Happy 8 Months!

Ok, so I know I sound like a broken record here, but WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE???  It's amazing to think that I gave birth to our beautiful baby boy 8 months ago today.  Looking back, I can easily remember being a frazzled new mommy, just trying to figure it all out.  And these days, I'm feeling much more confident! I have learned so much about Colin - what he likes and what he doesn't; how to calm and reassure him; and how to prepare him for new things.  His little personality seems to have exploded this month, and he's had a lot of new experiences!

We just got back from a visit with family in St. Pete, and Colin did awesome on his first plane ride!  I was feeling a little anxious about making the trip without Marshall, but it was actually pretty easy.  Colin loved being wheeled through the airport in his stroller, flirting with the flight attendants, and seeing Nani and Pop Pop when we arrived in Tampa...they even had a sign with his name, ready to chauffeur him to their place at the beach!  Although we had a few days of rain during our visit, Colin was still able to swim in the pool, put his feet in the sand, and splash in the Gulf for the very first time.  We also had several visitors during our stay.  Colin got to meet Ashleigh, Marion and her son Jacob, Bob and Sue, Lari, Katie and George.  He also had fun spending time with his Aunt Adrienne and cousin Evyn, Uncle Drew and Aunt Rachel, and of course, Nani and Pop Pop (Colin thinks that Nani is the funniest person ever!).  It was a wonderful trip, but we're already missing everyone!

Marshall was sure that Colin would start crawling while we were in Florida, and he is getting pretty close!  This month, he learned how to roll over onto his tummy, and has been doing some serious scooting ever since.  He wants to crawl so bad, and I bet by this time next month he will have figured it out.  Time to baby-proof the heck out of this place!  Colin also got his 2nd tooth, right next to the other one on the bottom (so now his smile is much more symmetrical!).  He's officially sleeping through the night now...about 12 hours in a row!  It's simply blissful having our sleep back!  Colin even sleeps like a champ in the pack n' play when we're away from home.  He is now eating 3 solid meals a day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and loves just about everything he's had.  He's trying more finger foods too...soft pieces of fruits and veggies, toast sticks, yogurt melts, and even pasta!  He loves exploring the new tastes and textures, and is very motivated to feed himself.  He's also learning to drink from a sippy cup, and seems quite proud of himself...such a big boy!

Whenever we're out, people always comment on what an alert and happy baby he is...and it's so true!  Colin loves to laugh, be silly, play patty-cake, and he also imitates sounds and movements.  He shakes his head "no" from side to side, and still tries to get our attention by coughing and screeching...it's really quite amusing!  We can't wait to see what next month will bring!

Mommy's Mountain Man

In the last few weeks, we've spent a lot of time visiting Grandpa Lee and Grandma Mary up in the mountains...and I think Colin loves it there as much as we do!  Colin and I stayed for another week in July while Marshall was traveling for business, and we went back up this past weekend to visit with Drew while he was in town.  Unfortunately, the weather was not the best, but we made the most of it and got outside every chance we could when the sun came out.  We had a picnic dinner at Banner Elk Park, and Colin even got to put his little feet in the stream and play on some of the "big kid" playground equipment.  We also did some shopping at the outlet mall on one of the rainy afternoons.  Colin loved being pushed around in his cozy stroller that Grandma and Grandpa got for him, and just smiled away at all the other shoppers.  He even got licked in the face by a service dog, and tried his first taste of an ice cream cone!  My favorite day was spent blueberry picking in the morning (just before getting caught in a downpour!), and splashing in Wild Cat Lake in the afternoon.  During Drew's visit, we also let Colin take a dip in the hot tub and fed the ducks on our walk around Bass Lake.  Grandma and Grandpa have gone all out to give Colin every comfort of home while he's visiting them in the mountains.  He's got a pack n' play, a swing, stroller, activity mat, bath seat, and car seat...but his favorite new toy is a walk-around activity table.  We were amazed how quickly he figured out how to get around to each area, and how each toy worked!  I think it'll even help him as he learns to walk...he just scoots all around with ease!  We've all had so much fun during our visits to the mountain house, and we can't wait for our beach trip to the Outer Banks in September.  But stay tuned...our next big adventure will be our trip to Florida to visit Nani and Pop Pop (and Adrienne, Evyn, Rachel, and Drew) next week!  Look out, St. Pete...HERE WE COME!!!

Here are some of my favorite photos from our latest trips to the mountains.

And here's a cute video of Colin in his activity center.  Dad and Mary's dog, Sebastian, loves to play...and Colin seemed to find this to be quite hilarious :)

7 Month Update!

Today Colin is 7 months old, and we've really noticed how his little personality has taken shape recently.  He has a marvelous sense of humor, and absolutely adores silly noises and faces.  We've learned that he's actually quite ticklish, and he anticipates a good session of rough-housing with Daddy.  Colin seems totally fearless (and I'm not sure that's such a good thing!)...he loves being tossed in the air, hung upside down, and bounced on the bed.  His little squeals of delight are my new favorite sounds!  We're also amazed with how strong he's become.  He's now sitting without support and loves being able to explore his surroundings and toys in this new position.  He can hold up his weight while on his tummy, and is even starting to scoot a little.  He's completely intrigued by everything around him, and will do whatever he can to grab anything within reach.  We really have to keep an eye on him now that he's such a wiggly little worm!

Colin also cut his first tooth a few weeks ago!  I had lots of teething tools ready for him to chew on, but luckily he didn't seem to be in too much pain.  He really likes to suck on frozen fruit purees in a mesh teething bag - although this usually makes quite a mess!  He's also been introduced to a wide variety of fruit and veggie purees, many of which I'm proud to say that I've made for him myself!  He likes just about everything he's tried, but his favorites are sweet potatoes and bananas.  This month, he'll get to try some chicken and turkey, and beginning eating 3 solid meals a day in addition to formula (another new transition this month).  It won't be long before he needs that tooth (and hopefully a few others!) to chew on some finger foods!

Marshall and I are relieved that Colin has learned to fall asleep on his own...a process that took some trial-and-error, and a lot of patience on our end (and crying on his).  After about a week, Colin figured out that we weren't going to come to his beck and call at bedtime and throughout the night, and eventually began to self-soothe - a skill we knew was necessary for babies to learn around this age.  My last post detailed our weary efforts, and I'm happy to report that we've had pretty good success since then!  There will always be glitches in our daily schedule, but I think Colin trusts that he can fall asleep without us now...and we're all resting much more easily :)

We're so lucky that Colin is such an easy-going baby.  There have been days throughout the past month where he's gone to bed late, slept somewhere other than his crib, and had changes to his routine, all while transitioning from breastfeeding to formula.  He's even been in child care for 3 hours each morning this week as I volunteered for Vacation Bible School as a crew leader at our church.  There have been play dates, lots of time spent in the pool, and visits with family and friends.  And all the while, Colin just goes with the flow and keeps that toothy grin on his face.  The best part is, he is what keeps a permanent smile on our faces too.

Here's the latest chalkboard wall photo!

Discovering Some Furry Friends

Kai (our dog) and Phoebe and Jack (our cats) have been a part of our "fur-family" for a few years now.  But our newest addition has just recently discovered his puppy-brother and kitty-brother/sister.  It's been really cute to watch Colin's face light up when one of the animals comes near...he practically lunges out of our arms to try and reach them.  We haven't had any tail pulling or ear-grabbing yet, but I suspect this is in the imminent future.  The pets are somewhat curious, but wary is really a better description.  They know to keep their distance, but seem to understand that Colin is a part of the family now too.  Kai will often come into the nursery in the morning when I'm feeding the baby, and the cats will sometimes lay just outside his door after he goes to sleep for the night.  Last Saturday morning, Marshall got down on the floor with Colin to pet the dog, and I was able to capture some very sweet moments of both curiosity and love.  Even the cats couldn't resist the chance to get up close and personal with the baby, and get a few wonderful scratches behind the ears at the same time :)  I just couldn't wait to share these photos!  Hope you enjoy them!

 

 

 

 

 

A Fun First Fourth!

The weather couldn't have been more perfect for this year's Fourth of July weekend of festivities (I think God was making it up to us since it poured cats and dogs during the holiday last year!).  And we certainly made the most of it, especially considering it was Colin's first Independence Day!  On July 4th, we packed up our pool gear and headed to the YMCA splash park.  It was the perfect Americana scene - kids and adults in stars and stripes bathing suits, music playing, sun shining, and hamburgers and hotdogs grilling (for only $1 each!).  It's safe to say that we wore our little guy out, as he could barely keep his eyes open in the pool after about 2 hours of splashing and playing.  He took a long nap and then we headed to John and Kimmie's neighbor's party, and it was quite the shin-dig.  Unfortunately, we weren't able to stay for the fireworks overlooking the golf course, but we managed to get Colin home and in bed before the booming really started.  The baby didn't flinch, but poor old Kai dog hid in the closet all evening :(  Our neighbors bought a bunch of fireworks in South Carolina, and we got to have our own little fireworks show right in the cul de sac, while watching the city fireworks display behind our house.  It was a really neat sight to see!  Marshall and I had fun celebrating our country's independence with our newest addition, in the most perfect American way we could have imagined :)


Here we are, looking very patriotic!

 

How To Train Your Baby...

...to sleep, that is.  That's been my predominant Google search over the last week.  For the first 3 months since Colin was born, we were amazed at what a good little sleeper our darling baby was.  He napped pretty well, and was sleeping 6 hours at night beginning at 6 weeks old.  But around 4 months, that all changed...it was like Colin forgot how to sleep!  After scouring through many books on sleep training which I had borrowed from friends, I came away feeling more confused than ever.  The advice I was reading all seemed to contradict each other...one book said to let baby cry, so he could learn how to self-soothe.  Another book claimed that if you didn't tend to every whimper, that baby would feel stress, anxiety, abandonment, and mistrust.  There were even different ways to go about letting baby cry (or CIO - Cry It Out).  The Ferber method instructs you to put baby down for bed, then check in on him and console after 5 minutes of crying, then 10, then 15, and so on until baby falls asleep.  We had dabbled with this method a bit, but with no success.  At bedtime, Colin would usually fall asleep while nursing, but would wake up about 4 hours later and not be able to get back to sleep.  I tried feeding him, changing him, rocking him, going back in time and again to give him his pacifier after he would pull it out in anger.  He would fall asleep in our arms, then wake up the moment we laid him in his crib.  Nap time was better, but he still needed to be fully rocked to sleep, and even then he would only sleep for about 30-45 minutes at a time.  After around 2 hours of fighting it at 1 am for several nights in a row, Marshall and I were not only sleep deprived, but starting to give up hope that we'd ever get a good night's sleep again.  I began to search for solutions on the Internet.  I came across a page called Troublesome Tots, a guide to bedtime battles and baby sleep by Alexis Dubief.  This writer seems to be the unofficial spokesperson for CIO, and I was relieved to find many of the answers to some questions I had been having.  I knew that our main problems were that 1) Colin wasn't able to fall asleep on his own without our assistance (being rocked or given his paci); 2) he would often fall asleep while feeding; and 3) we eventually gave into his cries and came to his rescue, starting us back at square one.  I learned that by going in to check on Colin and offer him his paci, I was essentially teaching him that I'd eventually come back in, no matter how long he cried.  I also learned that when he fell asleep while eating or being rocked, he would wake up and expect that same scenario to get back to sleep.  The author equated this to falling asleep in your bed, and then waking up on your front lawn - you'd holler to get back to where you were too!  I also found out that sleep training needs to start with bedtime, and that nap time training comes after good night time sleep is well-established.  After all, baby has to have slept well during the day in order to sleep well at night.  So while that definitely took some of the pressure off, I knew the challenge ahead was to just let Colin cry it out by way of the "extinction method."  Basically, you follow through with a consistent bedtime routine, and then it's good night and walk away.  THE END.  The author recommends this method when all else fails, particularly if you've already tried the check and console route.  She also recommends giving baby his last meal at least 20-30 minutes before bedtime, so that eating doesn't become a sleep association.  So a few nights ago, we decided to give it a try.  I fed Colin while playing a CD of soft lullaby music, then we gave him a bath and massage with lotion, followed by jammies, a story, a cuddle and a prayer, then lights out.  Long story short (too late, I know...), IT WORKED.  It was heart-wrenching to listen to our little nugget wail, so we turned down the sound, poured a glass of wine, and tried to distract ourselves for the next hour.  And miracle of all miracles, he finally fell asleep.  We kept peeking at him on the video monitor, and could see how he was really tiring himself out...he'd turn on his side and begin to fall asleep, and then start flailing again, as if he forgot that he was just pissed off a moment ago.  The brilliant thing was that he actually stayed asleep for 7 hours in a row!  It was the first time he'd slept that long in a while.  On the first night, he actually woke up briefly around 2 am and whimpered for a few minutes, but I resisted the urge to go in and he fell right asleep.  He woke up to eat at his normal time (around 5 am), then went back to sleep until 9 am!  Reeling after a restful night and having my confidence lifted, I knew we could make it through round 2 the second night.  He still cried for an hour at bedtime, but stayed asleep the remainder of the night.  On night 3 he cried for just 45 minutes, and last night it was only about 15 minutes!  I think we're making real progress, and we couldn't be happier.  Colin is even starting to make the transition to self-soothing during naps.  So bring on the next challenge!  I can handle anything, now that I've had a bit more sleep :)

Here is a link to the resource page I found on CIO from Troublesome Tots, in case you're interested:
 http://www.troublesometots.com/cry-it-out/

And when he gets a good night's sleep...

He wakes up in such a good mood!  What a silly goose :)

Happy 1/2 Birthday, Colin!

Today, Colin is 6 months old...I just can't get over how fast the time has gone by!  It seems like just yesterday that we met our little baby for the very first time, felt him squeeze our fingers tightly, and instantly fell in love.  As I reflect on all that has happened in the last 6 months, I'm astounded at the rapid development that's taken place.  Colin has always been pretty strong, and we were amazed to see him hold his head up on his own, just a few days after his birth.  But now, he holds his entire body weight up, and can even stand on his own while holding on to something for support.  He sits on his own for minutes at a time too, but we're always ready to catch him when he loses his balance.  It won't be long before he's really on the go, and he's already so eager to explore the world around him.  We celebrated Colin's half-birthday by having some "mommy and Colin time" at the YMCA pool.  Colin loves the water and watching all the kids and fountains in the splash park.  He even puts his hand in the sprayers and doesn't mind getting splashed in his face.  I bet he'll follow in my footsteps and become quite the little fish!  It was such a lovely afternoon with my little man.  Here's the latest milestones on the chalkboard wall!