4 Teeth + A Cold = 1 Crabby Baby

Teeth

Blake has been teething since March when he got his first tooth (well probably longer...). He now has at least two teeth coming out and possibly two more, all in the top gums. He is a total mess. His gums are so swollen that nothing seems to make him happy. I sure hope if there is four of them they hurry up and all get out because all 4 of us need some sleep, and maybe a break from the drool too.

Baby Food

Last Monday I had to go buy baby food because we were almost out. It can be hard to find organic baby food sometimes and ever since we moved away from or beloved Super Target it's taken a lot more of an effort then it did before. So after some formula, diapers and a present for Blake because of his surgery I had spent close to $40 on baby food. $40!? I was a little annoyed it's only mashed up food, so I thought I will make my own. Of course I already have a book about it so I started reading up on it. Even though everyone says its really easy it sure looks like a lot of work. But I think I am going to try to make at least some of his food. I think it might be hard to get in the variety that he is able to get with the already made baby food. Like eating mango's for instance. I was reading about someone else's attempts at baby food and it was suggested to add avocado with banana, which I would have never thought of, but we may try that this weekend. I'd really like for Blake to eat avocado because it has lots of good things in it.

He has also been eating a lot of solid table foods. He LOVES rice, and is getting better at trying to grab food and get it in his mouth. We went to a African restaurant on Friday evening and he was eating some of their bread and potatoes, he couldn't get enough. The only problem with table foods is he would much rather have something from my plate then anything I put in front of him. But he also tried Cheerios today and was having more success at getting that into his mouth.

So, I have probably lost anyone who was reading this since I haven't been making any posts, but now that school is just about done I hope to keep up with this. Blake is having surgery tomorrow to correct his hypospadia (please don't google, I saw some pictures I really didn't need to see when I did). Basically he is getting circumcised and straightened out. It should go well and it's an outpatient procedure but I am not looking forward to taking him into the operating room. It is going to be hard but thankfully he won't remember anything. Unfortunately we have to be there at 6:15 but hopefully everything is going well and we will be done by the afternoon. We will have to find him a new pug toy to add to his collection...or is that Ryan's collection?




I seem to have passed (or will pass) all of my classes this semester. I am debating if I want to continue in school or not. I feel like I missed a lot with Blake, other family things and with the kids I work with. The only thing keeping me in school is that I have no idea what I will do if I don't finish. Ryan is more than likely transferring schools, so if he gets in this could be a very good thing.

As for my goals this year, I don't even remember what they were and am way off track. I am hoping to use this next weekend to re-organize myself and start a plan for the rest of 2010. Our family needs to make some changes and now we have the time to do it.

Update

I have so many ideas on things to write but no time to do it in. I am trying my best to get though school. It's amazing how much I can get done now that Blake takes two naps while he is at work with me. Sometimes I don't know what to do with myself or the girls now that I don't have a baby in my arms all day. But unfortunately I am already behind in one of my classes and I am not sure if I will be able to get on track or not. You have to get a B in order to pass and right now I am getting a B-. I am not use to having + and - because we didn't have them in undergrad so this kind of sucks. Thankfully I only have 3 weeks left so hopefully I can get this done and start enjoying my job and family a whole lot more.

Blake is doing pretty well. He takes naps for me,not so much for his dad, and is working at sitting up. He can sit by himself for a minute or two but he loves to throw himself backwards which is no good when you are practicing on hardwood floors. Hopefully he will get the hang of it soon. He is also VERY interested in food. I will let him try what I am eating because he cries and cries for it but then he never likes it. I think he has a huge issue with textures so it will be interesting to see what he does in the next few months.

Ferber

So, Blake has officially been sleep trained successfully. I feel bad about this whole thing but it worked and I am trying to keep that in mind. There are plenty of people that I talk to that tell me I have to let him cry, and I have to make him do basically whatever it is I want him to do. Then there are just as many people who say that you should only do what the baby wants and they would never make their child do something they don't want to. So of course this makes me feel guilty (but really what doesn't?).

We started last week by moving Blake's bassinet into his crib, so he was still sleeping swaddled with towels on either side of him in the bassinet. He did that for two nights. Then on Friday night we started doing what Ferber recommends which is to establish a bedtime routine (we already had done that awhile ago)then lay him in his crib drowsy but awake and leave. I should have taken his binky away buy I couldn't do it so he still gets it but we don't put it back in once it falls out. After we left he was quiet for a few minutes then started to cry. After three minutes of crying I went in to try and soothe him but not pick him up. It was incredibly hard, I was able to resist picking him up even though he cried a lot more when he saw me but I wasn't able to resist giving him his binky. So he cried for another five minutes and I had Ryan go in, Blake wouldn't stop crying for Ryan either but at least we let him know we where there. Then Ryan was to go in in another five minutes but Blake feel asleep. We were both amazed at how fast he settled down. He did wake up three times that night, the first one he cried for 30 minutes and the other two he cried for maybe 15 minutes so one of us (usually Ryan because he was better about following the "rules") went in so Blake knew we where there and he wasn't alone. Then he slept until almost eight.

Every night since then he has gone down with out crying AT ALL! I can't believe it. Every night he just goes right to sleep. The last couple of nights he has cried but he never cries for more then a minute and goes back to sleep, unless he is hungry. He even slept in his pack-n-play for his Aunt Shannon today. So the next thing is to work on his schedule and get his naps on track. I think that they will be easy to do once I figure out what I want to do about them. Everyone in the house, including George, is getting a lot better sleep. I am glad that we finally made the switch.

Bunny Rabbit