Friday, January 29, 2010

Crawling forward

So we believe Nate has figured out how to get out of reverse. He has been crawling for a little while now, but he couldn't seem to figure out how to get it in first gear and move forward. Over the last couple days he seems to have pretty much figured out how to move forward and is getting better at moving forward. There is definitely some technique that can be honed. Actually this may be good for us, as when he gets the crawling down better we'll have to chase Nate a lot more. His crawling forward actually closer resembles a bear crawl at this point. It is like he doesn't want to put his knees on the ground when going forward.

Nate is now one day shy of 7 months. It has been a great ride and the next few months should be pretty exciting as Nate continues to grow.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Bumbo no more

One of the items that Nate has used a lot of late has been a bumbo baby seat. He would happily sit in the bumbo and play with his toys. I use play lightly as he was really taking all of them and trying to put them in his mouth. We've been putting Nate in a bumbo since he could support holding his head up on his own. As Nate was learning to sit up on his own the bumbo was great at supporting him. It also served as a portable chair that we used for feeding him while traveling over last two months. Nate can now sit up on his own just fine. This is good as now we'll have to put the bumbo away. Nate has got out of the bumbo two days in a row. He has managed to slip out. At least he didn't somehow figure out how to fall out and hurt himself.

The bumbo was a gift from friends (Thanks Trey & Julie) and it has worked out very well and we are a little sad to have to put it away.

There are some upcoming changes to our household. Nothing bad, actually rather exciting in many ways. Let's just say we are looking at a change of scenery. I may be a little erratic on writing over next month as we deal with some of these possible changes.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Nate Jumping Around

Over the Christmas holidays we were given a slightly used Johnny Jump Up. It is an infant exerciser / jumper that allows babies to jump up and down. Knowing Nate's desire to be moving I figured he would like this. It would keep him upright without us having to hold on to him all the time. We got the jumper because my wife's cousins daughter who is a few months older than Nate just hates the thing. The description we got was she cried when she got near the thing. So the best thing for them was to get it out of their house.

It does go to show you that all babies are different. What one may like, another may despise. I like the Johnny Jump Up as does Nate. It easily attaches to a door frame. It is also easy to take it down. My wife may disagree with me on it being easy. I will say that getting Nate in and out of the Johnny Jump Up is not as easy as I would like. I think some of it is he gets excited and wants to kick. This makes it difficult to maneuver around the straps and get his legs through the holes especially for just one person.


Nate in his Johnny Jump Up

My final thoughts on the Johnny Jump Up. I can see some definite pros: Nate likes being able to jump up and down, it keeps Nate in one place (but still needs to be watched), and helps with balance and leg strength. However, like anything I can see where too much of anything could be negative. Also, a baby in the jumper needs to be watched as it would be possible to bump their head on the door frame.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Nate likes going backward

So little Nate wants to move around. He has become pretty good as scooting backwards. So he can't really move forward, but he is cruising around backwards pretty well. He is also getting pretty good at turning around. So I believe he is figuring out that he can get places by turning around and backing up. I guess this works, but in theory you could drive in reverse everywhere. Not very effective, but at slow speeds it could be done.

Sometimes all this backing up does tend to get Nate in a little trouble. And he gets a little frustrated when he can't go backwards any more. This was this week. Nate was moving around his crib after waking up from a nap.


So no real crawling yet, but at some point we'll be chasing him around the house.

Monday, January 11, 2010

No More College Football

So Nate wouldn't qualify as a college football fan (at least not yet), but Saturday's will be different for the next few months. I am a big college football fan and with Texas losing to Alabama on Thursday night the season is now really over. Nate slept through the Championship game this week. He went to sleep before the game started and did wake up crying after the game was over - he was hungry. But just maybe he was sympathizing with his mom and all the other Longhorn fans.

This weekend Austin was seeing record cold temps so I wasn't going to partake in many outside activities. I figured I could get in a couple good English Premier League games. However, the weather there was really not cooperating. Most of the games were postponed this weekend.

So I spent Saturday watching Nate move backwards and did a few projects around the house.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Nate's Newest Trick

In the last couple days Nate has been doing a push up. He is able to lift his entire body off the ground, only hands and feet touching the ground. He isn't able to go up and down so we can't punish him by making him drop and give us 20. I think it is rather funny seeing Nate looking like he is doing push ups. Somehow I'm wondering if Nate's Marine Uncle had any influence. I don't think so, but you never know.

I'm guessing this is just another step in his development. We keep thinking we are going to see Nate crawling at any moment. At time he does move (more backwards than forwards), but never can quite figure out how to get all his movements together to actually crawl.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Nate has been eating

Nate has been adjusting well to solid foods. Actually I'm not sure that they are all that solid. By the time they are mashed, pureed, and mixed they are pretty soft. We been adding an additional item about every 3-4 days. So far there have been no adverse reactions at all. Generally he has liked (or at least eaten) everything we have put in front of him. The plain cereals (rice & oatmeal) are probably his least favorite. I'd have to agree they aren't that good. I've taken some little tastes and I can see why he likes then much better when they are mixed with something else.

So far Nate has experienced the following: rice, oatmeal, avocado, banana, squash, green beans, apple, and carrots. I still think avocado is one of his favorites. Some of the items to try in the near future are sweet potato, pear, mango, and peaches. We've been impressed that he seems to eat lots of the food and hasn't really rejected anything. We had read that many babies will have to try things multiple times before they will accept them. He has given some funny faces when first putting some food in his mouth. All those different tastes and textures have to be confusing when all you have previously known is milk. Nate still gets most of his nourishment from breast milk, but he is getting more and more solids every day.

Friday, January 1, 2010

Nate's First Six Months

I thought I would reflect a little on the first six month's of Nate's life.

I didn't write for the first month of Nate's life. Most of the first month we were struggling with getting Nate home, dealing with the constant feedings, and the wonderful change to our lives. Nate started small, but he was a very good eater (after some initial difficulties). That first month is still quite a blur.

Breastfeeding - I'm still glad that we choose to breastfeed Nate. I never realized that mom and baby had to work so hard to get breastfeeding to go smoothly. It was a struggle at first. I can see where people may give up or move to formula at least part-time. Nate has been a very healthy and happy baby. I believe that breastfeeding helped on the health and growth side. It also meant that Nate and mom got to spend a lot of quality time close together. While we have started Nate on some solid foods, at six months Nate is still getting the majority of his nutrition through breast milk. Another great benefit to breastfeeding, his poop has very low odor which makes changing diapers much more pleasant.

Diapers - Wow, a baby goes through a lot of diapers. I went from basically never changed a diaper to where I can almost change a diaper in my sleep. We decided to use cloth diapers and while they can be a hassle I still believe it is a good decision. Also never realized how much poop can come out of such a small kid. As Nate has started to eat solid foods his poop has started to change. I'm afraid the days of very low odor poop are almost over. Poop has started to change as solid foods have been introduced. It is interesting to see how different foods go through Nate. For example, I never realized out fibrous bananas are.

Hiccups - Interesting how much Nate hiccups. His hiccups have decreased over time, but he still has them quite often. For the first couple months the hiccups didn't seem to bother Nate at all, but now the hiccups seem to be a little annoying.

Sleep - This is still one of the areas that we struggle. Nate sleeps reasonably well, but he still wakes up at night more than we would like. This means that we are still not getting the sleep we would like. The regular sleep deprivation is something we are looking forward to getting over at some point. While Nate has proven he can sleep over 8 hours at a time, that is more the exception not the rule. And even when he does sleep long periods it is on his schedule (not necessarily ours).

Teething - At six months, Nate has one tooth and another will come through any day now. Nate has cried a lot when as these teeth have come in over the last month. He also produced amazing amounts of drool. We believe that teething may be behind some of the recent sleep issues and certainly makes Nate fussy at times.

Gas - We were lucky that Nate did not have colic, but he did have a lot of gas. He now handles the gas with no problem, but there was time where he didn't sleep well and was rather uncomfortable because of gas. We spent a lot of time in first couple months trying to figure out how to prevent and relieve gas pains. In the end, time seemed to be the best cure.

Food - We started Nate on some solid foods at about five months. We've fed him rice, oatmeal, banana, avocado, squash, and apples so far. Nate eats pretty well and hasn't turned down any type of food, but the plain rice and oatmeal are certainly not his favorites. Of late, Nate seems to be spitting up less, but we still have cloths/rags scattered everywhere around the house to always be prepared for when Nate spits up next. I will say that the wood floors in the house have been great as it makes cleaning up really easy.

After six months Nate has gone from rather small (6lb 2oz, 19") to a healthy, growing (17lb 15oz, 26"), and smiling baby.

Nate at Birth
Nate at Six Months

Nate has been a blessing. We never expected Nate to be easy and his first six months have certainly had its ups and downs. The positives certainly outweigh the negatives. His smile and laugh make the difficult times melt away. Seeing those firsts (smile, laugh, turn over, sit up, etc) have all been exciting. Then there are the firsts to come (crawling, words, walking, etc) that we are looking forward to experiencing. The next six months should be exciting.