Purr-fect Fur-niture

Our cat (Yuki) has been very tolerant of Liam's recent affection for him in the form of full-on tackles followed by using the cat as a pillow. We had a cozy little snuggle on the couch yesterday during our weekend sick-in.

Yes, unfortunately, we all felt under the weather this weekend to varying degrees of severity. Everyone is feeling better now though - I think the weekend of lounging around the house helped :)

Sweetness

Liam had a really tough time falling asleep tonight, so I went up to his room to try to help. At first, I tried holding him in the rocking chair, but he just struggled. So, I turned on the lights and got on the floor with him to play. We quietly played for about 20 minutes and then I gradually dimmed the lights and started to pretend I was going to sleep on the floor. Over the next 20 minutes, the room got darker and Liam played and crawled less and less. Eventually, he crawled over to me and put his head on my arms to fall asleep :) While falling asleep, he kept reaching back to hold my hand or grab my finger :) That was a highlight of my life so far.
After he seemed to be asleep for about a minute, I got up (he popped his head up too) and put him in his crib. He feel right back to sleep and we haven't heard him since.

Lingua Liam and Giving Thanks

We've started teaching Liam sign language because babies can learn to communicate with their hands before they have enough control over their voices to talk. As the book on sign language I got from the library points out, babies use sign language without instruction. For example, if Liam lifts both arms up, he wants to be picked up; if he reaches toward something with one arm and out-stretched hand, he wants it (or to be taken to it); rubbing his eyes means he's tired. These signs seem to be pretty universally used by babies and understood by parents without any coaching.

The book recommends teaching no more than 3 signs a day, no more than one sign per sentence and recommends starting with "more", "eat", and "milk" because they are usually the easiest to learn. They're easy because they don't involve much dexterity and they are things babies frequently want and need help getting. The book also recommends opportunistically teaching a simple sign for something of particular interest to the baby. For Liam, this has usually been "cat" so far. He now studies our gestures as we sign. If we're consistent, the book says he might mimic a sign in the next 8 to 10 weeks.

Thanksgiving was terrific. We got together at two big family celebrations and Liam loved it. He has always loved being around lots of people and new things. Since he's happier, and we have so many helping hands, we can relax and enjoy ourselves too. Liam got sick just before Thanksgiving and woke up every 3 hours during the night like he did as a newborn. It was sad to hear his little coughs and labored breathing while he tried to sleep. He seems to be over it now and slept through the night last night for the first time in days. In honor of Turkey day, Liam had his first meat in the form of some chicken and sweet potato baby food. He liked it, but he's liked almost everything he can eat so far, so he's not too picky. Just don't try peas and rice together (separately is still fine)!

Liam is still learning new things each day. As this blog also serves as our baby book, I'll list some: army crawl across the floor (necessitating some child-proofing measures), clap his hands with a huge open-mouthed smile, wave, stand up (while holding something for support like a foot-stool), point at things he's interested in (right hand only), turn off the electric piano, and make one of his toys play "la cucaracha" ad nauseam :) while rocking back and forth to the beat.

First taste of solids

I had to have a medical procedure this week and because of some of the medications I was taking, Liam was forced to have bottles of stored milk for a day and a half. I wonder if there has been a study done on whether bottle fed kids are more patient than other children? When Liam is hungry, he in no way wants to wait for you to prepare a bottle. Because of this, we decided it would be a good idea for him to have his first taste of rice cereal. We were hoping that it would help him sleep through the night better and groggy parents wouldn't have to do any bottle preparation at 2 in the morning.
To begin with, we tried it with a spoon--which Liam definitely did not like. This was demonstrated by crying and spitting the food back up; we, however, were not so easily deterred and we cleverly put a tablespoon of the cereal in his bottle. He drank it all up. It is rather comical to watch Liam drink a bottle. He is all business and I am pretty sure he can tell if there is more in the bottle and will not let it out of his sight until every last drop has been drunk.
The rice cereal along with his recent self soothing technique of sucking his thumb has been helping him sleep through the night. Now we just have to conquer using a spoon!

Ginormous Child

We are back from the west and are trying to get back on East Coast time. I am beginning to feel like Liam is a night-owl like his dad because going to Pacific time was a pretty easy transition for him, but lately he has been sleeping in and going to bed later than usual.

I continue to be amazed at the rate of Liam's growth. Whenever I take him out, people will ask how old he is and be amazed when I say four months--they say things like "he is strong" and "what a healthy baby", but I know they are thinking "what a ginormous child". Before we left for the trip, we had Liam's check-up and he was 18.28 pounds and 27 1/2 inches long. This put him in the 97th and 100th percentiles respectively. Much to the doctor's surprise, he even has two little teeth coming in.

While we were in Portland, the we put the moby through its paces--when you have a big baby, sometimes you need a little assistance carrying him :) Sadly, we did not get a picture of everyone who tried out the moby, but here are a few. I also wanted to share a picture of my mom's side of the family. We were there to pay tribute to her and it is so nice that she comes from a big family...they say it takes a village; here is just some of Liam's village.

Liam's First Trip

Liam had his first trip out of state Thursday and his first plane trip. He was upset in the airport as we waiting for our delayed flight, but went to sleep soon after we boarded and stayed sleeping for the entire flight. It was a bit awkward to have so much stuff along with carrying the baby, but overall, it really wasn't bad. I think Liam was pretty happy with it and barely cried any more than he would normally at home. We arrived really late Thursday night and, after a short introduction of Liam to our hosts, we went to sleep. Liam only got up once during the night and then we got up and went for a 6 mile walk with the extended family. We strolled along the esplanade and saw downtown Portland a little. That evening we went to a wedding and Liam was, once again, very "well-behaved" (i.e. quiet and happy) during the ceremony and slept through most of the reception. He was up for a while though and got a fun ride in the Moby with his "fisherman" hat. He slept through the night last night and continues to be wonderful on this trip.

Rock and Roll

I'm blogging while monitoring again and have just watched Liam roll onto his tummy, and then roll himself back onto his back! Although he could roll onto his tummy already, I think this is the first time I've seen him do the reverse, which is the more important skill considering the extreme warnings about letting your baby sleep on his/her tummy. Although my entire generation always slept on our front, it is now considered a dangerous activity to be avoided at all costs - including not letting mom and dad sleep because they must constantly monitor baby.
Just as I finished writing that sentence, he rolled onto his tummy and got stuck. I had to go up and roll him back, so I guess we're not "out of the woods" yet!

Moving and Talking

I'm currently watching Liam on our video monitor as he "sleeps" in his crib. His head is now where his feet were 30 minutes ago. He keeps curling up and rolling onto his side, then uncurling. He always does this on his left side and it always rotates him a little bit counter-clockwise, so he just keep spinning around in the crib. His eyes are definitely open and he keeps sticking his hands in his mouth, so we'll see when he actually goes to sleep...

Liam is also doing a lot of "talking" recently. He seems to especially get talkative when I am around. He usually says some combination of "Lah" and "Rah" but has a few other cute sounds in his repertoire. I've been trying to capture these phenomena on video to post here, but as soon as he sees a camera, he is fascinated by it and stops everything he was doing. He smiles more each day and sometimes lets out a joyful little shriek and that always makes us happy and laugh.

Since Liam is now able to roll himself over on to his tummy, but is not quite 3 months, our doctor directed us to not let him sleep in the crib over night while we sleep, until he is at least 4 months old! So, now he sleeps in the papasan chair Mariel gave us over night.

OK, he seems to have fallen asleep while I wrote this (30 minutes of moving and then 3 minutes to fall asleep). Good thing we have this video monitor - thanks mom and dad!!

First Visits

My sister came to visit for the first time since Liam was born and met her first nephew! She was a natural with him and dove straight into activity time with funny noises and funny faces. In this photo, Liam shows off his ability to "walk" from mom to aunt. My sister gave Liam a rattle-blanket combo that should prove to be a nice "b'anky" for him. A few of my college friends drove in to town this weekend to visit and meet Liam too. Unfortunately, I forgot to take any pictures while they were here. They gave us two fun toys (they help keep us parents entertained too!) and played with Liam on the activity mat. I actually got him to laugh a couple days ago during activity time. He's been smiling a lot, but this was the first ha-ha-ha I've witnessed. It was extremely rewarding :)
Liam is getting much more settled into his routine over the past month. He gets up between 6 and 6:30 AM, and begins his Eat, Activity, Sleep cycles. At about 7:15 each night, he wants his bath and bedtime ritual. He still gets up every three hours at night for nursing. He's gotten good at going to sleep with minimal help from us. We decided to let him cry for up to two minutes before rushing in to "shush-pat" him. At first, it took a couple rounds of crying and "shush-patting" before he'd go to sleep, but now it usually takes only one, and sometimes he just goes to sleep without any crying. That has freed up a lot of time for us (we used to spend 30-60 minutes each nap-time getting him to sleep).
Liam is also getting better at holding his head up and sitting up as you can see in these photos. He's still a bit of a bobble-head, but he doesn't need the constant support we gave his head just a few weeks ago. As always, he gets more and more alert each day and that's really fun for us as parents.

Addicted

As a follow up to Steve's post about how Liam gets to sleep, I feel the need to tell all of you that I and (if I can be so bold as to speak for him) Liam are addicted to the swaddle. It looks terribly uncomfortable, but it quiets him down almost from the minute you velcro him in (we use the swaddles for dummies). I spoke to the doctor about it, and he thinks it is fine to keep swaddling him. Unfortunately, the pre-made swaddles only go up to 20 lbs, so we have been trying to phase it out. As you can see from the video below, moving to the sleep sack instead of the swaddle has not been an easy transition. He is obviously very tired in the clip, but can't seem to get to sleep because his silly arms keep hitting him in the face. In comparison, the swaddle lets him be as snug as a bug in a rug.

There's Always a Bigger Fish

No matter how little sleep Liam allows us to get (or especially Annika to get), or how little sleep anyone else got while a new parent, we all have/had it better than this poor family in Florida:

http://www.local6.com/health/16276040/detail.html (you might have to scroll down a ways to see the actual article)

Their son was born with a rare problem that caused him to NEVER sleep (no naps, no nighttime sleeping) for 3 years! His parents had to take shifts sleeping so that someone was always awake to watch him. His dad quit his job to take care of him full time while his mom took an extra job to help pay for medical bills. Just this month, he underwent an experimental surgery that seems to have corrected the problem.

Activity Mat

Liam spends some time every day on an "activity mat." This is basically a piece of cloth with two arches crossing above it. From the arches hang various items that might interest a baby like toys and mirrors. In the first picture, we see what Liam looks like on one of the mats from our point of view. In the second, we see Liam's point of view while lying on the same mat and looking up. Of course, he can also look around and see other dangling toys and he always does. We usually put him down on the mat and talk, read and sing to him while he looks around and bats at the toys. After a while, he gets bored and we pull him half-way out so he gets a new view. When he starts getting cranky again, we pick him up and walk or dance around with him as he settles down.

In my last post, I might have given the false impression that Liam is easy to put to sleep. Let me expand on that a little. Sometimes, it takes an hour or more to get Liam to sleep and it might involve a fair amount of crying. However, sometimes (especially after a long period of activity time) it only takes about 30 minutes - 10 minutes of put down, cry, pick up, repeat - 10 minutes of calmly lying there or "dozing" - 10 more minutes of pick up, walk, put down, cry, repeat. After that second round, he tends to really fall asleep for a while (at least 30 minutes). Here's a video of Liam during those middle 10 minutes of calmly lying there.

And we're back

Its been too long since we posted anything here. Liam is still growing and staying awake longer during the day. His bedtime ritual is pretty established and we're getting into the eat-activity-sleep cycle on a fairly regular basis. We can now put him in the crib awake and he can fall asleep on his own. However, he usually needs to be picked up and walked around a few times before that happens. We're slowly phasing him out of the full swaddles and into sleep sacks (though he still gets a full swaddle for night-time sleeping). He tends to nap for about an hour each time except for one long nap usually in the mid afternoon. He's been getting to sleep by around 9 each night and still wakes up around 7am. Don't get me wrong, he still wakes up during the night for nursing, but 6-7am is his real wake up time - he usually sleeps through the midnight nursings. We take him on two walks a day and he loves those. He generally sleeps through them and it gives us a chance to just talk to each other. To protect his little bald head from the sun, we sometimes put a hat on him. Sometimes, the hat makes him look like he's a woman going for a swim in the 1920s like the one in this picture :)

We've read quite a few books to Liam already during his many activity times. He loves to lie on his "activity mat" and look up at the dangling toys and mirrors. This is a picture of Liam on one of those mats. He likes to bat the toys around with his hands and legs and look in the mirrors. We also still do the Elmo chicken dance every time (thanks again Beth!). Sometimes, we hold his feet so he can push himself along the ground by straightening his legs. He enjoys being able to move himself around like that.

He also loves to stand up (with us making sure he doesn't fall over). He's got strong legs. The main thing he's lacking is balance. A close second to standing is sitting up like he is in this picture. He looks so much older to us when he's upright and he looks much taller when he's standing up.

Better All The Time

Like the Beatles said: "it's getting better all the time." Liam is sleeping for longer stretches and when he's awake, he's more likely to be alert and curious than he used to be. He's also becoming more predictable:
7am wake up and eat a lot
1-2pm cranky for a bit and then a long nap
8pm get really cranky, take a swing ride and / or bath
8:30 - 9pm get into bedtime routine of sleeping with intervals drowsy nursing every 2.5 hours.

He's also been riding in his stroller on two walks each day with us and he tends to sleep through them.

This routine is good in a number of ways - he sleeps more at a stretch which means Annika does also; he sleeps more at night than during the day; and he's getting a bedtime routine established. His awake and alert "activity" times are becoming more fun because they are lasting longer and he interacts more by following objects and paying attention to things and faces.
This photo shows Liam during one of his activity times today, looking up at Annika with curiosity.


In this video, Liam is entertained by "Chicken Dance Elmo" a gift from my co-worker Beth. Note: Annika is off camera moving Liam's legs for him... he's not that coordinated yet.

One Month

Its been one month since we met Liam for the first time on his birthday. He's already grown so much! If he continues growing in length and weight like he has been, he'll be 131 feet tall and 1,568 pounds by the time he's 30! If he maintains his current length-to-weight ratio, he'll weigh only 36 pounds when he's 6 feet tall! That gives you an idea of how quickly babies grow at this age.

Over the past three days, Liam has gotten much better about sleeping. Its probably due to a combination of us figuring out how to meet his needs better, and him getting old and big enough to handle longer periods of sleep. Our friends Nate and Kris came over Saturday night for a wonderful dinner they prepared and a fun round of bridge. Liam was terrific throughout their stay. My parents came by Sunday and also brought Mexican take-out for dinner, which was delicious. As always, Liam was generally very sweet with the occasional crying fit. He seems to be cranky as we transition up to the bedroom at night and downstairs in the morning. He also seems to have an afternoon crankiness sometimes. Having just those 2 or 3 times a day is much more manageable than the less predictable patterns before.

We're also getting more competent and confident in soothing him. We've got the swing, Moby, rocking chair, pacifier, swaddlers etc. all ready to go as needed :) Taking him on a daily walk in the stroller also seems to help him calm down and sleep, and it helps us by giving us time to just talk like we always used to on walks. I think we're also finally starting to differentiate his hungry cries from his other cries which is helpful in quickly addressing his needs (and thus minimizing the crying). I'm very impressed with Annika's ability as a mom and I feel really lucky to have her taking care of Liam so much.

Happy 1 month Birthday.

It is hard to believe that Liam has only been with us for one month. Our days seem so full with him that it is difficult to remember what our lives were like as a childless couple. Steve keeps trying to convince me that it was easier for me when Liam was in the womb. I agree that, although I was less comfortable than I am now, it was slightly less hectic. But, neither he nor I would want to see him back in my belly. Holding him and watching him grow (he is a big 23 inches) is worth the effort. Happy Birthday, Cutie Pi!

Everyone told me that once I became a mom I would be so busy I would not be able to do anything else. The truth is that while I can't do anything else, it is not because I am incredibly busy. Instead, I find myself doing a lot of thinking while he is nursing or I am just holding him, fearful of him waking up at my slightest movement.

One thing I have been thinking about are expressions or actions that may have been brought on by raising a baby. For instance, why is it that when you can't sleep, people say to try to have some warm milk...the thought of warm milk does not sound that appealing to me, but if you look at it from a baby's point of view....

Also, as I pat my son's back continuously for hours, I wonder if this is where they get the expression "pat on the back." He seems to love it and for now it is the only "praise" he really understands.

I am now very clear on what is meant by the expression "big baby" or "being a baby." A baby is one who will cry at the drop of a hat or for no good reason. Sometimes, I am convinced, he cries just to hear how loud he can get.

I would also like to know where they get the expression "sleeping like a baby." It has been my experience that babies don't sleep for more than 2-3 hours at a time and seem to be startled awake by hitting themselves in the face with hands they didn't know they had.

I am sure there are expressions out there. Actually, I am sure I have thought of them at some point, but I am too sleep deprived to recall them.

Relativity

How long does 25 minutes seem? Really short if its your lunch break. Really long if you're trying to continually make shushing noise while hunched over a crib. Its all relative.

Speaking of relative, we had a few over today for a visit. My parents and grandmom (now a great-grandmom) and Annika's dad and aunt come over today to see Liam. Liam was on his best behavior throughout the visit and was either quietly sleeping, or happily nursing almost the entire time. And, characteristically, he started crying sometime between when they left the house and all got into their car to pull out of our driveway :) He's been generally very good today though so I don't complain, its just funny how impeccable his timing is.

Although I intended to take pictures of the visitors with us, I have none. Annika's family just popped in for a very quick visit but my family brought lunch and stayed for a while. Our lunch was facilitated by the great swing our neighbor gave to us. That swing has enabled a few meals now and we appreciate having it - thanks Jen!

Sometimes I'm more tired than I realize. Yesterday, we went to Great Beginnings to pick up a couple things and Annika came and stayed with Liam in the car. She was hankering to get out of the house for a bit and this worked out well. When I came back out of the store, I told her that I ran into a couple people in the store. She asked who I had seen in there that I knew and I said "No, I literally ran into two people by accident."

Bedtime for Baby

A couple nights ago, we started a bedtime ritual for Liam. To get a sense of how its going, the first night, the sequence started at 8pm and he finally went to sleep at 5am. The time in between was spent in shifts failing to console Liam between sporadic naps. Liam put us through our paces by only sleeping while we rocked/swung/patted him. The moby was one of the few techniques that worked to temporarily calm him (thanks again Nate and Kris). If I weren't busy during those times, I'd video tape them to scare soon-to-be parents and make the experienced parents happy those nights are over. I should at least get an audio recording of it and then use that to wake Liam up for school in a few years :)

Last night and tonight have gone much better. As I write this at 11:30, Liam hasn't really cried for about three and a half hours :) Of course, there was a little crying during his outfit change, but hey, its as good as it gets! Of course, the night is still young and we'll see how it goes in the wee hours of the morning (that phrase now has more than one meaning for me).

Liam is quickly growing physically and mentally. He's 22 inches already (grew one inch in one week) and is really starting to look around and react more to his environment - especially to faces that are close enough for him to focus on. Even though he's only three weeks old, he's changed a lot since those first few days... at least in our (biased) eyes.

We struggled to watch Atonement tonight. Note to soon-to-be parents: watch any complicated movies you want NOW because you won't be able to follow the plot once you have a baby. The multiple interruptions and intermittent baby cries left us wondering what that movie was about.

lulla bye-bye, hello rock n' roll

After a few weeks of trying to soothe Liam with the lullaby music that is emitted from his swing, pack n' play and papasan chair, I have come to the conclusion that he doesn't much care for it. I thought about it for a while and it makes sense. When he was in the womb, he was exposed to my spin classes 4-6 times a week; he was bombarded with Kelly Clarkson, REM, Justin Timberlake and Jamiroquai. (I have only made 20 spin cds and I confess to using a few more than than the others). So, now, instead of playing lullaby music to help him fall asleep, I hold him close to me, either in my arms or in the moby, and I dance with him while playing one of my spin cds (The picture was taken by me after a dance session). He seems to enjoy the movement and the music much more than a swing or a vibrating chair. Unfortunately, he doesn't fall asleep instantly and we generally have to go through a whole 45 minute routine before he will close his eyes. Whether he sleeps or not, it does tend to stop the crying, which has grown in the past few days. Can we say colic??

Where's Waldo?

Can you find Liam in this picture? This reminded me of the Where's Waldo books so I had to take a picture. It also kind of looks like he's doing a blue-screen scene for a movie where he falls off of something.

I can't tell if Liam is particularly cranky at bed time, or whether we just have less patience then because we want to sleep. I think its a little of both actually. Somehow, bed time has become a multi-hour ordeal involving every soothing tactic we know about and lots of good old-fashioned trickery (don't worry Liam, we won't put you in the bassinet, you can just sleep here in that awkward position in my arms... and then the slow sneaking over to the bassinet while trying not to wake him up).

We watched an episode of Supper Nanny tonight. As difficult as this has been sometimes with Liam, at least we don't also have to deal with a house full of kids who are out of control. Its the kind of show that tends to make you feel better about your own situation.