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Monday, March 26, 2012

All Things New

It has been a very busy few weeks for Harrison!  Last week it was confirmed that one of his lower bottom teeth has broken the surface.  Two days later, another one had broken through.  I had heard of babies starting to teethe around the 3-4 month mark, but it is very rare and even then most don't break through the surface for a few months.  Apparently this is not the case for Harrison.  At this rate he'll have all of his teeth by the end of the month! One thing I can be truly grateful about is that at least the teething portion of these particular teeth is done. 2 down....a lot to go.

Still chewing on everything!
Another new adventure is the beginning of solids.  We started giving Harrison rice cereal following his 4 month appointment with little success.  I tried to give him multiple opportunities to eat it, thinking that it may be the texture and eating in general that was putting him off.  After many tries, I gave up on the rice cereal.  Maybe he just doesn't like it.  Next on the list was sweet potatoes.  I busted out the Baby Bullet my sister Emily gave us for Christmas and I have to say, that machine makes making homemade baby food so easy!  It took me all of 3 minutes to make 10 days worth of sweet potatoes (all from one large $1 sweet potato mind you). 6 are in the freezer, 3 in the fridge and 1 consumed by a well satisfied customer.



More sweet potatoes please!
Harrison has also started flirting with the idea of crawling.  On a few occasions now he has positioned himself on his knees and bounced his butt in the air like he's trying to move.  Now if only he would lift his face of the blanket at the same time :)  We are in no hurry for him to start scooting or crawling however, one thing at a time!  That and I was hoping not to cross that bridge until we had moved out of our current place.  Doesn't look like that is going to happen!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Big Boy!

Today Harrison had his 4 month appointment.  I had my reservations about bringing him to his appointment alone again, his 2 month appointment was a NIGHTMARE.  Capital letters.  He screamed from the moment we walked into the exam room until we were back in the car.

We attended our ECFE class this morning so I had every expectation that he would either sleep through the entire appointment or be a big bear. It went a million times better than last time.  He smiled at the receptionists, smiled and giggled with the nurse, and was all-out belly laughing by the time the doctor came in. He was so friendly to everyone he saw.  Harrison's measurements were taken and he is now 14 pounds 9 ounces (25th percentile) and 26.5 inches long (92nd percentile...WHAT??)  His doctor was amazed at how much he's grown in length, over 3 inches just in the last two months.  --Apparently that growth spurt I mentioned previously was legit.--

His doctor also gave us the thumbs up to start solids.  Harrison is obviously growing well considering the height growth, but he's not putting on much weight (only 4.5 pounds since birth) because of his mobility and activity level.  He is essentially burning off all of the calories he's taking in.  In addition to his formula we can now give him whatever solids he likes (starting with the more gentle fruits and vegetables).  I had always been under the impression that you were to start with rice cereal for its hypoallergenic properties, but apparently this isn't really the case anymore.  I'm so excited to finally bust out the baby blender my sister got us for Christmas, let the experimenting begin!!

In other news, we decided to start sleep training Harrison a few days ago.  While he was going through his most recent growth spurt he developed some pretty bad sleeping habits.  Since he previously slept through the night every night, we knew he was capable of it and were hopeful that it wouldn't be too bad.  One thing I was seriously concerned about was putting him in his crib while he was awake.  Every night since he was born he has either been rocked to sleep, or left to fall asleep in his swing and then transferred to his crib.  The second concern: the hairdryer noise.  Harrison is used to falling asleep with the hairdryer CD, but we obviously don't have it playing in the bedroom once he's in his crib.  We discussed the need to have the environment he falls asleep in be the same if he were to wake in the middle of the night.  Lastly, now that Harrison is rolling over I've been a paranoid mess about him being swaddled at night. So out went the swing, out with the hairdryer, and out with swaddling his arms.

Tuesday night was our first night of sleep training.  We decided to go with the Ferber method of progressively waiting, simply because it was the one I was most familiar with.  I don't like to refer to it as "cry it out" because I definitely have my maximum that I will let him cry, I do not believe in just letting him cry forever.

Night 1 consisted of:  First wait:  3 minutes, Second wait: 5 minutes, Third (and subsequent) waits: 10 minutes.  10 minutes was even pushing it for me, but I decided to go with the flow and see how it went.  We started at 8:00pm after his bath, bottle and lullabies.  He was finally asleep at 8:45pm.  Longest 45 minutes of my life.  Every time I went in to soothe him my heart just broke when he would reach up for me to pick him up.  Ugh, it still makes my heart hurt.  The last 10 minute wait had me in tears with a nauseous stomach while Daniel tried to reassure me that we were doing the right thing.  I then had to go into the bathroom, shut the door, and turn the shower on to drown out the crying.  Every fiber of my being was telling me to run in there and pick him up.  That being said, he did fall asleep.  He slept until 2:30 am where I had to do one 3 minute check.  He fell back asleep and slept until 6:30 am (pretty typical for him).

Night 2:  Harrison was put in his crib at 8:15.  Nothing.  Not a peep.  I can't tell you what torn feelings I was experiencing from this.  A) "Our baby is a GENIUS!!" B) "Oh my God, what if he flipped over and can't breathe?!" It took everything in me not to go in there just to check that he was okay. (I know this anxiety is a little irrational, simply because he is no longer being swaddled and is able to lift his head with his body 90 degrees, and can roll over both ways....but still.)  45 minutes later, still not a sound from him.   When we finally went in to go to bed ourselves an hour after putting him to bed, there he lay: flat on his back with his arms above his head.  Out cold. He slept until 7:15 with no waking up.  There was a serious feeling of "This is a miracle!" to finally have a solid nights sleep again.  The two weeks without it were a definite reminder of how spoiled we were in the first place.

  Here's hoping that Night 3--and of course the nights to follow--are the same!

Monday, March 12, 2012

4 Months Old!

This past weekend we celebrated Harrison's 4-month birthday!  It has been a very busy month with a lot of new activities, new skills and a some new adjustments too.

Still loves his feet


 Harrison and I started attending ECFE classes every Thursday for a few hours.  It has turned into a great outlet for us both, getting some mommy time in for me, and Harrison is loving hanging out with all of the babies and playing with all sorts of new toys.   I love watching him take everything in and "interact" with the other kids.  Of course I use the word interact loosely, but its great how even at such a young age they are able to take it all in.

Harrison and Noelle at ECFE
 A few weeks back now I went back to work part time and am now working 2 days week as an RN.  I wont lie, I do enjoy the time away from Harrison and take advantage of having adult conversations.  That being said, by about noon I'm ready to go home and snuggle my little man.  While I'm working, Harrison has been staying with Diana and her 4-month old Noelle.  Those two babies are so cute together I can hardly stand it.  I love knowing he's in good hands and its obvious how much fun he has over there.

Harrison has had some major developments in the last month!  He finally conquered rolling over and is now able to roll both from back-to-tummy, and back again.  A few times he's actually log-rolled his way across the living room.   He is also laughing now.  His little giggles are adorable, but I have to say his out-and-out laugh is hysterical.  Mainly he laughs at random noises and faces, but we have discovered that he has a very ticklish neck.  All it takes is a little tickle or a raspberry to the neck and he laughs like crazy.

 Harrison has also started teething. Dun dun dun....  This has turned into quite an investment on my part.  From freezer toys, vibrating toys, Sophie le Giraffe, wet wash cloths, Orajel, teething tablets and Tylenol, nothing seems to quite outrank his finger.  It is very hard to see him in pain and I am anxiously awaiting for these little buggers to break through the gums.

Harrison and "Sophie"
The beginning of teething seemed to come just about the same time as Harrison's 4-month growth spurt.  He has been eating like crazy--upwards of 40 oz a day--and sleeping like...well crap.  He has forgone sleeping though the night (something that after 3.5 months, Mommy and Daddy had grown quite accustomed to) and will very rarely nap unless forced.  We're coping the best we can, but getting up multiple times a night without any real reason (not hungry, no dirty diaper...) is getting quite old.  I know part of this is due to the teething and the growth spurt, but part of me also feels that its because Harrison is never put to bed awake.  He is always asleep when we transfer him to his bed--and up until now, we didn't feel the need to fix what wasn't broke.  At this point I would love nothing more than to sleep train Harrison into going to bed in his crib while awake, but I've read some very mixed reviews on at what age it should be started.  Which of course makes me wonder....if I cant sleep train yet, is there anything I can do to get things back the way they were? Sigh.


Daniel, Harrison and I took advantage of the amazing weather we've had the last few days and took Harrison on his first walk outside.  We've had plenty of walks indoors, but there was something great about walking outside in the sunshine.  We also purchased a front carrier this weekend, I can't wait to start using it!

Harrison's first walk outside

Looking out the window at Nana's.
Harrison's 4-month doctor appointment was supposed to be this morning, but unfortunately doctors get sick too and we had to reschedule for this Thursday.  I'm excited to see how much bigger he is since his last appointment two months ago.  Not so excited for the vaccinations...yuck.  One thing I do know is that Harrison has gotten a whole lot bigger!  Its amazing how the transformation is so subtle and sometimes unnoticeable since we are with him everyday, but there is no doubt Harrison is growing up fast!

Monthly birthdays 1-4