High Chair!

We decided that it was time for Robbie to graduate to his high chair that Nan bought him... thank you so much Nan! He still fits in his Bumbo, but his "thunder thighs" are a tight squeeze and the chair seems to cling to his "beefy" legs when you try and lift him up out of the seat! So now Robbie has dinner with the big kids and as you can see through the pictures, he doesn't mind at all! I don't' want to start any bad eating habits so meal time will always be in his chair and at the dinner table (except when he's nursing... obviously) He's still inhaling the cereal and the oatmeal hasn't phased him a bit.

He goes for his 6 month check up next Monday, I'm so excited to see how much he's grown! That Friday we have his 6 month shots as well (booooo!) I hope these set of shots don't bother him as much as the other ones did.... he's doing so well with his sleeping!

Yesterday he had some major red cheeks, I tried to capture it on camera but the lighting was horrible... too much light (with the flash) or not enough (no flash).

More pictures here

"Squeaks"

That's our new name for Robbie. It seems as the days pass he's exploring how to use his voice and all the pitches it can reach. He talks to us through squeaking (rarely babbles), what's funny is if you repeat the noises that he makes he'll squeak back and have a conversation with you!


Yesterday I introduced Robbie to oatmeal, he seems to really like it! I'm going to wait about a week before increasing his quantity, I want to make sure he doesn't have any allergies to it. Babies, of Robbie's age, aren't suppose to have any more than 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp) of cereal in a day, so once we know for sure he doesn't have any allergic reactions, we can increase the quantity. So, for now, the daily menu is:


Breakfast: 2Tbsp rice cereal (add milk/formula)


Lunch: 1Tbsp oatmeal (add water)

Dinner: 2Tbsp rice (add milk/formula)


At first I was trying to pump enough milk so that I could add it to the rice cereal but I quickly realized that it just won't happen. When Robbie caught that bug it affected his appetite which in turn affected my milk supply, I'm taking Fenugreek again (the herbal supplement to increase milk supply) but I think I'm going to go off of it tomorrow. For the past couple of days I've had to give Robbie both sides to fill him up, but this morning he seemed to be quite happy with just one side.



On another note, I picked up some swim trunks (and swim diapers) for our little fish, the trunks fit him perfectly! I can't wait to get him into the pool!

Photoshop - Here I go again!

I was inspired by the pictures I took yesterday. I learned some new things on photoshop & I was up late last night making these "creations". Here's what I made:

In the clouds

On the beach

Making sand castle's with Cousin Kailey!

Pictures

So even though our monster wasn't in the best of mood, I thought I'd do a photo shoot with our little model. Here are some of my fav's. There's more on the website.

Thanks Auntie Char, Uncle Ron & Cousin Julie for the fantastic outfit!! He looks great in it and he still has some room to grow, so hopefully it'll last him a while!

Like son... like father

Just as Robbie's on the mend the other man in my life gets sick. I feel so bad for him, he's pretty much quarantined himself away from Robbie and I. No kisses, hugs, bath time, etc... I can't imagine how he feels.

Robbie's doing much better. He's pretty much caught up on his sleep, which is always good. He's got a pretty big rash on his tush because of all the poops (he has anywhere from 2-4 poops a day!!) and all the wiping. It doesn't seem to hurt him, but I've been putting some rash cream on it as well as giving his bum a little air time... seeing as though he LOVES being naked, he has no problem flaunting himself to me.

Yesterday Grammy, Robbie and I had a date. We went to a movie! Another first for Robbie!! We went to a "Stars & Strollers" show that accommodates moms and their babies. They had a fold out table for changing the babies and plenty of space to park the stroller inside the theatre. It was fun! All these little babies, some brand new and some running/crawling up and down the isle (that mom didn't get to watch much of the movie) We picked two seats that were right up against the wall and I'll definitely sit there again, they dimmed the lights but I was still able to see Robbie (we were right underneath a light) & play with him while watching the movie... it seemed a lot darker in the middle of the isles. Robbie was quite intrigued with all the sounds coming from the big screen, he sat there for a little while & just watched! We saw Dreamgirls, not the best movie to go see with a baby... the whole story line is in lyrics which is hard to follow when you've got a tired or wet baby. I think I'm going to do it again tomorrow, alone. It's at a theatre that's closer to the house & it's in a mall. We'll see how tonight works out... I've learned that planning only goes so far when you have a baby that constantly throws you curve balls.

Robbie's getting so good at holding his own bottle! I bought a new cereal where you add milk/formula as opposed to just adding water (what we had before) So I always seem to have an ounce left over so I give it to him through his bottle... he loves to feed himself. He gnaws on the nipple for a bit and then tilts the bottle up when he wants some more milk then goes back to chewing on it (better the plastic nipple as oppose to me!)

Spoke too soon!

I tell ya... I jinxed myself on that last post! I'll try and update everyone the best I can but my days are all blended together and the past seems like such a blur.

Saturday

He was in good spirit but you could tell he was a little "off". We did our bed time routine like we always do but instead of putting him to bed I rocked him to sleep in the lazy boy. He was up at 9 to eat and went down fairly easily then was up at 10 he didn't want to eat but I could smell something rancid coming from his lower region.... lone behold he had a major poop. (This is when the fun began) I tried putting him in his crib to sleep but hated that idea, his cry turned from a sleepy cry to an "I'm PO'd" cry. So I picked him up and rocked him in the chair, he would start to fall asleep and then would wake up to toot and start screaming again... obviously something wrong with his tummy. He ended up falling asleep on my chest, I waited until he was in an obvious deep sleep and then put him down. Around.... 1(?) 2(?) He woke up crying again, he had another poopy diaper. So there I sat with him rocking him back and forth while he let out toot after toot =( He kept crying while he nestled his head into my shoulder as he was overtired and feeling yucky. Colin was woken up by all the crying so he stood there and talked softly to Robbie with me, Robbie was quiet while daddy was looking on but as soon as he left Robbie started to cry again. So I asked Colin to stand there for a little bit until he calmed down. Robbie refused to sleep in his crib, every time we put him down (sleep or awake) he'd wake up screaming. Honestly.... I don't remember how the rest of the night went, I was that tired. I think Robbie got about 5(?) hrs of sleep.

Sunday

Well this was catch up day. Robbie napped for longer periods of time to make up for lost sleep from the night before. We rented a movie and stayed home. We felt like zombies. Again, I don't remember a lot about yesterday... I know I was able to get the guest room ready for Nan (she's coming to visit Feb. 03), I made chicken fingers for dinner and I did some laundry. I was preparing myself for another night like the previous night, Robbie & I were going to sleep on the lazy boy as that's where he seemed the most comfortable. Turns out I was able to rock him to sleep well enough that it didn't bother him to be in his crib. He woke up 3 times last night to feed & took a little bit of effort to get back to sleep, so each time we were up for about an hour.

Monday

Today Grammy came over to help out. She played with Robbie (and cleaned!)while I relaxed and tried to catch up on some sleep. I got a little bit of sleep, but I'd rather spend the time with my family instead (call me crazy). This evening I put my foot down with Robbie! We had done our bed time routine and it was time to go to sleep, so I thought I'd try rocking him like he had liked in the past.... his majesty didn't like it, he wanted to be bounced. So I scooted to the edge of the chair and started bouncing and realized that my back was starting to act up, so I tried to slowly transition the bouncing into rocking..... nope! As soon as the swinging started and the bouncing ended he was crying again. The pain in my back reminded me of the sleeping issues we had with him before & I WAS NOT going down that road again. So I put him to bed and sang him a song and kissed him goodnight. He cried for about 10mins before I went in there to offer him some food and to make sure he was okay. He ate, I gave him some Gripe water and then he went back to bed. He cried for another 10mins and then fell asleep!

I feel so bad for Colin, his weekend was a complete flop because of Robbie's situation. I know that it's part of the package when you have a child... but I just wish we had some kind of sound proof room so that he could get at least one good nights sleep.

Update

Well, he's doing much better today... but, whatever it is that's bothering him, is still lingering.

He was up for longer periods of times today (compared to yesterday) but he was SO difficult to put to sleep. During his afternoon nap I ended up rocking him to sleep because he just wasn't able to soothe himself. The same thing happened this evening, he just kept crying and wasn't showing any sign of calming down! So I fed him and he was able to simmer down and fall asleep. His poops aren't green anymore (yellow now) but they're still fairly watery and he's having several stinky diapers a day. His appetite is much better, but it's still not the way it was before. I'm finding that I'm always engorged and when he does nurse he's on so briefly that he doesn't stay latched on for the let down.... and then there's Heather scrambling for a towel as I'm spraying everything in sight (including my son) HAHAHA. I'm sure tomorrow will be even better for him!

Tomorrow Robbie and I are going to the wedding fair! I'm a bridesmaid in a friends summer wedding so I get to do the wedding planning all over again with her... I'm so excited. On Monday Robbie and I have a play date. I signed us up for a playgroup that is put on by Gymboree. I'm looking forward to meeting moms that are in the same boat as I am.

Well... it had to happen

Our little guy is under the weather.

Yesterday he wasn't eating that much but he was in good spirit, so we didn't think anything of it. Last night he woke up once and only nursed on one side (I can usually get him to have both to fill him right up!) This morning when Colin was getting ready to go to work I changed Robbie's diaper because I could smell that he had done something.... well, I won't go into details but it was watery and green (YUCK) After I changed his diaper he wanted to nap again and slept for over 3hrs!! I had to go in there and check on him to make sure he was still breathing, he woke up when he felt my hand on his chest, so I brought him into the kitchen to feed him his cereal. He ate it... reluctantly. It wasn't too long after that that he was back in his crib sawing logs again.

It's just after 4 o'clock now and I'd say he's probably been up for a total of an hour for the entire day. He still has an appetite (can drain an engorged boob) and is having wet diapers, so he's not dehydrated. I'm not sure if it's a bug that he's caught or if it's teething, he's in pretty good spirits and will smile for you if you try hard enough. He'd just prefer cuddling up to you while he whimpers himself to sleep.

We've got a squirmer

I had to take pictures of our son & the pretzel he gets himself in. Usually I don't put him in his grobag but until we put the bumper pads on I wanted something that'll keep his feet from getting caught in the crib railings.

This morning when I put him down for his nap he was so sweet! I laid him down & wrapped him up in the blanket and he was kind of rooting to one side. So I grabbed his fuzzy Pooh and put it up against his head, he nestled his face into the Pooh and closed his eyes. I can't believe how much easier it is to put him to sleep!

Robbie's discovering his voice and all the octaves it can hit. If you get him really laughing he'll squeal! He also has started "baby talking" he does the goo goo's and ga ga's, it's really cute. Hopefully, soon it'll turn into dada & mama!

Yeasterday we were playing on the bed and were working on his sitting. He sat all by himself for a minute and then started getting tired so I let him fall over (he was very cushioned, don't worry!) and so there he laid, face in the bed and bum sticking up. I waited a split second to see if he could figure out how to get himself out of the situation.... and he did! He quickly rolled himself over onto his back! Rolling is starting to get so much easier! He still hasn't rolled from back to tummy and I'm not sure how I can encourage him to do so.

Like mother like son

Growing up I did a lot of swimming and I really want Robbie to enjoy it to.

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooo

February 24th we start swim lessons! Woohoo! I found this pool in Calgary that is salt water and has a constant temperature of 34.5, it's a rehabilitation pool. I can't wait to see my little guy in the pool!

Now I've just got to find a bathing suit that will work with all my..... "flaws" lol!


By the way, yesterday was awesome. He woke up twice to feed & was a breeze to put back to sleep, no crying. This morning, Colin woke me up to tell me he was awake I waited a little bit to see if baby would make a peep... he didn't! He's using his feet so much more now, he's able to kick himself out of the blanket (after being swaddled) & he somehow manages to stick them in between the railings of the crib! I'm debating if I should use the bumper pads or not, I know it's not good for fear of SIDS but on the other hand, I don't want him to hurt his little feet. We'll figure it out!

Robster & Miss K

Well, I've been at it again. I love photoshop! I was looking through Kailey's pictures and found one that reminded me a lot of Robbie. So I went searching through the Robbie archives.... look at these two beautiful babies:

On to Robbie...

Last night was hard. He was up twice for feedings (11:30 & 4:00) which went well, but it was putting him to sleep that was painful. He cried & cried, it was his normal "tired" cry so we just let him cry... about 30mins later I decided to try and give him gripe water because this wasn't normal, it worked. The same thing happened at 4! Usually it's fairly easy to hear the differences in his cries. In any case, all 3 of us were zombies today.

But on the plus side... when we put him to bed tonight he didn't cry AT ALL! He fussed a little after his bath, while I was getting him dressed, but he was just letting me know he was hungry(he always eats after his bath & before bed).

Let it snow!

Today was a nice mellow day! Robbie was up at 6:00 and was asleep again by 7:00 and decided he wanted to have a power nap for over TWO HOURS! wow! He's been sleeping really well at nights, he seems to be up twice a night for a feeding & he's really easy to put back to sleep afterwards (no crying, just fussing & talking) Getting up in the middle of the night isn't as hard as I thought it would be, I enjoy the quality time that we get when there's no one else around (including dogs)

Grammy & Grampy came by and dropped off a snow suit they bought for Robbie (thanks guys!) so we thought we'd give it a whirl and see how he likes it. So we strapped him into the suit and put him in his sled that he got for Christmas and we went around the block. Like Colin says, I think I enjoyed it more than he did (not that he didn't like it.... I was just having a ball!) He seemed really cozy in it, as long as the snow stays on the ground, I'll be taking him out in it quite regularly.

I realized that I haven't been using my nursing pillow anymore and I thought it might help Mr. Robbie with sitting... it's fantastic! It prevents him from falling over but still allows him to work on the tummy muscles to help lift himself up!

Words cannot describe how much I love my family.

5 Months Old

Well I wanted to hold off on posting until I could give you a full update on the sleeping issue, but because my little boy is one month away from being half a year old.... I have to update!

Food - Robbie has been having rice cereal for 2 days now. Right now he eats 2 Tbsp each serving, he could easily eat more but I don't want his tummy to work too hard to digest it and I hear he can get constipated if he has too much. We've been giving him cereal in hopes that it stays in his tummy longer so that he sleeps for longer periods of time.

Sleep - Monday night I hit rock bottom. I knew that his sleeping habits had to change & the sooner the better as he's starting to get more & more mobile. On Tuesday we tried the pick up/put down method... what a crock! It sounds so easy in the book but it's so hard (physically and emotionally) You're suppose to pick up once he starts crying & then put him back down as soon as he settles, no swaying, no rocking, nothing! So, needless to say, my back started acting up. As well, it's so hard to hold your child while he cries and to know that all he wants is to nurse and this fussy baby will be happy again. I crumbled within 10mins and nursed him. That night he was up a hand full of times before midnight. Once midnight hit he was over tired & wouldn't take to the breast. Colin turned on the light and tried giving him gripe water (for gas), formula, changing his diaper... nothing worked! So I said just leave him, there's nothing physically wrong with him... lone behold, he simmered down and FELL ASLEEP on his own! What was the trick? The lights! It makes perfect sense and I don't know why I didn't clue in... he's sooo much easier to put down for naps and that's because of the daylight! That was officially our turning point.

Last night we did our normal routine (with the addition to cereal) and left the lamp on... he cried & cried. So we gave the Ferber technique a shot, you go and check on the baby briefly. It's all about timing it, once he starts crying wait 5 mins, then 10mins, 15mins and 20mins and then keep checking up on him every 20mins after that. It's to let the baby know that crying doesn't amount to us picking him up but it lets him know that we're there. He cried for an hour last night and put himself to sleep (YAY!) He woke up an hour afterwards (he's been doing that for over a week now) and we let him cry, it took about 10mins and he was asleep again! He did wake up about 10-20mins afterwards so I went in and fed him, I made sure he didn't fall asleep on the boob as I want to continue with this technique... he was quiet when I put him down & played with a stuffed animal until he fell asleep. He woke up once last night (YAY AGAIN!) at 1am, I gave him both boobs & put him back in his crib, he didn't even let out a peep. I was so happy that he was letting dad get a full nights sleep! He woke up at 6 this morning =D

So here we are the following day and I've just put him down for his first nap. I put him to bed at 7:38 and he fussed for a little bit and then was out at 7:54! I'm trying to not get too excited over this.... but I'm almost looking forward to bed time now!

On a side note, look at how well he sits up!

There's a new video that's in the process of being uploaded as well as pictures.

Enjoy!

A new routine in the making

We already have Robbie on a fairly good routine: wake up, play, eat & sleep. After reading the Baby Whisperer we're going to switch things around a little bit. Wake up, eat, play & sleep... Our main concern, like it's always been, how do we get Robbie to fall asleep on his own? (seeing as though I'm going to nurse him right after he wakes up) The author suggests a pick up/put down technique. If fusses, squirms, etc to let him do so but as soon as his fuss turns into a cry to pick him up until he's settled and then immediately put him down again.... and repeat. By the sounds of it people do this about 40 times the first time it gets introduced to the baby. I'm also going to nurse him in his room at night and then put him back to bed, instead of bringing him into our bed. (that's going to be the hardest part for me seeing as though I'm horrible during the evenings) Wish us luck!

Our boy's growing again.... we've got about 10 more size 2 diapers and then we're onto size 3! Pampers Swaddlers only go up to size 2 ,so we had to choose a new diaper, Colin brought a pack of Pampers Baby Dry's home so we'll see how they work!

Also! When we go to pick him up he lifts up his arms! He's such a smart little guy. He watches us drink from glasses/bottles and motions that he wants to try it too... we got him some sippy cups and filled it with water to see if he could master it, he did once but only for a couple sucks... he'd prefer the adult cups.

Operation Teething

Is it that time? Possibly.

For the past two nights he's been getting up anywhere from every hour to three hours, last night he decided that he wanted to party for an hour... seems like I was the only one invited, even the dogs RSVP'd "no". On Thursday night I thought it was because I had eaten a little bit more sugar than I usually do (started tearing apart the gingerbread houses) but he followed the same pattern Friday night. He was so hard to put to sleep last night, every time I put him down he'd wake up and start whaling at the top of his lungs. I even pulled out that exercise ball to see if that would do the trick... nope! =( I ended up bringing the canopy (so that he's not looking around and focuses' on sleeping) into the living room and nursed him to sleep (he was latched on for about 20-30mins... he's feedings usually only take 5mins!!) So I hope this is his teeth coming in and not sleeping issues, I guess time will tell. When I tried to put him back to sleep @ 4 he wouldn't nurse to sleep like he usually does so I put him in his crib to try and soothe himself. He let out some soft moans and groans for about 5mins and then silence, I went to check on him and he had his thumb in his mouth and was sleeping.

Robbie's been really busy lately, always wanting to have whatever you've got and has a two second attention span. Makes for a pooped out mom! His sitting is going really well, he's almost 90 degrees... he just has to work on the balancing. He's starting to roll over with less effort now.. he hasn't gone from his back to his tummy but is mastering tummy to back. All in time! =)

Photoshop

Shari inspired me to learn how to use photoshop, I've just started playing around with black and white/colour feature... here's what I've come up with:

Here's the link to the pictures I've done. Check back later... I'll see if I can master any more techniques!

Mushy Post

So last night I was nursing Robbie to sleep and I started thinking (that's all you can really do when you're in a dark room with a tired baby latched onto your boob =P). I am so lucky! I was looking at my engagement/wedding bands and looked back on our awesome wedding, then I started to think about my better half (Colin) I am so lucky to have such a caring, thoughtful, and personable man. He gets along with my family so well. Then I started thinking about his family and I'm so lucky that they've welcomed me with opened arms into their family... we are so blessed to have so many people love us. And then, of course, there's Robbie... this little guy can't even say "hi" yet, but when he smiles at you it's contagious and you find yourself in a smiling war. He is my perfect baby: he's always known the difference between night and day, he loves to be smothered in kisses, he loves to be challenged, and most importantly... he loves his parents!

Look at him:

First picture ever taken.......................... Most recent picture

Amazing!!

Welcome to 2007!

Another year gone and another new year full of unknowns ahead. I can't wait to see what 2007 has to bring to this family!

My birthday was really nice, Robbie and I spent the day with Grammy. We went out to Airdrie to check out a new baby store and then went to a kids friendly cafe. We had so much fun! The cafe had exercaucers, bumbos (the baby chairs that allow them to sit up unassisted) and for the older kiddies there was a massive jungle gym, slides, costumes, puppets, etc etc It's a really good way to casually meet other parents and their kidlets. Afterwards, all the family (including "Uncle" Steve Parr) was over in the afternoon to wish me a Happy Birthday. Grammy, Grampy and Stuncle Paul stayed at our place to watch Robbie for us while Colin took me out for a nice dinner at The Keg! I splurged and had a strawberry daiquiri before the meal.... it tasted soooo good! I wanted another one, but the baby feeder in me told me no. It's a good thing I didn't have another one, we came home to a crying baby that had been inconsolable for a while. I grabbed him from Grammy and he immediately stopped crying (that made me feel so good, to know that he recognizes me and that I can automatically comfort him) We gave him some gripe water and then fed him, within minutes he was out like a light. My poor parents tried everything: Tylenol, Bath, Walking, etc. He's been having some wicked gas lately so that must have been it.

Grammy offered her services on New Years Eve as well, so Colin & I decided to go see a matinee at 330. At 6 we got a call from Grammy saying he hasn't eaten since we left & hasn't slept much. So we left the movie (got to see 90% of it, so not a big deal) to take care of the monster. My mom seems to think that he's going through a phase where all he wants is me. He hasn't been overly possessive and he's really good when daddy spends time with him, so I think he might be playing strange to some people that he doesn't see on a daily/weekly basis. Who knows!

On a more positive note, he's been doing well with his sleeping habits. He has about 3 or 4 naps during the day for about 30-60mins, in the mornings he can even put himself to sleep! (I think he prefers it to falling asleep while eating) So I think in the weeks/months to come he'll put himself to sleep in the evenings too... hopefully! *crossing my fingers and toes*

Robbie has officially discovered the dogs. He reaches out for them when he's sitting in his bumbo. The dogs will come up to him and will walk by him so that he can pet them. Robbie was pulling on Emma's ears this morning and was pulling on Tonka's jowls yesterday, it didn't even phase the dogs! I knew that they'd be very passive with him... I just wish I had a leash for their tongues! The dogs have this freaky radar, as soon as Robbie spits up they're right there trying to lick it up (gross, I know!) The thing is they try & lick it off his lips... needless to say, I don't allow them to get that far. I think with time they'll learn what areas they can and cannot kiss.