4/28/12 Schedules

I found it odd and ironic today that right now I am doing everything in my power to get Josiah to sleep through church and in 14 years or so, I'll be doing the exact opposite. I have found bits of rhythm and cycle in Josiah's life in the last two weeks. With little additions and helps here and there, it turns into a nice schedule we can plan on. I noticed that whether or not he is fed right before, Josiah is sleeping from 9pm to 2am. For a while I was trying to wake him up at 11 or midnight to feed him to get him to sleep from then till 4 or 5am, but it never worked, he'd still wake up between 2-2:30am and ask to eat. So, I gave up and decided to see if I could work with his natural schedule to improve his 2-6am complaints. If he doesn't eat at 9pm or just before he will want to eat every hour after he wakes up at 2am. I found that to be too exhausting for Bryan and I to handle, even as a team. If I feed him a few times close together before 9pm say at 5pm, 7pm and then 9pm, or even 6pm 7:30 and then 9pm, he'll give us 2.5 hours between feedings after he wakes up at 2am. If we in addition to frequent feedings, do our best to keep him as awake as we can without angering him in the evening before he falls asleep at nine he will give us 3-4 hours between feedings after he wakes up at 2am. So, I am figuring out what we can do to work with what Josiah is already doing to get us the most sleep at night.
It will be hard to get ourselves home every evening before 9 to get Josiah in bed, but I am wondering if we need to. His bedtime routine is rather portable I suppose. We swaddle him and feed him or give him a pacifier and sing or read to him until he falls asleep. Sometimes we rock him when we are at home but that doesn't seem to be as necessary as the other components. So we could do all these things and just lay him down in his car seat and then put him in his bed when he wakes up at 2am or try to move him to bed carefully. I don't like for him to be in the car seat more than he has to be. We try to leave the thing in the car.
It is nice to know a little of what to expect when night time comes, rather than just having to wake up and deal with it whenever Josiah cries. I know that babies are ever changing and this may not last one. It's nice to have a schedule though, and we'll do what we can to work with it to keep Josiah a happy longer sleeping baby at night.

We went on a nature walk with my mom today at Jenkins Estate. Here are some pictures.

 

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4/27/13 Organization

I went to a consignment sale with Katie and finished up everything needed for 3-6 months. We are pretty set for 6-9 months. I looked for things for 9-12 months but there were rather slim pickings, so I just got items that were less than $2 a piece that I liked, and figured I would use the fall consignment sales to even it out. Katie said that Nike fairly well supplied the 12 month clothes for her, so I am hoping to get to borrow those before Nike needs them back. Then we'd be covered for a year. I am tired now of going through bins and stacks of clothes. It is wonderful though to have so generous people around me who will give and loan me clothes for Josiah. I have spent less than $100 on clothes for him and I have almost one whole year covered! He'll need a few onesies for 9-12 months, but even jackets, sweaters, and shoes are all covered!
We had so many clothes that fit right now that I got to be picky and pull out things that I really don't prefer. I think I somehow had full sets for 0-3 months, 3 months and 3-6 months when the 0-3 fit up to 12lbs, so he is on the tail end of fitting into those and the 3month and 3-6 month both fit up to 16lbs, and some up to 18lbs, so I really didn't need as much as I was given of those. I started putting them together as outfits so I can just grab the next one on top depending on occasion. There are warm weather ones, cold weather ones, and dressy ones. Josiah is going to be one styling baby for the next 3-4 months.

 

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4/26/13 Pizza Night

Every Friday night we go to my parents house for pizza night. There is pizza and a bunch of other non-related foods that Dad gets mostly from Costco like spring rolls, yakisoba, rotisery chicken, sushi, a veggie tray, a chicken and rice dish, and other just-apply-heat foods. We eat, chat, watch funny YouTube clips and a movie. It is nice to have a time when we always see my family. Others are also there. Carol would come before she recently passed away. Joel, Dad's buddy from Techtronix who now works at a chocolate store, comes each time. Twi and Jason come about once a month and sometimes more. I wondered if it would be hard at first adding Josiah to the mix. It went rather smoothly actually. It's not hard to nurse Josiah there. There are rooms I can go lay down in if I want, or I can just sit on the couch in the back with a nursing cover. It's not too hard to eat one handed and hold a baby, and I rarely even have to try. If Mom or Jason are there, one of them will hold Josiah, and we eat in shifts. Diaper changing is pretty easy anywhere. Josiah sleeps pretty well anywhere we can swaddle him, so as long as we remember to bring one, that's not really an issue either. This week, I got to see TJ, my coworker whose backyard meets up with my parents' yard. He was out in his garden, so I I took Josiah over to say hello. He and his wife got to hold Josiah, and we chatted about life for a bit. It was nice to feel community; to feel like I know my neighbors... well, my parent's neighbors anyway.

Playing with Katie's toys

Swaddle Fail

Rusty was determined to cuddle right then.

Going to sleep at pizza night

 

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4/25/13 Blessings

I was so tired today. The last two nights I have been keeping Josiah in our room. I put an all night diaper (a Freetime with a hemp insert in it) on Josiah and just fed him and burped him and put him back down to sleep. The first night went fairly well with the exception of a grunting and fussing period from 5am-6am. Otherwise, he slept when he wasn't eating, so I got enough sleep, just broken up. It was worth it to go to the beach. Last night, though, was not so great. Josiah ate at 11:45 when we got home from the beach, and then again at 2, and at 3:34, 5:15, 6:30, 8:00 and at 9:40. He also had his grunting and fussing from 5-6. Usually, he'll eat 4 times: midnight, 3am, 6am, and 9am. Not 7 times. I am wondering now if he was going longer stretches during the day, while at the beach, and that made him extra hungry at night? Whatever it was, that was so hard. I have been so tired all day. I ate breakfast at almost 11 because I just couldn't drag myself out of bed, even though it's not like I was really getting much sleep there. I had just enough time to eat before Josiah got tired and was fussing again. I got him to sleep and chose to shower while he slept to get the remaining sand off of me. Bryan came home from helping my mom with a load to the dump at noon. Josiah woke up soon after acting hungry, but my amazing husband worked his baby whispering magic and got him back to sleep until 1:15, so I wrote my blog posts and ate a small lunch before feeding him again. He got back to an every 3 hour schedule after that. Bryan watched him in the afternoon so I could nap for a couple hours. Oh, how that helped! I felt so much better! I don't know how mothers do this without someone to pitch in and help with feedings at night. I am so blessed that Bryan is so involved and willing. I have had such awesome support this whole time. It has been amazing!

We got together with Lori and Chris for dinner. Lori made paella. It is delicious Spanish goodness! Bryan said he'd eat it regularly and had two heaping plates full, so we are trading recipes since Lori loved the blackberry ginger clafouti I made for dessert. It was great to see them! We have a date for ice cream next week to prevent the long spells of not seeing each other. After dinner, we walked over to see Joni and Stu. It was great to see them. It had also been way too long. This was the first time they got to meet Josiah, and he's already 2 months old. He was really good the whole time even with Cada yipping for attention. They are such great people. They offered the beach cabin if we want to go stay sometime before I go back to work. We'll have to take them up on that offer.

Paella

Christ & Lori invested in some of their own baby gear, like this bassinet/playpen/changing table since their will be more babies around. Lori's sister is also expecting.

 

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4/24/13 First Beach Trip

We went to cannon beach today! We met Savannah down there. Her parents have a beach cabin there. It's nice to have a place to sit on the couch or to get ready when you are at the beach. Pictures say it all.

Rusty sleeping in the truck on the way there

 

Josiah sleeping in the truck on the way there.

 

Riding in the stroller without the car seat like a big boy

Cutie!

At the beach when the wind died down to have a fire and watch the sun set

more cuteness

 

the pyros

Haystack Rock

marshmallow baby

 

Warm things make Josiah smile!

It was so relaxing

Beautiful!

Refreshing!

Hanging out by the fire!

The moon came up!

Beautiful and full!

 

It was a perfect first trip to the beach!

 

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4/23/13 Date night

Josiah did a little better today. He is still generally grumbling rather than happily talking, but no real screaming fits.

Josiah hung out in his bouncy seat outside while Bryan and I cleaned up the area near he garden. I got my trellis rose bush pruned and all the fire wood and palates are now in the back. Bryan and my mom even got a lot of the garden path dug out so we can put down a good base and then nice pavers that match the back patio and path. We also brushed a lot of fur out of rusty today. It was nice to do it outside so we didn't have to vaccume it up afterword. It's shedding season!

My mom stayed an watched Josiah so we could go on a dinner date. We went to cheese cake factory. It was delicious. We are better at holding a good conversation with each other now, and really enjoyed ourselves. It is very nice to not have to worry about Josiah crying and bothering everyone else in the restaurant.

 

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4/22/13 Two Month Checkup

 

What I found in the living room when I got up this morning.

 

We are still going to the pediatrician that saw Josiah in the hospital right after he was born. I had wanted to go to a family practice physician, but the one I chose was on maternity leave, and we would have to establish care with someone else and then switch, so we decided to just stick with the doctor who saw him in the hospital. It has turned out to be quite a good choice. She is very good with him and very conveniently located. After talking today, Bryan and I think we will just keep taking Josiah there.

At the appointment, Josiah weighed in at 12lbs 1oz. We took bets on the way to the appointment with the winner to getting a massage by the loser. Bryan chose 11lb 5 oz, and I picked 11lb 8oz. I won! Really though, Josiah won. He was a whole 9 ounces more than I guessed! He is 23 inches tall, and his head is getting bigger, 38cm I think. He was in about the 45th percentile for weight and high 30s (like 37 or something) for height and head. He did pretty well except he was hungry because I was stalling feeding him until after the shots. He got 3 shots and an oral vaccine today. He cried when the first needle went in and cried all the more with the next two. He settled pretty well with nursing right afterword though. He slept pretty much solid though a lot of errands and straight until his next feeding. After that he was awake and kinda talking, kinda grumbling. He cried with any position change, and was not happy about anything.

clingy, lethargic, fussy baby

 

We just kinda like this the rest of the evening. We did normal monday dinner with friends and he cried all the time. We tried to eat and grumbled with little fusses for most of the time after that. He cried hard if we bumped his legs, tried to stand him on his legs, laid him on his stomach, or moved him when he wasn't ready. I decided to try Tylenol at that point. The doctor said he could have 80mg. Katie had a weight based graph that said that was double what he should get for his weight, so we tried the smaller dose. After we got home and he nursed again he was happy for about 45 minutes; cooing, laying on his back, and even tolerated a bit of tummy time before crying because of tiredness.

So tonight I plan to have him in the cosleeper in case he wants to eat frequently, and because nursing seems to be more comforting to him than a bottle. I have some Tylenol to give him at the next feeding, and I hope this way the three of us will get a little sleep.

 

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4/21/13 Two Months Old

2 month old growth picture

Left to right: one week, one month, two months

Rocking Tummy Time

Cried a lot during church and finally fell asleep in the hallway.

Using his hand to hold his pacifier in.

Practicing trunk and neck control.

Rusty wants Josiah to throw the toy.

 

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