Congratulations Jameson, you have produced your bottom two teeth!
Immediately following that last Tuesday, you caught a cold. And gave it to mom.
You don’t seem to care quite as much as mom did though.
I wish that I could get a picture of your teeth, but I can only see them when you’re wailing, because I am sucking the snot from your nose.
Instead, here’s a photo of your new favorite activity.
I call it, Chewing on the Wrong End of the Pacifier.
Jameson has decided that the crib is his new favorite place in the whole world. No matter how sleepy he goes in, he wakes up, gives a big smile, and rolls around, talks, and plays in his crib.
This was taken a few weeks ago. Since then, he has decided to roll over onto his belly frequently, and then yell because he has forgotten how to roll himself back (remember, rolling belly to back was the first one he did… that must have been years ago in baby time)
P.S. This video is a bit dark, you might mistake Jameson for a baby seal, or a pterodactyl.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh7vA87HRMY]
P.P.S., Seriously, this baby is adorable. He has also discovered the joys of jumping (and laughing at dad) in one of my favorite videos yet.
Saturdays at 10 you can find Jameson and I learning sign language.
A friend from school who recently had a baby as well decided to start sign language classes. She is a translator, with a baby herself, so it made perfect sense for her to start something like this. She is with Signing Smart, which she chose because they use real American Sign Language.
I had been interested in it already, since Jameson will be learning some signs at daycare. Plus, the kid mystifies me everyday. Anything to help me decipher what is going on in his little head sounds like a good idea to me! Plus, the deal included a booklet of information and two DVDs, cheaper than usual since this was her first class. I decided to go for it.
Who am I kidding? I did it primarily so I would meet some more people with babies!
Remarkably, I am actually retaining some information. I know MORE, FINISH, OUT, PLAY, BALL, BEAR, DOG, and MILK. Even more remarkably, Jameson is signing back!
JUST KIDDING.
But he is really focused. Whenever I do signs, he stares intently at it. It might just be because I am not usually a hand talker and so the movement is unusual, but I am hoping that he will start to understand. I would love to have him tell me when he needs CHANGED, or when he needs to SLEEP. Also, it might be nice if he could tell me how much he LOVES me. For some gratification for all the hard work I do everyday.
Also kidding. CHANGE is on my list of words to learn, but SLEEP and LOVE are not. I can already tell when he needs to sleep. And love is all in his smile </cheesy>
Another fun thing about the class is that since I work all day, I don’t get to see him interact with other babies. He just likes to watch them right now, and occasionally reach for their toys, but it’s nice to see a part of him that I don’t usually get to experience. And I get to sing to him, making signs without feeling stupid. There are like 6 other adults who are doing the exact same thing.
Apparently, 7 months is a good time to start working on the signs. It’s a 10 week class though, and I’m not supposed to expect to see any signs back at me during this time. But there are 13-, 14-, and 15-month-olds in the class who are signing already, so if I keep at it, he should be earlier.
So his progress right now after two weeks is really my progress. I am learning the signs and trying to be consistent about using them (and harassing Brian to do the same). We’ll keep you posted if he suddenly shows signs of genius.
P.S. Jameson had his 7 month photo shoot on Saturday. It was the hardest yet, we had to give him another block to distract him. It was also the most fun yet, because he is showing such personality. His devious grin clearly shows it.
Abbreviated conversation with Jameson’s pediatrician.
Me: Jameson has been on Similac Advance [regular] formula for 3 weeks now, mixed with breastmilk. Since then, the daycare has been complaining that he is very fussy, but that he always is happier after he has a bowel movement.
[I go on and on here, talking about how I thought it was teething, but daycare keeps insisting on the BM issue]
Dr: Is he actively teething now?
Me: Yes, I felt his mouth yesterday and it is sharper!
Dr: Have you noticed his fussiness yourself?
Me: I only see him for an hour on the weekdays before he goes to bed.
Dr: How about on the weekends?
Me: That is only a couple days, we didn’t know the association between bowel movements and him being less fussy.
Dr: You can try gas drops, though if he isn’t very gassy, it may not help. It won’t hurt though. Also prunes and prune juice.
Me: We did prunes for about a week every night, no change.
Dr: It could be a formula issue or a teething issue. I recommend watching him a couple days, watch his stools, and if you’re still concerned please bring him in. We can check a stool sample and his belly.
[Pause]
Dr: Is that okay?
Me: It’s just that it’s been 3 weeks already..
Dr: We can bring him in now if you like
Me: Well, these next couple days are so busy with meetings…
Dr: I can offer you some samples of the gentle formulas if you like. There isn’t real science behind them since very few babies are actually lactose intolerant, but many parents swear by them.
Me: Well, I don’t know if I have time to get out there [during regular office hours]. If I were to buy one, which one would be good? I know there are no-lactose and low-lactose ones…
[blah blah blah, Dr doesn’t recommend one or another in particular but does say we shouldn’t continue to switch in search of a perfect formula]
Me: Okay, well thank you. We’ll try this and if we are still seeing issues, we’ll bring him in.
Confession: I was already at Target, prepared to buy a new formula.
Confession 2: We really don’t know if it’s teething or not. I can only go on daycare’s opinion on this, and that makes me feel awful.
Confession 3: My email to Brian after this ended with these words: I have mixed feelings, I don’t know the right answer…
The analogy has been many times before me, that having pets is often eerily similar to having children. Particularly if those pets are puppies. I may not have a puppy, but even our 8 year old dog is similar to our 7 month old son in many ways.
Luckily, there are a few things that help us tell Jameson and Sasha apart.
For the past three weeks, we have been introducing the sippy cup to Jameson.
It is a testament to our utter failure that there aren’t even pictures of it. It turns out that sippy cups make good chew toys, and it’s even better when the face is covered in food.
Since there aren’t any photos of our sippy cup fiascos, here’s a token shot of Mr. Jameson, who is now a champion solid food eater. Feed me Seymour!
In addition to eating pretty well now, he also likes to spit food back out at me, grab at the spoons, and steal bowls when I’m not looking. Why was I ever even worried?!
Anyway, like most baby items, I did some research after-the-fact. Turns out that sippy cups with valves aren’t always the best first sippy cups to use. Oops.
Here’s what we ended up with:
Last night he even drank milk out of it, maybe half an ounce, during dinner. I did snap a few photos, but at that point he was gnawing on the spout again. Turns out that everything (even the dog’s nose!!) is great for baby mouths.
P.S. This weekend is Jameson’s second baby sign language class, and I haven’t done any of his homework. Whoops. Can’t wait to share with you the details on that next week! Have a great weekend everyone!
If we are estimating 3 times a day at about 20 minutes since I went back to work, and 1 time a day since Jameson was 3 weeks old, I have spent approximately 147 hours pumping – that is 8,820 minutes or nearly one full week of just pumping (alright, I did round up. It’s actually like 6.1 days, but that may as well be a full week, right?).
Since switching jobs, I have decreased the number of feedings by two, in preparation to quit. The extra pumping session at work, and the overnight feeding.
I’m not preparing to quit because I don’t have time at work – sometimes it is actually nice to get away for a bit. I have even been reading again during my 20 minute pumping sessions at work (rather than writing blog posts; those I do at home now and prepare most during the weekend).
[Side note: The room is nicer at my job here. If you remember, I showed some pictures of my previous job’s lactation room. Here’s what it looks like here.
The room was re-done very recently; since I have started, they have removed the office desk that was in the room. I wish I had gotten before and afters of that. (though, the glass side table is a poor choice, which I need to note to HR sometime). And look! I even have a refrigerator!]
I want to quit because Jameson stopped nursing before bed, so that was a FOURTH pumping session I was adding in, and 4 was too much for me. So it’s still 3 pumpings, twice at work and once at home.
It’s because of the endless cycle of it all, the nursing tank tops I wear every. day. , the perpetual cleaning of parts: the wiping down after each session, the washing at night, every night.
It’s because I want to wear real clothes, and I really want to go ride roller coasters all day long without needing to pump, or scheduling things around when I need to pump. I want to leave the pump at home. Better yet, pack it up and put it away.
It’s because I want to be able to have a glass of wine at dinner without feeling the (sometimes irrational) need to pour half the amount; or not at all if I need to pump within the hour.
I almost want to stop enough to really call it quits, but not quite yet. I sometimes wish that I would completely stop lactating without me having to choose though. The good thing about supplementing is that I don’t worry so much about the milk. The bad thing is that in continuing to provide mother’s milk while supplementing with formula is that when I decide to quit it will be my decision.
Which of course involves guilt, and maybe a little disappointment in myself, my selfishness. It’s easier at this point if the environment or my body takes that choice away, and then there is no option, I just quit.
(This is not to detract from others’ choices or lack of choices when it comes to nursing or pumping for their children, as these are my personal feelings on the matter and no others)
But for now, Jameson is still nursing in the morning when he wakes, and he’s having a few (common) digestive issues (i.e., constipation) so mommy’s milk still seems important, too important to quit.
And yes, I know it is important. I am just not sure when it won’t seem as important to me. But it better be before summer is up, so I can go to Cedar Point (and leave the pump behind).
The weather was so wonderfully perfect this past weekend that we pretty much spent the entire time outdoors. It seems to happen so rare, we just had to take advantage of the clear blue sky. Jameson loved it! The kid is already taking after his dad. At the end of the weekend Brian told me I no longer look like “Casper the Mom”. I said, you mean “Casper the Friendly Mom”. No, no, that’s not what he said. Apparently friendly didn’t qualify at that time. Sheesh, thanks Brian.
Can I take a moment? I would like to talk a bit about sunscreen.
Despite the teasing, I would like to note that Jameson was protected all weekend with sunscreen and a hat or shade most of the time. Though I will also mention that the sunscreen we are currently using is not what I would prefer.
Having done some research on sunscreens, Jameson’s baby sunscreen has one of the two listed “bad” ingredients. It has Vitamin A, which recent research has shown may speed the development of cancer when exposed to sunlight (ironic). I believe some sunscreen is better than none, but I do plan on finding him a new sunscreen soon.
Yesterday I purchased Aveeno Baby Natural Protection Mineral Sunblock (a good deal going on, details here) – the stick for his face, not the regular sunscreen. The stick is rated a 1 by the EWG. I also plan on getting the new ThinkBaby sunscreen, also rated a 1.
Saturday, while Jameson and I were at his very first baby sign language class (more on that soon!), Brian went to the farmers market. He surprised me by coming home with wildflowers. One of the many reasons why I love him!
Jameson and I spent some time outside on a blanket later while Brian moved things into the shed now that it has a ramp. One step closer to parking in the garage again. Good thing, because it definitely mid summer now, it hit 90 on Sunday.
We also picked up a new “friend” for Jameson. The neighborhood garage sales were going on and we came home with a bopping penguin for Jameson to bat at for just $3. Jameson is not too sure about Mr. Penguin just yet! (Hmmm… It appears that most of the children in our neighborhood are girls. All the clothes we saw were pink!)
Sunday we went to the zoo, despite the heat. The nice thing about having a pass is not worrying about how much you see while you’re there. This time we visited the aquarium, monkeys, as well as the giraffes and elephants. Jameson enjoyed watching the fish move at the aquarium, but he seemed to enjoy people-watching even more.
Of course, we completely exhausted the little guy and he went to bed around 6:45 on Sunday. He’s definitely been a bit more cranky recently, probably because of the teeth we’re waiting on. It’s been nice to just pop outside and swing with him to calm him down. I hope this beautiful weather lasts, though today it’s not looking so good.
One year and a couple months, anyway. Last year right around this time I took photos of our new house. At the time, we had been in it for about a month or two, and we didn’t even have anything hanging on the walls yet. We weren’t completely unpacked and I hid off sections of rooms and only showed the glory of perfect unclutteredness in the new house.
Now here we are, one year later, older, wiser, and much more cluttered.That nursery has actually been used, cause yeah, we had a baby (though a year ago, the nursery wasn’t remotely finished).
I thought it would be fun to show you how our lives have changed in just one short year.
Jameson had his first Fourth of July this past weekend! It’s hard to get back to real life after a four day weekend, so I thought I’d try to extend the feeling a bit longer and share our weekend fun.
First, Jameson had to get dressed up in two holiday outfits. Luckily, there were four days in which to subject him to some photo shoots. I bought a little flag for him to wave, but he only wanted to eat it and poke his eye with it, so that didn’t happen (Brian took it away from me, sigh..).
On Saturday we spent the early morning at the farmers market. We picked up some amazing blueberries and black raspberries, along with our traditional salad lettuce mix. I couldn’t believe the black raspberries, they were across a couple stalls, so they must have been the fruit in season and perfectly ripe.
At the farmers market we also picked up part of Saturday night’s dinner, Ohio City Pasta. This is fresh pasta, never frozen. Here’s what it looks like before cooking:
We had red pepper, lemon basil, and garlic onion flavors. They stay good for about 10 days, so after having garlic onion on Saturday, I am looking forward to the rest of the week filled with tasty pasta goodness. (And these pastas, they only need butter or olive oil. They have amazing flavor all by themselves).
That night Brian and I watched the fireworks from our front porch. So fun to be able to see them, albeit far away, since we had Jameson and can’t go out late like we used to. And how amazing to sit there on a warm night together to do that.
Sunday we stopped by Brian’s parents for a cookout and brought over Jameson’s exersaucer.
Brian’s mother has filled a room full of Jameson items: crib, changing table, toys, burp clothes… everything he needs. It was so much more convenient to come over, and Jameson even took a nap in the crib.
We added those black raspberries from the farmers market to a fruit salad which we brought over to the neighbors’ on Monday for another cookout. Jameson enjoyed his friend Lily‘s pool and her toys. One toy in the mouth apparently means two more toys just arms length away. He took a little dunk and cried for a bit, but it was okay again after a little while.
Little champ loves to be held and swung by his arms. Immediately after sitting up by himself, he’s now decided that standing up is even more fun. Always looking to do things that he can’t quite do himself yet.
Hello handsome! Say goodbye now (oh well, he doesn’t do the wave thing yet, so we’ll just have to settle for a smile) Hey, look at that smile! A smile, in the grass!? Hurrah!
