to cough to get my attention. He did it at the Dr's office and the Dr actually burst out laughing saying that was the fakest cough she had ever heard. We call it social coughing here and make fun of him for it.
Am I that bad though? Things need to get done, and he needs to learn how to play on his own, right?

Squirmy Wormer

Lately the little guy has been a squirmy wormer. when eating, when bathing and when sleeping. He has always itched his head while taking the bottle (due to his rash issues, which can be seen around his mouth is some photos here). But now he pulls away screaming, and then 10 seconds later screams for the bottle again. Mommy is getting quite frustrated, to say the least. I am hoping it is not his food, which was prescribed to him by the Drs and now is finally going to be paid for in full by the insurance company after lots of drama... I notice he does itch more when he gets frozen boobie juice, but the crying/screaming thing seems to be universal. Doesn't happen when he eats food though, loves food!
The bathtime squirming is especially worrying. He is now way too big for me to pick him up and put his head under the faucet, without either of us getting a black eye or worse... So I am trying to use the cups and pour water over his head. This entices him to squirm and splash more! Any helpful hints?
We are still swaddling him, though he is getting out now of his nap swaddle quite regularly... I am thinking of trying a sleep sac for morning naps. But am quite worried! Must go, jumper fun time has ended...

First New Years

This year we decided to have a low key New Years at home. Our friends who are pregnant joined us (Pat from the previous posts) as did Declan and his parents (LJ's BFF). We had a last minute awesome addition of Aunt Mahlman too!
The little man was dressed in his Christmas best, as we have to use those outfits as much as possible before it is too ridiculous. I instructed the guests to wear Pajamas. It only worked for half of them...
All in all it was a fun night, but the last time we hosted one of these we were raging until 3 am. There was no waking up until 11 the next day and there was tons of fun. There was tons of fun here too - but I barely made it till midnight and was especially stressed at the thought of knowing I would need to wake up and be entertaining to LJ by 7 am. Which is really hard for me after some champagne (one drop even and I am headache lady). I guess this is the new New Years though. I loved New Years as child as my parents would hang out with their three couple friends. It was always such a grand and fun night. But in my adulthood it has kind of stunk. I think you always think it is going to be better than it ever could be.
I should say though, for three dogs barking and two babies occasionally crying - we did have a good time. When we get together it is always fun. We can't wait for little Pat (is it a girl, is it a boy, it's little Pat!) to arrive so we can complete the three best friends that anyone's ever had.