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.

Stomach Sleeper

Nate is now five months old. A few days ago Nate figured out how to flip from his back to his stomach we've figured out over the last few days that he likes sleeping on his stomach. At first there were worries that we could be causing Nate harm by letting him sleep on his stomach. The back to sleep movement has really strong message that babies should always sleep on their back.

We tried to figure out if we should flip Nate back over or not. I found a lot of conflicting answers. We felt that Nate was actually sleeping better on his stomach, which he is not always sleeping great so why change a good thing. My best piece of information that was clear and concise I found when reading through information on the First Candle site (www.firstcandle.org). There was the answer of what to do when baby starts rolling over. They made it clear that every baby is going to determine their favorite sleep position. By flipping them back over you end up disturbing everyone's sleep. Just make sure that sleep area is free of anything (blankets, toys, etc) that could get their face next to.

So Nate has been sleeping pretty well recently and I think being on his stomach may be a factor. If Nate ends up taking after me he'll sleep on his stomach a lot. We will still put Nate on his back to go to sleep, but if he flips over we won't do anything, except let him sleep.

In doing the research I came up with some other good news. Nate isn't in any high risk categories for SIDS. The major risk factors are below.

* Infants born to mothers who are less than 20 years old at the time of their first pregnancy
* Babies born to mothers who had no or late prenatal care
* Infants born to mothers with too short an interval between pregnancies
* Premature or low birth weight babies and multiples
* Babies born to mothers who smoke during or after pregnancy
* Infants who are placed to sleep on their stomach or side (we place him on his back)

In addition, breastfeeding and using a pacifier are thought to further lower risk of SIDS. So hopefully, with this question answered Nate will just sleep (and sleep some more).

Sleeping 9-to-5

While Nate still has his sleep issues he is certainly increasing the length of time he is sleeping. Until last night he has slept stretches of up to 7 hours at a time. Last night he actually slept almost 8 hours. By the time we actually got him to bed last night it was just after 9pm. Then Nate slept until just before 5am this morning. So he has almost eclipsed the 8 hour mark.

From previous experience we know that Nate will have his issues that will wake us up more at night. However, we also know that he will continue to improve his sleep over time. So very soon we should get the illusive sleep through the night in terms of our schedule. Nate has gotten much better over the last month and has started to settle into a little bit of a routine. This is good for Sherri and I as we look forward to more regular sleep. We know there will be those sleepless nights, but we hope those will be kept to a minimum.

Where the Wild Things Are

Which will be better the book or the movie. The book is certainly a classic that many a child is familiar with. While Where the Wild Things Are is not in Nate's library of books (at least not yet), I'm sure it is a book we'll share with him at some point. Nate is certainly not old enough to go see the movie. I'm guessing the movie could be traumatic to a young child. Also, movie's are not something the Sherri and I have taken the time to see since Nate came into our life.

I have a friend who is a movie critic in his spare time. Danny has always been my resource on what movies to see and not to see. When we used to see movies I would always consult his review. I don't always agree with his opinions, but we often see eye to eye and if nothing else he always provides a solid opinion. I encourage you to check out his site Crunch on This. His review of Where the Wild Things Are is here. Danny gives the move an A- and praises the all the visual aspects of the movie.

Little prop's to Danny since I'm talking him up. He will soon have a little one of his own. For some reason I think his little one will see movies than Nate. Danny - get your sleep now...

A Sleep Advance

I believe we may have just had a minor breakthrough on the sleep front. Of course, we could take a step or two back, but last night Nate slept really well. He only woke us up once during the night. Typically he has been waking up twice at night needing to feed. If we can keep this up on a somewhat regular basis it will go a long way to us not being zombies in the morning.

For whatever reason, last night Nate really didn't want to go to bed. We had tried to put him down a couple times and he wanted nothing to do with sleep. Once he finally decided that he would go to sleep, he sleep for five hours. Sherri and I woke up and both asked if we slept through Nate waking up earlier. Nope, he had actually slept the whole time.

So during the 10th week Nate managed to only wake us up once during a night. The next target is sleeping through the night. We know that may be a little ways off, but if he can keep up his feat of last night it will go a long way to us getting some more reasonable sleep.

First night in Baby's Room

Last night was the first night that Nate slept in his own room. Since we had brought him home he had been sleeping in a bassinet in our bedroom. We had been debating on when to start having him sleep in his crib. There are some arguments that you can let infants sleep in another room immediately. Others believe that mom and baby should sheep near each other for as long as possible.

I don't want to debate pros and cons of each. I'll say that every baby is different and what works for one may not work another. One of key trade-offs is now when Nate wakes up we have to go across the house. This means feedings may not be as convenient. We have a baby monitor set up so as far as sounds go he might as well be in our room.

We are hoping that very soon Nate will only be waking us up once a night. Currently he is waking us up twice a night with time between feedings being 3 to 4 hours. As that slowly increases our sleep should get better.

Nate still is having some gas issues, but it has gotten a lot better. With the combined fact that he was sleeping better over last couple nights and he is starting to outgrow the bassinet, we figured it was about time.

So everything went well. Nate slept well in his crib. Hopefully future transitions will go so smoothly.

New baby is like jet lag

I was trying to describe to someone how I was feeling the last two months. Yes, I'm sleep deprived and not myself, but I'm still functional for at least part of the day, especially after lots of caffeine. Then there is the fact that you don't feel in control. You don't know when you are going to be able to sleep or how long you'll be able to sleep.

I started to think back and this feels a lot like jet lag when flying back from Asia. The big difference is it has taken a lot longer to get back to normal. In this case back to normal may be a different normal. The advantage of jet lag is you return to normal after a few days. It has been two months and we are still struggling with sleep.

So if you've experienced jet lag from really long flights and haven't had kids that might give you some expectation of what you are in for. If you've had kids and are going to be flying long distances for the first time you already have an idea of the jet lag will likely feel like. Of course, everyone is different on how they deal with sleep derivation, jet lag, and newborns. Just my personal observation.

Sleeping Longer

Last night Nate slept for 4 1/2 hours straight. That was his longest uninterrupted sleep to date. We realize that one night may not mean this will be the norm. However, it does prove that he can sleep for long enough that on a good night he would only have to wake up once at night to be fed.

Even though Nate slept for 4 1/2 hours last night, once he woke up he didn't want to go back to bed. So the overall nights sleep was not wonderful. However, maybe before too long we'll get back to enough sleep that I won't have to drink large amounts of caffeine during the day to not be a zombie. I started thinking about a few months ago when I was sleeping well at night. A cup of coffee or a Dr. Pepper in the morning got me going and that was about all I needed all day. Now at least two cups of coffee in the morning and a couple caffeinated drinks during the day are more the norm. Even then I'm still not myself.

So there is a light at the end of the tunnel. We just don't know how long the tunnel will be.

Nate's Schedule

Or lack of schedule is probably the best way to describe it. He pretty much sleeps and eats as he wants. Just as we think he might be settling into a pattern...wham he decides to change.

So I guess the good news is at this early age you really can't expect a pattern and this should not reflect how well he will settle as he continues to grow. I haven't seen any solid data, but it seems like a lot people think at 3-4 months there is a significant amount of development and in some cases a switch just seems to go off.

I know we are looking forward getting a little bit of a schedule so we plan things like sleep. As I'm writing this it is well after midnight and Nate seems to have lots of energy. After feeding him about 10pm we've been trying to convince him that he should go to bed. The only convincing that has been done is Nate convincing us that he needed more to eat. I'm hoping he runs out of energy soon so I can call it a night and get some sleep.

Nathaniel (Nate)was born June 30th 2009. He was earlier than we expected (about two weeks). He weighed a whole 6lb 2oz and was 19in long. We thought except for a name we were pretty much ready for his arrival. Or at least we thought. I want to be a pretty active Dad and I'm looking forward to experiencing him growing up.

Many people told me to be prepared for lack of sleep. But until you experience it, I didn't realize how much the lack of sleep would really affect me. At times I feel like a walking zombie. I'm looking forward to Nate sleeping a little more between feedings. Right now Nate is about 3 hours between feedings (start to start). Another hour or so between feedings would be nice. I think that extra hour will make a big difference.

One of the other things getting used to is changing so many diapers. I've changed a lot of diapers in the first couple weeks. I read about all the diaper changes, but until you change 10 diapers in a day I just didn't realize. I'll talk more about diapers and our choice to go with cloth. We (well Sherri) also chose to breastfeed. It really makes a difference as the doesn't smell.

Off to get a nap....