We’re finally starting to drop BB’s bottles.  I’ve been meaning to do it, but never got around to it.  We decided to drop his bedtime one first because he never really drank much (less than 2 oz…sometimes just a couple of sips) and it was mostly a comfort thing.  So I replaced it with some cuddle time.  We usually give him a bath right after dinner, which ends up being right before bed.  He loves bath time, so I literally have to drag him out of the tub and he’s all riled up from all the fun he had.  Plus, getting him lotioned up an dressed is like play time for him too.  I can’t put him right into the crib from that point…he needs to be calmed down a little. 

Previously, it was the bottle that did that.  But now, I sit him on my lap facing me and let him cuddle with me and his teddy bear with the lights out and his sound machine on.  I sing to him and pat him on the back until I notice that he is getting drowsy…and then I transfer him to the crib while he’s drowsy and tuck him in.  He usually falls to sleep in a few minutes by himself without any crying.

Is this okay to do?  I feel like in some ways I’m messing up the sleep training because he’ll get used to the cuddling…but as long as I don’t let him fall asleep while cuddling, it should be okay right?  I would love to be able to do something like read him a story, but that too is taken as play time and gets him all excited.

We’re back from his 12 month pedi visit.  He weighed in at 20 lbs, 11 oz (17%ile)…he only gained 1 lb in the past 3 months!!!  And he’s 31″ (82%ile)…1.5 inches taller than 3 months ago.  We were somewhat concerned that his weight has been nosediving since his 6 month visit…but the pedi said he was okay.  She said he eats more than enough and is growing taller, so she wasn’t concerned.  He doesn’t seem skinny when I look at him though…his thighs and calves are still massive, although he’s pretty lean in the torso area (built just like mama)!

He got 4 shots today: MMR, varicella, flu shot and the hep A.  They want us back next month for a second flu shot.  I don’t actually feel like he needs 2 shots.  At work, we only do 2 shots if the first one was done under a year of age.  I don’t know if they’re going to start giving out the H1N1 vaccine either…I should’ve asked, but forgot.  Normally I wouldn’t if it weren’t necessary, but because they put a lot of the H1N1 patients on PB’s floor, he has a lot of exposure to it.  He screamed through all 4 shots, but stopped as soon as the nurse left.  It took two of us to restrain him.

We had a little bit of issues with whole milk.  BB got really constipated for a few days and then had a weeks worth of diarrhea.  We’re not sure if it was too much for him or not.  PB and I can tolerate 1% milk and milk products, but will be in the bathroom within minutes of drinking whole milk.  So we’re going to try 2% and see if that helps.  We were hoping he would be able to take whole milk so that he could pack on a little weight.

He can walk across the room by himself easily now, but he won’t do it unless we coax him.  Sometimes he’ll take the initiative and walk by himself to a toy, but he usually just crawls. How long will it be until he’s walking all the time?

I never got around to this, but I wanted to post BB’s monthly pics from the first year to see how he’s grown.  I don’t have his 1 year stats yet because our pedi appt isn’t until the end of the month, but he’s approximately 30.5 inches, 21 pounds now.  He started off at 21.5 inches, 7 pounds 9 oz…I find it so amazing that babies grow so fast the first year (and without stretch marks!)

The past year has truly been the hardest, yet most rewarding year of my life.  I was a 10-14 hour a night sleeper before BB.  I would regularly sleep past noon on my days off.  That all ended with BB and I am not sure how I made it those first few months with basically no sleep, but I did.

Looking back, I think BB had colic the first few months because he would cry hysterically from 4 PM until 8 PM every single night.  Nothing would soothe him, so I would just sit in bed and hold him for those several hours every night.  Right before 4 PM, I would go into the bedroom and set up my pillows in preparation for the next few hours.  The rest of the day, he would be fine.  I thought colicky babies cried the entire day, so I thought it was just his witching hours. 

Those hours were tough especially since PB went back to work after 2 weeks and we didn’t have anyone we knew around us (my mom stayed with us for 3 weeks but after that, it was just us).  As a nurse, PB worked three 12 hour shifts a week…which in actuality were more like 14 – 15 hour shifts plus a 1.5 hour commute (round trip).  So on the days he worked, he was basically gone all day and needed his sleep at night.  On top of that, he works the overnight shift 2 weeks out of every month, so half the month, he would be gone at night and would sleep the next day….so I had night duty AND day duty myself pretty much every day except for those few days when PB had 2 days off in a row.  So basically I didn’t sleep…ever.  Not even when I went back to work because at that point, BB had slept through the night for a few weeks and then went through 4 months of getting up every 2 hours before sleeping through the night again.  So those 4 months, I didn’t sleep at night, then had to go to work, and then come home and take care of BB.  I felt like a zombie.

After BB started sleeping at night, it was a little better.  It’s still hard taking care of him alone on those days, but I don’t have any other choice! I actually have come to enjoy that time alone with him and that’s when we go for our walks and go to the playground together.  I do wish we had more days together as a family, since our days together are spent food shopping and running errands.  But we love that BB is home with either one of us for the majority of the week…so it’s sort of like having a stay at home parent (with a play date type sitter situation once a week, sometimes twice).

Breastfeeding was a whole other headache, but I’m glad I managed to do it at all (and have extra in the freezer).  There was so much that I learned from the struggle that hopefully with #2, it’ll turn out better.  With #2, I’ll be sure to wash and sterilize my bottles BEFORE I have the baby. I was so sure that BF’ing would be a breeze that I didn’t even think I would need the bottles until I went back to work!

I’ve learned to not stress out about milestones (as much).  With BB being a late roller and crawler, I realized that he would eventually do it when he felt like it.  Plus now, I sometimes wish I could leave him in one spot and find him still there when I return 5 minutes later!  With him walking now, it’s a nightmare! 

I’ve learned that any DIY home construction projects are out the window when there’s a baby around.  For any of you who managed that, let me know your secret!  We have done ZERO home projects even though we planned on doing everything ourselves!  I do plan on doing the garden because landscapers are so expensive…but so far all I’ve done is plant 2 rhododendrons in the front yard. haha!

I can’t wait to see what this next year will bring!

At birth:

1 month

2 months:

3 months:

4 months:

5 months:

6 months:

7 months:

8 months:

9 months:

10 months:

11 months:

12 months!

My baby is no longer a baby…he’s a big 1 year old!  No time to post right now…we’re having family over this weekend for his birthday, so we’re trying to get a bunch of stuff done and get the house cleaned up.  We’re not doing anything big…just going to a nearby farm to go apple picking.

I’ll finish this post later, but just to remind myself:

Please Touch Museum
We took BB to the Please Touch Museum the day before his birthday.  Every first Wednesday of the month is $2 admission from 5-7 PM, so we took advantage of that and checked it out.  He was still too young for most of the exhibits and he mostly just watched the older kids run around.  But it was a really really great place and I can totally see myself going there on rainy or snowy days a few months later (only 15 minutes away!).  The only things he could really do were the sections specifically for kids under 3, the water exhibit (but we had to hold him up the entire time) and the shopping cart.  He loved playing with the cash registers and this girl pulled her cart up and just stood there waiting for BB to ring her up.  So he (meaning I) did…it was really cute.

Walking
BB’s been taking a 5-6 unassisted steps here and there for the past few weeks, but yesterday, he finally just took a stroll across the entire living room without falling.  He did it a number of times….until we whipped out the camcorder and then he started falling all over the place.  Stage fright I guess!  The weird thing is that he never stood by himself prior to walking.  I always read that the natural progression would be that they first learned to stand by themselves and then they would walk.  He never did that…even when we stood him up first, he only sometimes would stand by himself for a short period.  Oh well.  So right now, he needs to pull up on something first, turn himself around and then walk.

Haircut – attempt #2
We took BB to another kiddie hair cutter place to see if they would do a better job.  They were REALLY fantastic.  They put BB in a little car and put on sesame street on his own private TV.  He did start to fuss and cry during the cutting, so they gave him a balloon to play with and we left with a decent haircut!  woohoo!!

Feeding Mama
He now plays this game during meals where he holds out a piece of food and wants me to move in so that he can put it in my mouth.  Sometimes he’ll fake it and touch my lips with it and then eat it himself…but he will put the stuff that he does NOT want to eat (broccoli) into my mouth…and then fake it with the stuff he actually wants to eat.

“Talking”
He is so vocal now…no real words except mama, baba, ball, cool and sometimes ooooh (which sounds like cool without the “c”).  We’re not sure if it’s actually what he’s saying, but it sounds like it and is for the most part used in the right context.  Although, now he’s always saying “ball” so I’m not sure he actually knows what it is.  But he has very expressive babble…it sounds like real talking with inflections and everything….except we have no clue what he’s saying. 

No Cry Bedtime
BB is fantastic at going to bed by himself at night now.  We just put him down after our bedtime routine and he tosses and turns for a few minutes and goes to sleep without a peep.  Naps are a completely different story.  He will cry 20+ minutes during naps even though he’s exhausted.  The only times when he won’t cry is if he’s in the car or in a carrier.  But his naps have gotten much better.  No more 12 hour naps!

PB’s family and my family are coming down tomorrow to celebrate BB’s birthday with an apple picking day at Linvilla Orchards nearby.  It should be a great time.  I’ll put up all the pics/videos after that, but for now, here’s my favorite pic from the Please Touch Museum . Mr King of Hearts having a tea party with the characters from Alice in Wonderland (he kept waving at the Mad Hatter hahaha)

The first piece of interior decoration to go up in the house.  We are terrible…our walls are still bare except for the calendar hanging up in our office.  Since I LOVE fabrics, I chose one of my favorites to make into a wall hanging.  I found a wall hanging kit, which is basically 4 pieces of wood that you put together and you just stretch the fabric over it and hang it up.  Super easy (in theory…I’ve never tried it before).

The walls in my living room are bluishm so I chose this Marimekko fabric to hang up in there:

It’ll be cut down to a 3×5 ratio, so it won’t be as square.  If it turns out well (and it really is as easy as it seems), I’m seriously considering doing it for every room.

BB can take 5-6 steps by himself before he falls forward.  Does that count?  Or is it full fledged walking around all day?  I don’t really care if it’s really walking or not…I’d just like to put a date to the event for my own records

We started cow’s milk…but we did Lactaid.  Only because my parents brought a carton with them when they came to babysit and we wanted to finish it off before buying more milk.  BB LOVES milk.  He  can drain a few oz with his meals and would drink more if we let him.  I don’t know if it’s because Lactaid is sweeter than regular milk.  Once this carton is done, we’ll try regular whole milk.  I really hope he’s not lactose intolerant.  But if he did fine on regular formula, he should be fine on whole milk?  We’re kind of worried only because we both are lactose intolerant (and so are our families).  We can tolerate 1-2% milk, but whole milk, forget it. 

We got him a Little Tikes play kitchen.  The boy loves that thing.  I’ve heard of dads saying that they won’t let their son have that because play kitchen are for girls.  seriously?  Anyway, he isn’t quite tall enough to really reach the burners, but he loves to open and close the cabinets on the bottom.  And the frying pan and coffee pot make great banging noises against the wall. hahaha.

Here are two videos on how I do back carries with my full buckle and with my mei tai.  I do the superman toss…there is also the hip scoot and the santa toss which you can find videos of on youtube.  I’ve tried all 3, but I found the superman to be the easiest with BB because he’s so squirmy…it’s one quick motion and that’s it.  You can also do it with your baby sitting on the carrier on a chair, but I never trusted BB to sit on a chair with my back to him (he would totally just launch himself off the chair).

Back carry with a full buckle

Back carry with a mei tai:

Untitled from Jennifer Wang on Vimeo.