Changing ways

A couple of weeks ago Doc decided that he didn't want to be rocked to sleep anymore. He would be so exhausted by the end of the day that he would just cry whether he was being held or not. I couldn't even nurse him to sleep. So I started laying him down to fall asleep on his own. We've made great progress although he still wakes up a few times in the night (much better than every two hours). We're working on keeping a schedule. He's down to two naps a day and we have a new nighttime routine. Bedtime preparation takes about an hour. This is kind of a long time, but it is one of my favorite parts of the day. We change into fresh jammies and diaper then lay on the bed and read stories for half an hour. Doc rolls over and over and plays with his penguin Astrid or a Candela. Every few rolls he stops and watches me, waiting for me to look over. He smiles and goes back to playing. Then I feed him one more time before we stand in front of the window and watch the cars go by while I sing American Pie (I only know four of the six verses). When he is sufficiently relaxed I walk to his crib and sway humming Pangur Ban from Secret of Kells until he lays his head 0n my shoulder. Tonight he fell asleep like this. If he has trouble falling asleep, the extreme bum massage usually does the trick.

These are photos of Astrid in Antarctica and New Zealand before she came to live with us.

Posing with Jampa

Posing with Baby Belle's penguin

Lounging at the hotel in New Zealand

5 1/2 months

He's flexible

The top photo is an ultrasound of Doc at 36 weeks. The whole time we were doing that 3D ultrasound he had his foot in and around his mouth. Lately he's started sucking on his toes and pulling his socks so he can eat them. Sometimes if I leave him alone I'll come back to find his sock soaking wet and sometimes completely off of his foot. He seems to especially enjoy his moccasins; they're a little too big and nice and leathery.

The Jumpy Jump

Sweet potatoes and sweet corn casserole

Five months

Before tubbies

Ready for walkabout with dogdog

Doing morning computer workings

Last night I was taken back to this summer right after Doc was born. I had sung him to sleep and was just thinking about laying him down when he suddenly started screaming. This is not something he ever does. At night once he's finally given in to sleep, he sleeps heavy. Even though he still wakes up every three hours for food, he's right back to bed again. The first hour last night he screamed himself to sleep twice. We tried going outside and a bottle of apple prune juice but neither really helped. His vibrating teether and ice cubes provided a little distraction. After that when he woke up (every ten to twenty minutes) I was able to bounce him into submission. We paced the floor, me on my toes bouncing, until I was finally able to lay down without waking him. He slept in my arms for half the night and this morning we woke up to a diaper full of yogurt poops.