sleeping patterns.

Last night as Milo was falling asleep, I started to think about all the nighttime rituals he has had in his almost 9 months of existence. You know how people always say “Wait until they hit about 4 months, then everything changes…” Well, they sadly, they are right.

When Milo first came home, he slept in the pack and play right next to our bed. He slept best snuggled between Dj and I in our bed, but we were so afraid that we would roll over on him, or Maddox would crush him. So for the first two weeks of his life, he slept right next to us, in the pack and play. If he woke up earlier than we’d like him to, Milo and I would head over to the couch, and we’d sleep together there for a bit.

After about two weeks, he started to sleep in his own crib. At this point he was only sleeping about 4 hour stretches, which is still pretty good for  a wee-little one. Towards the end of the night, Dj would swaddle him all nice and tight, and I’d feed him until he falls asleep and then lay him down gently in his crib.

Around 2 months, Milo started sleeping through the night – in his own crib.

Around 3 months, he had it with the swaddling, so we moved to a light sleep sack. Same ritual – only now sometimes when we would lay him in his crib, his eyes would open wide, so I would put on his mobile, and within a few minutes he would be fast asleep.

Around 4-5 months is where this whole thing kind of goes down the toilet. Now, I’m not complaining or anything – but it took alot of trail and error. He isnt waking up to eat anymore in the middle of the night, so thats a plus….but he would wake up multiple times. Usually we just need to go in there and put the binky in his mouth, and he goes right back asleep.

I’d just like to note that when milo does wake up in the middle of the night, I’m usually dead asleep and don’t even hear it.  Dj 99% of the time handles it, mostly due to me not even hearing it. Oops.

Around 6-7 months – same thing, only he needs to be rocked to get to sleep. I started feeding him more throughout the day – pushing his last feeding closer to when he would be falling asleep.  Also we thought…”maybe hes getting teeth…” yah, not so much, since its been almost 9 months, and were still using this same excuse.  These nighttime visits to milo’s room were taking us a little bit longer to get him to go to sleep. He would require dj to sit there with him rocking him to sleep, and when we would lay him down in his crib, he wakes right up, all bright eyed kicking his feet, smiling…  So this would usually take multiple trips in the rocking chair to get him fast asleep.

8 months-now – The night time rocking chair sessions got old. So, due to us both working full time jobs, and being tired, we caved….In the middle of the night, dj would just bring milo into our room and let him lay in between us, and he would fall fast asleep.  We consider it a success if we can get him to sleep in his own crib until 5am.  Hell wake up anywhere from midnight-7am. So now the new bedtime routine consists of us laying in bed, with milo between us. He is all snuggled up in our bed, and wants to either stroke my face, or touch my arm, or hold my finger. It’s really sweet. He usually falls alseep within a few minutes. We leave him here for a good 20 minutes, then put him in his crib, usually without any problem at all. He’ll usually sleep MOST of the night there, but when he wakes up in the middle of the night, its usually back in our bed. Secretly, I love waking up and seeing him right next to me…but I know he needs to sleep in his own bed…

Now I know some parents/doctors suggest the “cry it out method” but we just don’t have it in us. They swear it works like a charm, and sometime around the 8 month mark I tried this once for 15 minutes and just couldn’t let it go on any longer. Milo hardly ever cries, to sit there and let him cry for 15 minutes just tore me up.  So off to our bed he went. Babies like to be warm. And its much much warmer in our bed. I’m hoping once the weather gets warmer and Milo is old enough to use a blanket (he probably could now I guess), he’ll have no problems sleeping in his crib. His room is one of the coldest in the house for some reason. I really don’t mind a baby sleeping in our bed, and thankful its just part of the night, but definitely do not want a toddler sleeping with us every night.

giggles.

Someone had a case of the giggles when we got home today. When Milo saw dj and I walk in from work, he giggled for about three minutes straight.

Once Peggy left, she said goodbye and closed the door and Milo started waving “bye.” A little late, but its the thought that counts, right?!

And just because, here’s a photo of Milo playing in the bathroom. He pulls himself up to standing and then knocks over all the shampoos and soaps that are on the ledge of the tub. He’s sporting his new big boy shoes that I went to get him over the weekend.

croup.

Poor little milo is sick with croup. He woke up around midnight last night coughing like I never heard him cough before. He was wheezing a bit too. We got out the baby book and looked up coughing. Milo was showing more syptoms of the “call the doctor” list, so I did just that. She quickly called back and asked us some questions about his breathing. Since he had stridor, she recomended we stand with the freezer door open for about 10-15 minutes, then move over to a steaming shower, then back to the freezer door. Luckily, This helped tremendously. We brought him in bed with us, and snuggled him until he fell asleep, which didn’t take too long.

When he woke up this morning, he still had the horrible cough, but not the stridor. The doctor recomended that we come in today for a visit, and they called and let us know that our appointment would be at 11:30. Milo took three naps from the time he woke up until the time we got to the doctor. He’s been a little cranky today, but otherwise really trying to stay positive.  At the doctor’s office he was cheery and cooperative as they checked him out. He got an oral steroid and we were on our way. He should be fine, but if the stridor comes back, we need to go back in for another steroid tomorrow. He has spent most of the day snuggling in my arms, asleep. But when he coughs, it breaks my heart in two. Poor little guy.

nonstop.

I cant get over how things change so much with milo from the last time I posted. He slowly figures out to do something, and within days hes doing it like he’s been doing it for nine months. First off, this little guy does. not. stop.

He crawls at lightning speed from one room to the next, grabbing whatever he possibly can. He pulls himself up on to standing and has knows how to fall down from it and land right on his butt. He loves to pull himself up on the ottoman and smack his hands on it. He pulls himself up on the coffetable and then proceeds to knock everything off of it, one by one. (currently doing this as I type) Not only does he pull himself up in the fridge, he figured out that he can now remove items from the fridge. And lastly, he pulls himself up on the bathtub and knocks all the shampoos and soaps into the tub. After he does this, he plops down on his butt and quickly crawls into the next room to cause destruction.

Remember my post about him fighting me while eating? Yah, not so much. I think I was making the food too “textured” because he seems to eat just about whatever I put in front of him, no problems, whatsoever. This kid loves his cherrios too. He has defintely mastered putting them in his mouth, and gets excited if he sees the container that holds the cherrios.

He’s talking more than ever too. Mostly he just says “da-da-da”, but he says it alot and often.  He loves to laugh and he loves to play with just about anything. The other day we noticed he was taking one of his balls and throwing it, crawling towards it, picking it up and throwing it again…for a good 10 minutes or so. He does the same thing with his little blocks. There are usually toys all over the place, at just about all times.

Now, when is the age when they learn to put the toys away?

introducing the newest baby entertainer: the fridge.

milo the monkey.

Milo has definitely mastered crawling. No more scooting….and now he is moving around everywhere…and hes fast! He is now able to go from crawling to sitting to laying down to sitting back up, etc – including in bed!

Two nights ago Milo woke up in the middle of the night, as he usually does. Half asleep, DJ went in there to give him his binky and when he started to feel around for milo – he wasn’t there – well, he wasn’t where he left him – because he was sitting up! The crib got lowered to its lowest setting today.

This afternoon, we were all taking a nap in our bed, and when milo woke up, he was able to sit right up and climb all over me, making sure I was waking up. We’re going to have to re-think this sleeping arrangement really soon.

Every chance Milo gets he quickly works his way over to maddox’s water bowl – In an effort to baby-proof this situation, I tried putting the baby gate up so he couldnt go into the kitchen. Within five minutes I look over and he pulled himself up using the grates on the gate and had himself in a complete standing position. Oh brother! He crawls over to me when I’m in the kitchen prepping dinner and tries to pull himself up using my pantleg. He is currently scaling the tv stand as I type this, trying to prop himself up! He just doesn’t stop.

The moment you put him down on the ground, he just takes off. He is getting into EVERYTHING – hopefully the next thing he masters is what “NO” means! He’s been hearing it a lot lately, so heres to hoping he picks up on it soon! But don’t get me wrong, we are loving this – were just in amazement of how quickly it all happens!

milo’s man crush.

Milo has developed a man-crush on our friend Jason. Milo has always been super happy and friendly around Jason, but last night he was really gushing over him. When Jason came over, Milo was sitting on a blanket on the floor and Jason was sitting at the kitchen table. For about the first twenty minutes he was here, Milo would just look at him and giggle and laugh and squee!

Later in the night after Milo went to bed, he woke up so Dj went to get him and brought him in the living room to rock milo back to sleep. Dj said that anytime jason would make eye contact with milo a great big grin would appear.

This photo was from a few weeks ago. Even the dog has a crush on him.

vegetable rebellion.

Normally Milo is a good eater, but these last two nights there has been some DRAMA when it comes to eating his veggies. His not-so-little-anymore personality is definitely shining through.

Usually if I have a hard time getting him to eat, I give him a few spoonfuls of fruit in between. This has worked flawlessly in the past, and he hasn’t really seemed to mind. He opens his mouth without any problems if he knows fruit is coming. In between spoonfuls, I usually sneak in some of the vegetables.  And sometimes I can even get him to realize the veggies aren’t so bad and he eats them without any more fuss. But yesterday, as I was tricking him using this routine,  he caught on and got so frustrated, so I threw some yogurt into the mix. Just as he would think it would be something tasty, he would realize I got vegetables in there once again and he would get so mad. He would close his mouth really tight and whine and flap his arms. I felt kind of bad for him, but really it was hard not to laugh.

Once again, it was the same thing tonight. He even seemed a bit more frustrated….he went as far as pushing me away and even trying to grab the spoon out of my hand.  At one point, he opened up his mouth with a mouth full of food and was sticking his tongue out. OH THE HORROR. HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?!! I didn’t get as much vegetables in today as I did yesterday, but I did get him to eat most of them. I let him finish up eating some cherrios, and I think he forgave me. He has figured out how to get the cherrios into his mouth now, so this keeps him occupied for a bit and makes all his problems fade away.

It’s hard to say why he’s not into the food. Maybe its still to chunky for him.  Maybe he doesn’t like the combinations of vegetables? He was ate it just fine earlier in the week – maybe he’s sick of it. Who knows? I really hope this isn’t some crazy vegetable rebellion already. <sigh>

*as I type this milo is on the floor playing with our junk mail and has been for the past 20 minutes. Oh, the things that make babies happy.

8 months old.

8 months old already?! WHAAAT?!
He can hardly believe it either!

Today marks 8 months for the little guy…. While he still has no teeth popping through yet, we started him on some grains, legumes, cherrios and protein (tofu!) this past week.  He also tried soy yogurt and loved it…He started kicking his feet after he tried it, which in “milo speak” is “me likey!” He’s taking to eating everything so good. He hasn’t quite figured out that he can put the cherrios in his mouth himself yet. He plays with them and tried to pick them up and they usually end up on the floor or in his lap. But if you pick one up and he sees it coming towards his mouth, he quickly opens up, just like a little bird. We went to the Chicago diner on saturday and I had soup with my sandwich, and I was able to give him the little carrot chunks that were in there. So technically he had his first taste of the chicago diner…just not anything super fun.

He isn’t crawling full-time yet, but he’s definitely crawling. If we were all carpeting, he definitely would be doing it more. He usually does some kind of combination crawl/scoot. Sometimes he finds himself doing a down-ward facing dog b/c he points his butt in the air and gets on his tippie toes.

Milo started opening and closing his hands, like hes waving “hi” or “bye.”  So once we see him do this, we usually do it back at him to try to teach him hello and goodbye.  Sometimes it works, sometimes he just stops and stares at us.  Something’s registering in that little brain though!

He loves playing with all his toys, and is super curious about anything you put in front of him.

crawling!

Milo crawled a few inches today! We opened up some new toys tonight, and he wanted them and I put them a few inches away, and sure enough, he crawled right for them!

Our condo is pretty much hardwood floors throughout, except for a few area rugs. I noticed tonight that he scoots everywhere, but when he gets to the rug, he gets on all fours and tries to crawl. He’s a thinker, that little one!!

In other things new tonight – milo tried pasta tonight. I bought some baby pasta and mixed it in with his veggie puree….and he ate it all! We are at the point where we can start expanding his foods, and introduce legumes and grains and proteins and cherrios and now I have to wrap my head around all of it. But after a pep talk with Laura who helped explain alot to me, I’m pretty excited about it.  But its also reminding me of how quickly he’s transitioning for itty bitty baby to not so itty bitty baby…..