6 month check up

I took the baby to his 6 month check up at the new pediatrician's office. He's 30% for weight (16lb 10oz) and height (26"), and the doctor suggests I increase the amount of solid food he's getting to 2-3 times a day, instead of once.

I'm very slow going when it comes to giving my babies solid foods. I don't give a lot and I am very methodical about introducing new foods. It's probably because so many foods have ended up bothering me that I want to be careful with them. But I do agree that I should increase the number of times he's getting solids and he's hungry very often, I can feed him every hour and it's not just a snack most of the time.

We're also talking about moving him into Carolina's room. In our minds it's always been "their room" but Carolina knows it only as "her room". She may love having him there or resent it. Either way, I agree with the doctor that if we're going to move him, this is a good time. In a few months it'll get more complicated as the baby will have more to say about it. If we had 2 extra bedrooms, instead of just 1, he'd have been in his own room for 2 months now.

In other news, the baby has been sitting up on his own for up to a minute. The doctor seems to think in a few weeks he'll be sitting up on his own. That makes sense from what I know as he'll be about 7 months then and that's when it usually starts to happen.

The poor kid got 5 immunizations and his first of two flu shots. Let the criticism begin! He only cried for a few minutes (nothing like his sister). And was just glad that I was holding him after I got him dressed. I could tell the pain came in waves since he'd be okay and then suddenly whimper. I feel badly but I'd feel more badly if he got really sick with any of these diseases he's being vaccinated against. I do think this 6 month check up vaccination time is a doozy and could be spaced out, and I understand why some parents do space them out, but I still believe get it over with and be done. Getting pricked with a needle is a really awful thing for a baby, so why do it over 3 months instead of just all in one day? Apparently the healthy immune system can handle it. I gave him some Tylenol anyway just because by the time we got home he was very hot and exhausted. Whatever, I like to alleviate pain when possible.

The doctor also looked at his gums and saw the two nubs that have been sitting there since he was 2 months old. I checked the blog and remembered that Carolina didn't get her first tooth to come out until January, when she was about 9 months old. So if he follows suit, then it'll be in 2 months. If he takes longer, then that's when it'll happen.

Big stuff is about to go down with the room changes. I'll keep this space apprised of the progress. Basically, though, we'll tell Carolina the day we're going to start moving furniture and let her help re-design the space with us. If we tell her in advance, she will likely mull it over and obsess and decide she doesn't want it and then have days of protests. This way, she can have a total meltdown and deal or not deal but it'll be done.

Yes, I prefer the much-pain-at-once approach versus little-pain-over-long-time.

I'm still pretty sleep deprived so my tolerance is low :)

Eating solids

We have recently started the baby on rice cereal and added prunes. He was having trouble with his bowels and so I added prunes regularly to keep it all moving. I gave him apple sauce for the first time today and he seems to like it more than the prunes (not much of a surprise)!

He's very proud of himself that he's eating in the high chair. He beams with happiness when I feed him there. He also gets really frustrated and so doesn't eat a heck of a lot and wants me to feed him after about 5-10 minutes. I have made his first meal after we bring his sister to school the one where he gets to sit in the high chair. I find it easier to do that with him while she's not at home. It took me a few days but now I remember that I need to have a moist paper towel at the ready as the food goes EVERYWHERE on his face!

We've also been more diligent about the bottle as the first meal of the morning. He resisted like it was, I can't even think of what to compare it to, but with the formula it was just no-no-no. I thought I could just steamroll him into the formula without adding it to breast milk. Yeaaaaaaaah. No. It was about 2 hours of him crying and screaming and if he did put the bottle into his mouth, it was only to gnaw on the nipple and allow all the liquid to fall out of his mouth. In fact, he was so worn out from crying that he fell asleep without eating. I realized that no matter how willful I could be, it was not worth the aggravation and he wasn't going to budge until he was actually starving.

So, roll it back to something more reasonable. I pump 1 oz every morning and we give him that. Then when he's done, I feed him. As this isn't as simple as it sounds, and takes longer than you'd imagine an otherwise hungry little boy to eat, we'll keep doing this until he stops objecting at all and then I'll increase the amount as well as then slowly introduce the formula into the mix.

I remember being more strident and making more progress with Carolina by this point, but I think my will is bent by having two kids to contest with. So they win. Always.

Thanksgiving we'll give him sweet potatoes since we'll be having some, too!

A play date, imagined

Carolina has been asking to have these particular kids from school come over for a play date. I've had a hard time getting in touch with any of their parents so far, and while I've been trying she's moved on to talking about having a play date with all of them on a regular basis. Several times a day. In fact, there is one girl in particular she likes a lot and pretends she is even at the apartment sometimes.

Last week while we were driving back from school, she mentioned that she was going to have those kids over and named them individually and then she added 'Abuelo, too.' I asked why Abuelo was coming over for a play date with the kids, she just told me "otherwise [aka because] he's invited." Fair enough. In fact, the next day it was not only Abuelo who was invited, but also Abuela, Gaby, Angela and Papa.

When I retold this story to my in-laws over the weekend during our weekly video call with them, I did so in Spanish. Carolina heard me get to the end of my story where I added that the baby and I weren't invited. She piped up and said (in English), "You and da baby can come too, Mommy!" She will not speak in Spanish but she understands EVERYTHING. She's gotten so good that sometimes I'll admit that her father has said something in Spanish that I don't understand, and she'll just tell me what it is in English.

I'm really proud of her, I just wish she'd speak more. So I'm going to speak more with her dad so she can hear how a back and forth conversation in Spanish sounds, just in case it's the fact of her only hearing it from her father and no one is having natural conversations in Spanish on a regular basis around her.

I hope we get this real play date together soon, I'm beginning to worry she will only have friends in school but no one will want to come over. 

Sleep training -- again

Before I forget these details, I wanted to write a short post updating about the baby's sleeping progress.

He's been a great sleeper, actually, since he was born. I mean, in terms of being able to fall asleep without help all the time, he's always been able to do that. Not every time but he could and we knew enough this time around to encourage it. BUT! He's been comfortable in his bassinet that keeps up upright a little not his crib.

So, this time it's more sleep adjustment to the new place rather than sleep training to teach him to self sooth. So far, much easier (thank you sleep gods).

He's just getting over another congestion cold so it was really an accident that I started him in the crib all the time this week. As his congestion was clearing up, I was putting him in there for at least one nap a day.

Two nights ago, I put him down in the crib after I fed him and put Carolina to sleep. He often falls asleep in my arms as I'm reading Carolina her bedtime stories and then I carry him into our room and he's out for 4 hours or so. Well, I decided to put him in the crib. I figured it's the easiest one of the night sleep cycles to try since he's the most willing to put himself back to sleep.

I didn't hear any complaining from either of them for about 10 minutes so I took my chance and ran down the hall to put the clothes in the laundry, as Ismael wasn't coming home for another hour and if I didn't get started then, I'd not get the clothes done before the laundry room was closed for the night... and I HAD to wash some of Carolina and the baby's things for the next day.

I thought I was being really fast. Not so much. I walked back into the apartment, 10 minutes after I had left, to the baby crying. Hysterically. I have no idea if it was the full 10 minutes or just 2 minutes but it was clearly going on for a while as he was REALLY worked up.

I ran into the room and picked him up. I figured as this was as close to the start of sleep training as any day, I might as well start. So I planned to stay for 5 minutes and then walk out. But he was so terribly upset that I waited until he at least had calmed down, which took 7 minutes. He wasn't completely asleep again but he was calm again.

He woke up again a few minutes later. I held him for 2 minutes, and then that was that. Then up every 2 hours for the rest of the night per usual recently.

Last night he cried for 5 minutes, pretty strongly, and then I held him for 5 minutes. He cried for 2 minutes and then fell asleep.

Tonight, he cried for 2 minutes, mostly just like telling me, "I do not like this. This is not what I like. Oh, forget it." and then gave up and fell asleep.

I'm sure this is not the end of it forever, but this is a fine start and I'll take it.

We'll be introducing a bottle during the night with formula in a few weeks. I'm not only exhausted, really, but I don't make enough for extra to pump for a full bottle. He eats every 1-2 hours, and I make enough milk with enough left over but not enough for another bottle.

I think it's part of the teething to want to nurse to feel better and I had already gotten him used to eating less quantity and more often like his ENT specialist recommended for his reflux. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I have really no idea how many ounces he would drink at a time. I would need to pump a good many times just to get 4 ounces, which I think should be enough?

Anyway, we're just going to power through the "What IS this terribly tasting crap?" phase and put as much of my milk in as I can to help get his taste buds accustomed to it.

Here's to a future with more sleep. At some point. Soon-ish. Please. :)

Otherwise.

While my daughter takes a much needed nap (because some kid at school got her so sick she's got an ear infection and diarrhea needing antibiotics), and the baby entertains himself in his walker, intermittently throwing up and having a runny nose, I should share with you the latest in the Carolina Talks saga.

She uses "otherwise" often. I've figured it out, finally, that most of the time she means "because", but sometimes she really does mean "otherwise". So, enjoy the most recent examples that had me giggling:

1. I really like that pen, otherwise it's my favorite
2. When it is snowing, I will be proud. (Why will you be proud, Carolina? Don't you mean "happy"?) No, otherwise, I will be proud. I  always like it when it snows.
3. I always like you baby (said to Ismaelito) (Really? You always like your brother? Why is that?) Otherwise he's my brodduh. (aka Brother)

Yup, that's my girl!

First time at mini-golf: Hand in One!

Let's just say that on a lot of these: a "Hole in Two". It was done after the initial hit with the club, and then using her hand to put the ball into the hole. So we were calling them "Hand in One" shots. It was a lot of fun!

Rolling over and over and over, after weeks of sick

It seems like my son is a "stealth" roller. He rolled over to his belly and then to his back again - twice! But has only done it while no one was paying attention. I was sleeping, or trying to, and Ismael and Carolina were doing something while the baby was on a blanket on the rug. Ismael says the baby was on his back, then he looked again and he was on his belly holding up his head, and then when he looked back again the baby was on his back again.

Of course, if we grab a camera or cell phone to take a photo or video, he just looks at us.

I'm glad the last two weeks are over. Carolina had a cold for a few days and the day after she started, her brother started. It was mostly a high temperature but no fever, lots of congestion that stayed in the sinuses and lots of poop. Lots. And since the baby couldn't sleep when he can't breath well, and I can't give him any medicine, and humidifying the room only worked so well -- we had a lot of interesting, long nights to get through.

And since he's been resisting the bottle like a, I don't know what, I gave up trying to get him to take it while he wasn't feeling well and couldn't breath well. So, we'll start up again tomorrow. I'm STILL the only person he'll take the bottle from, and only after a LOT of cajoling. I'm just going to have to figure out a way to get someone other than me to give it to him while I am not around. 

I have to say, in the last two weeks I haven't gotten more than 2 hours of sleep at a time and it's rough. Mostly my patience -- with whining, crying (from both of them) and super-short naps (and lots of frequent wakings at night) -- is very thin. And I've realized it's less about the lack of sleep that drains me, it's the whining and crying. It's like when Obi Wan turns off the power generators of the Death Star in Star Wars Episode IV, that sound of going "ooooooooo" from loud to quiet when the power is draining off. Yup, that's my brain as the whining and crying out of frustration and unhappiness goes on and on.

The requests for her "chupon" are still coming up a lot but it's manageable. And she's started to decide that she's "afraid" to go by herself to the bathroom or her room to get something if we've asked her to. I've made light of it and get her to go anyway, or walk her part way. I'm not entertaining this new phase with a lot of sympathy as I'm hoping it doesn't "stick".

Gratefully, Carolina was well enough to go to school on the second day and, luckily, she was out the day that some kid with strep throat was in school. So she missed being exposed to him or her and so far no one else seems to have caught it.

We're in the process of changing pediatricians (I thought it was a quick and easy thing to do...) and so I'm looking forward to when we can go to a doctor that is only 5 minutes away instead of 30-40 minutes drive each way, and then pay for parking at a Manhattan lot. Although I LOVE their current pediatrician, it's just too far and too much of a hassle for when they're sick AND needing immunization shots. Oy!

Here's hoping this week is better.