Soon to be a toothy grin

That's right, our little guy is pushing up his first tooth. So far, it doesn't seem to be bothering him too much. He was a little fussy yesterday, when it first was visable under his gums. Today I didn't notice any difference in his behavior. I'm guessing that it will poke through the skin tomorrow.

This picture is what I saw when I came downstairs the other day. Erik had pulled his lovey over his forehead. It was a lot cuter in person because he looked less like a deer in the headlights and was smiling bigger.

Today I had him laying on a blue blanket and was talking and playing with him. It was the oddest thing, I swear he started playing peek-a-boo with me. He would pull the corner of the blanket over his head so it covered his eyes. I said, "Where's Erik?" and then he pulled it off his face. He did this about 10 times. It's wierd because I don't really think of him as having the motor and cognitive skills for this. And yet he kept doing the same action. Maybe it was a coincidence but it sure was fun!

Erik holds his right foot now during diaper changes but I haven't noticed him grabbing it any other time during the day. It will be fun when he really gets into his feet.

New Poll: Good Vs. Evil

We enjoyed the last poll so much I thought we'd do another. This time the choice is who should Erik be for Halloween? Joe thinks Yoda because he's the good guy. I think Darth Vader because even though he went over to the dark side of the force, the costume is much cuter.

A Day of Firsts

I was going to post and brag about how Erik had his first bath completely free of crying. However, last night Erik and I were laying on the floor in his room while I read to him before bed. Sometimes Erik listened and looked at the pictures, sometimes Erik felt the story was inadequate and told me a better story for the pictures, and sometimes he was rolling around on his back. He finally did it, all that coaching paid off. Erik rolled from his back to his tummy last night! I think it was his anniversary present to Mormor and Morfar. Here is a before picture. After picture is not available.

Sleep

I know I just posted but I just can't get over how easy it's been the last couple days to get Erik to sleep. It makes me wonder, we've been holding him and rocking him to sleep, has he not needed that? Did he get fussy because our attempts to help him really got in the way of him putting himself to sleep? Or did he have to get really fussy last week and take a step backwards before making a developmental leap this week? So that even if we'd tried this before it wouldn't have worked?

Who knows. I'm just glad it's working!

Erik's new Fuzzi Bunz (cloth diapers) came today. He's grown out of his size small black ones. I ordered the mediums in sage, butter, and perriwinkle. It made sense to have the new size be a different color from the smalls. They arrived and I am excited to once again have cloth diapers he won't leak out of every two hours. However, the colors, um, let me just recommend black for anyone interested in ordering Fuzzi Bunz in the future!

Leaps and Bounds

So much to tell you about!

Our new nanny, Justina , came yesterday for a trial run of three hours. Things went well. He was a little fussy when I left but when I called a couple hours later, she had gotten him down for a nap. That's no small feat. When I came home at noon she'd been trying to give him a bottle for ten minutes with no success. The last bottle he took was three weeks ago at our friend Erika's. Justina confirmed that she would start coming Tuesdays and Thursdays starting next week.

Although yesterday was a good day, I decided I wanted to get away and go to a movie. So I called around, and my friend Beth wanted to come too. However, she had just gotten home from work, so she suggested we go to the late movie. That was perfect, in a way, since Erik would already be down for the night. The question was whether he would wake up for a last nursing before I got home.

No, Erik slept from eight pm to 4:30 am (sleeping through a huge thunderstorm), and then from 5 am to 8:30! That's pretty exciting, but possibly even more exciting was what happened between 4:30 and 5. Joe got up and went down to make Erik a bottle. First he just gave an ounce, since we don't want to waste too much milk. Erik sucked it down just like he used to. Then Joe heated another 4 ounces. Same thing! We are hoping this is a sign that our happy bottle drinker is back!

Trip to the Doctor

Everything looked good. We saw the Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, Holly. She confirmed he’s meeting his milestones. His weight: 17 pounds, 90^th %ile; length: 27 inches, 97^th %ile. He got his shots but I left so I didn’t have to see that. He’s been a little fussy today, but I’ve been giving him Tylenol. We asked Holly about Erik’s sleep issues. She said sometimes kids get fussier before a developmental burst. However, she thought we should give him less help going to sleep, to help him be a better sleeper in the long run. No more swaddling, and no more walking with him till he’s drowsy.

I tried it Holly’s way for his first nap. Here’s what happened: I hold him, he quiets, I lay him down, he cries or screams, I wait five minutes and then pick him up. Repeat for 75 minutes. Finally, I swaddled him and he went to sleep. So I decided to go the route I used to calm him at bath time.

For his second nap, I swaddled him, held him until he was calm, laid him down and immediately put my hand on his chest and gently jiggled him. This jiggling has really helped the transition in the past. I stayed there, committed to jiggling him for an hour if necessary. I figure, it’s less invasive than holding him and then when he falls asleep, he’s already laying down. I also closed my eyes so there would be no eye contact. I don’t know why, it just felt right. He fussed, cried, momentarily screamed, calmed, and did this for about five or ten minutes. I peeked and saw his eyelids were closed, kept jiggling until his breathing changed. Hooray! A moderate success!

So now, if this continues to work, I’ll have to decide if the next step is to not jiggle, or to not swaddle. Tough call. Who knew that Psych 101 would come in so handy? Thank you, Dr. Rose.

On a non-Erik note, does anyone have a good recipe for mashed plantains?

BFF

Erik spent some time yesterday playing with his new Best Friend Forever, Kevin. Although Kevin tried to give Erik kisses, which Erik didn't really care for, Kevin also held Erik's hands, which was much more acceptable. Kevin's mom, Tara, got some great pictures of them together. Many thanks to Tara for babysitting Erik. The extra great thing about having a doctor babysitting our kid is that we don't need to worry about if she knows how to do infant CPR.

Erik has been enjoying his exersaucer more now that his Aunt Emily showed me how to make the bottom more stable. Thanks Emily, and congratulations on the new job!

The Not So Merry Napster

So it occurred to Joe and me this weekend that with Erik so strong and doing some sitting it may be time to bring up the Exersaucer. It was fun to watch him in it. He was very interested but it's not as steady as other chairs he's been in. So he looked very tense as if he didn't trust that the thing wouldn't pitch him over at any moment. I only left him in there a few minutes and stayed right with him just in case he got scared. Joe snapped this cute picture of him. I'm glad my friend Sara the OT doesn't have internet at home so she won't see this picture. I guess the Exersaucer isn't good for his hips or something.

Aaaaaah! Why is it some times we struggle through 45 minutes of screaming and still Erik's not sleeping, and other times I just lay him down and he's out like a light? He seems to respond to calm and soothing music now. So I checked out a CD of "lullabies" from the library. They do have some genuine lullabies - Rock a Bye Baby, etc - but others are what I would classify as children's songs - All Around the Mulberry Bush, for example. Anyway, this afternoon I put Erik down for a nap drowsy and heard not a peep from him for a while. When I went in to check on whether he was asleep or not, the CD was playing "Frere Jacques" (Are You Sleeping)!

Long John Lindell

Erik has become too long for his three to six month clothes. He has so many cute outfits that it is sad to put them away. His torso is very long but not his legs, so t-shirts and pants are ok, but anything that is one piece is too short. We ordered some onsie extenders but they don't work on his rompers. Hmm. We just measured him and Erik is 25 inches which is pretty average for four months. He was so long when he was born, I was hoping he'd be very tall. I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

I went through his drawer of clothes and took out some three month clothes that I couldn't bear to put away in June. It's been meaningful to think about who gave us each item. There were three adorable rompers that were given to him by my very dear co-worker, Carolyn. She passed away today after a valiant fight with cancer. She will be deeply missed by all who knew her.

Play!

Erik got to go to playgroup at church yesterday. Here's a picture of him reconnecting with his friend, Liam. Liam is six months old. He is rolling over and has found his feet. Erik and I have not gone to playgroup very often this summer because I have been working on Friday mornings. It's nice to have a day for play. The next picture shows Erik practicing his sitting. He prefers to practice standing.

I consider last week's desensitization to the bath a success. Once again, Erik did not scream during the bath this week. In fact, when we put him in the water, it took a while before he even started crying. Erik has been screaming quite a bit in non-bath situations. Most of the time we have no idea why. I'm glad we're going to the doctor in a week. We have lots of new questions to ask her. I'm really hoping that she will say Erik's tongue thrust reflex has decreased enough for him to start eating rice cereal! Fun fun!

Pressing the flesh

Today Erik and I joined Joe at the Capitol for a rally for Amy Klobuchar, who is running for the U.S. Senate. We saw (from left to right in the photo) Amy Klobuchar, Betty McCollum (U.S. House Representative for St. Paul) and (former Senator and V.P. candidate) John Edwards. I got an Education Minnesota sign and they took a picture of our family for their website. Once again, I'll post a link when it's available. We then drove back to Macalester, and Joe introduced Erik to about 30 of his co-workers. They ooohed and ahhhhed and called him very cute and amiable. One woman called him a stud, and one woman called him a devil. We call him an angel.

bath psychology 101

dAt Monday's weigh in Erik weighed about 17 pounds. From his relaxed posture on the scale I'm starting to wonder if he's getting too comfortable with the weekly weighings.



Ok, so in an effort to decrease the screaming at bath time I tried to use what I learned in Psych 101 at good ol' Augie. I launched a campaign to desensitize Erik to his bathtub. First, I put him in it, fully clothed and read him a book. Happy Erik. Then I took off his onsie, read him a book. Happy Erik. Then I brought the tub into the bathroom and put it in the bathtub and read him a book, neutral Erik. Then I got a rubber duckie wet and put it on his tummy while talking softly to him. Neutral Erik. Lo and behold, the next bath Erik just plain cried instead of screaming. I consider this to be a triumph of science! Science!

Monday Erik had a playdate with the children of my friends Jeanine and Sue. Brody is 7, Claire is 3, Calli and Alyssa are 2. Brody dazzled us with his magic tricks - he just needs to work on not telling us how he does them. Claire enjoyed showing all her toys to the twins, and maybe getting to be the older one who leads the play activities. Calli and Alyssa got to check out lots of new toys and meet Baby Erik who they look at online.

Total mortification

Our friends the Rundmans loaned us their sling when Erik was born. I’ve printed instructions off the internet and taken it to La Leche but haven’t really gotten comfortable with it. Our friend Anne Rusley was a sling pro with her boys. We knew she’d be in church today so I brought the sling, hoping to get some pointers. Erik was ok getting loaded in, Anne recommended a slight positioning adjustment and the nursing went great. So I was emboldened.

We went to the Science Museum with our friends the Grommeshes to see the Body Worlds exhibit. A half hour into it, Erik wanted to nurse. So we found a bench and loaded Erik. Somehow he wasn’t in there quite the same, the sling wasn’t providing quite as good coverage of me, but Erik had access to what he needed so I thought he would be fine. Ohhhh no.

He started shrieking. The kind he does when we’re giving him a bath. The kind that makes it sound like bystanders should call child protection. The thing is, in church it’s easy to escape the quiet sanctuary for somewhere more private. The middle of a special museum exhibit is very tedious to exit. So we charged through the last two thirds of the exhibit, Erik screaming the whole way, people staring in concern. As soon as I walked out of the exhibit, Erik quieted down and nursed. I found the family restroom and got him better situated, made sure I wasn’t an unintentional display in Body Works and sat on a bench.

All those people who’d been staring in concern, I just kept remember all the worst stories nursing moms share about people telling them they shouldn’t nurse in public. In the future, I would continue to feel comfortable nursing in places like restaurants, on benches off to the side of public spaces; but I probably won’t be nursing in museums, concerts, places like that. It’s just too stressful.

Happy, happy day

It feels like there's always so much news, it's hard to keep you all up-to-date. We did find awesome daycare for Erik, but now I'm superstitious and I'm afraid to tell you about it, lest she back out. She swore up and down that she was excited about this and not going to back out. I also asked to let us know as soon as she had second thoughts, if she did have them. I'll tell you more in a few days, once I am really convinced this is going to happen.

Last night our friends Stephanie, Jeremy and two year old Abby came over for dinner. I think it's so cute that our two year old friends call Erik, "Baby Erik". Like saying, "Pastor Rob" or "Doctor Sarah". It was fun to have them over, but Erik was a little fussy all evening. Around seven Joe decided to try and put Erik to bed, which Erik seemed to find completely unacceptable. After a while Joe needed a break from the shrieking and handed Erik off to me. Around this time, Abby bonked her head on the wall and once she was calmed down, the Duensings decided to leave. Erik was then coaxed into dreamland sometime between 8 and 8:30. That was the last we saw of him until 7 am. Yes, Erik slept for about 11 hours! He woke up periodically through the night and made some noises but we waited him out and he kept putting himself back to sleep. I'm so thrilled.

Baby Grant

We went to Maple Grove last night to visit our favorite newborn, Grant. He currently weighs around 8 pounds, 13 ounces, which puts him at Erik's newborn weight. It was incredible to hold Grant and remember what it was like to have a baby that didn't give me back pain from lugging him around. Grant's dad, Noel, told us he wants to have four kids, 2 boys and 2 girls. I think they should have three, and we'll have two and then we can split the last one.

Joe told me that yesterday Erik tickled him in the armpit. Erik also stuck his fingers up my nose so he had a very busy day. We're still putting all the pressure we can on him to roll from his back to his tummy. I figure I should get all my stage mom tendencies out now, before Erik really knows what I'm doing.

Come on, Erik, rollover!

As you see, Erik has discovered it is possible to roll from his back to his side. He spent some time with his friend Brooke, who is five months old and rolling. She seems to have taught him the basics. He still doesn't have the momentum or something to get all the way onto his tummy. It's definately not from a want of cheering from his mom. I spent good portions of Tues and Wed afternoons laying on the floor next to Erik, trying to find something motivating enough to make him roll over to reach it. He's still waiting.

It's hard to tell from this picture, which was taken with a timer, but Erik has a new favorite activity. When he's done laying on his back, I can take his hands and pull him to sitting and then to standing. And Erik loves to stand.