quotes, antics, dreams, & stuff

This month has welcomed some new milestones for Shai. Nothing obvious, well, only to me

He is eating like a pro. He closes his mouth on the spoon to scrape off the food. He audibly gulps his mush and opens wide for another bite. When he swallows, he only loses a little bit of food, most goes down his throat. He uses his fingers much less for sucking down his food. One thing he likes to do is play w/ his food if any falls on his high chair tray. He loves to smear it around and then he’ll bang his hand down in it. He’s very inquisitive.

He’s still eating some of the earlier foods… avocado, peach, sweet potato. We’ve added a few others… papaya, pear, carrot. I tried to make him green beans, but it’s too gritty to give him. Not smooth enuf to swallow. This wk I’ll introduce acorn squash. We recently revisited banana and he gaged on it. He’s def no longer a fan of it. In fact, he puked it all up along w/ any milk he drank a few hrs later. We’ll avoid bananas for the time being!!

He is able to stay awake for longer stretches. 3 hrs, sometimes 4 hrs. It’s great. He’s getting into more of a routine and a little more flexible for naps. Rather than becoming incredibly fussy after 1.5-2 hrs, he just chills out and starts to get fussy after 2.5+ hrs. It makes it easier to get out and about. He’s also now down to 2 naps a day rather than 3. He takes his 1st nap about 2 hrs after he wakes in the morning (anytime b/w 6 and 8 am). He usually sleeps an hr, sometimes 1.5 hrs if he woke up too early that morning. Then he’s up for 3 hrs before he goes down for his 2nd nap. I’ve been able to take advantage of this timing to coincide w/ Oden’s nap and it works 70% of the time. His afternoon nap goes from 1.5 to 3 hrs. It’s nice, b/c then I can nap too AND get some chores done around the house. I’m a fan of this new sleep schedule. Altho it’s still not “perfect”, we’re getting there!!

Night time sleep is still a work in progress. He is semi-nursing to sleep at nite (630-7 pm). At least I try real hard to keep him awake while I nurse and by the time I’m done, he’s not gonna do anything but sleep. Then he wakes after ~3 hrs to nurse again (930-10 pm). This is good b/c then I get in a feeding right before I go to bed myself. He then typically sleeps for a long stretch of ~4 hrs til about 2 am. I then have to tend to his crying. This is the hard part b/c I refuse to feed him and nurse back to sleep. He is old enuf to sleep thru the nite w/o a feeding. He typically screams and cries for boob until I am able to calm him down. I am working on trying to let him fall asleep by himself w/o rocking him to sleep (another sleep crutch). I am successful 30% of the time. He has been crying for 1-2 hrs before I finally give in from exhaustion and rock him to sleep. It sucks. But I’ve had a cple good nites in the last 2 wks, so it gives me hope. Then he wakes b/w 5-6am for another feeding. This is when I usually bring him into bed w/ me and we fall asleep together while he’s nursing. I love this part, except for the occasions when he decides to play after he’s done nursing. Mama is tired, but still in love w/ my baby boy

We’re getting closer to crawling but not quite there yet. Shai is moving from sitting to leaning forward onto his hands, but not getting on all 4’s. He’s also going from laying on his belly to all 4’s, but more in child’s pose than all 4’s. I give it 2 more wks!!