Happy baby February 25, 2008

Hayden is so much fun right now!  He is often a very happy little boy, smiling and laughing away.  We love finding new ways to make him laugh.  Today while I was feeding him lunch I discovered that if I said ‘SMASH!’ enthusiastically he thought it was the funniest thing ever.  So that has been the word of the day.  What makes it even funnier is that for some reason when John tries it he gets a blank look or a little laugh that sounds like Hayden is trying to humor him.  He does it exactly like I do, but in Hayden’s world it is hilarious when I do it and not very funny when Daddy does it… which makes it quite funny for John and I (or at least for me 🙂 ).

Last night we went out to dinner with Reena, Sunil, and David.  We took Hayden and he was the World’s Best Baby.  He was so well behaved – the only time he fussed was when he was hungry.  He kept fussing while we tried to give him a bottle, but that was because Mommy is a big dumbo and left this little stopper in the bottle that keeps the milk from leaking but therefore makes it impossible for baby to get any milk when trying to eat.  Once I sorted that out he chowed down and carried on being World’s Best Baby.  I was telling him this morning how proud I was that he was such a good boy, but that unfortunately he is so young that Mommy and Daddy really couldn’t take any credit for his behavior!  We are very aware that the Good Baby Gods were smiling on us last night! 🙂

Weaning is going really well.  (I know the last post mentioned that I have just started weaning, but I accidentally had that post in my drafts since Valentine’s Day and forgot to publish it.  I have actually been weaning him since the beginning of the month.)  He is down to only breast feeding at night, which at the moment is about 3 feedings (from the time he goes down for the night until he gets up in the morning).  Tomorrow night I will replace one of those with a bottle, leaving only 1 or 2 breast feedings left.  Apparently babies go longer between feedings when they are on formula, so once he gets his bottle at night he may naturally drop the middle of the night feeding on his own.  He’s not on 100% formula yet, but he only has about 2 oz of breastmilk per bottle now so the vast majority is formula.  I will carry on putting a couple of ounces of breastmilk in his formula for a while because I still have frozen milk I have expressed so I will make that go as far as I can.

Nanny Mad is coming to visit in about a week and a half!  She will be here for a couple of weeks, then we will all go to Florida and meet up with Michelle there.  Very much looking forward to all that!

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Still the biggest baby December 15, 2007

Hayden went to the doctor for his 4 month check up on Dec 6.  He was 17 lbs 5 oz, 26 3/4 inches.  He’s still the 90th percentile in weight, height, and head circumference.  He had had a rash on the back of his knees which was diagnosed as eczema, so he got some creams for that and it healed up really quickly.

He’s not where we thought he would be now with night sleeping.  He’s good with his routine and goes down fairly easily, but I have to get up at least once in the middle of the night still and in fact it’s more normal to have to get up twice.  My theory is he is so big that he just requires more food and therefore more feedings.  We had hoped though that at 4 1/2 months he would at least be sleeping through from the 11 pm feeding to about 6 am or so.  I imagine we will start feeding him cereal soon to try to fill him up a bit before bed.  I had planned to start on Thursday and told John to plan to get home early so we could give him cereal for the first time before his bath, but then Wednesday night he had a rare night with only one waking so we postponed the cereal.  I would like to wait until as close to 6 months as we can before we start cereal, but he’s going to have to start having more good nights than bad nights really soon in order to make it much longer on breastmilk alone!

John and I went to a concert on Tuesday night with my stepmom Gretchen while Grandpaman watched Hayden.  We went to see the Kooks, who are a British band who were playing at the Vogue in Broadripple.  We were so tired from Hayden giving us many consecutive sleepless nights and I think all three of us would have been tempted not to go if we hadn’t gotten the tickets in advance.  But it was a really great show so I was glad we dragged ourselves there in the end.  It was a charity show and they had a silent auction for the charity with three signed guitars – a toy one signed by Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, an electric IU (my university) guitar signed by the Kooks, and a regular guitar signed by the Goo Goo Dolls.  John went to the auction right before it closed and won the Ryan Adams guitar!  It was great from both angles – we were glad to support the charity (Rock to Read) and really happy to get the guitar signed by one of our favorite artists!

What else have we been up to?  I know it’s been a while since either of us has blogged.  We have been really busy getting ready for Christmas.  I was hoping to have some time to nap on Thurs and Fri (since I have the days off) to catch up on the lost sleep that has accumulated, but I didn’t have time to even think about sitting down in the end.  I seem to be spending all my time baking or shopping.  Our friend Sunil had a chili cookoff a couple of weekends ago which was quite fun.  Everyone brought a chili and we voted on our favorites.  Neither John nor I won (fix!!) but it was quite fun.  We suspended Hayden’s bedtime routine so he could join us.  It seems whenever we show up somewhere without him the first thing everyone says is ‘Where’s Hayden? We don’t want to see you!  We want to see the baby!’

It’s snowing quite heavily today.  We’re in the midst of a winter storm apparently.  It’s supposed to snow all weekend to reach 8 to 12 inches!  It’s my dad’s birthday today, so we are supposed to go out to dinner tonight.  We’ll have to see what happens with the weather to see if it’s safe enough to rough the roads.

Lucy had a vet appointment this week for her yearly boosters.  We took her back to the vet who had kept her litter while they were trying to be adopted.  Everyone in there was going so crazy for her, and she was so excited to be back.  She hasn’t been there in months and months, and yet she clearly remembered the place and was so excited to be there and see everyone.  Laura, the woman who kept the puppies at her house, said she looks just like her mom.  We had never seen Lucy’s mom.  She also kept going on about how good Lucy was and how she was very chilled out.  I think Lucy was on her very, very best behavior because I can’t think of the last time she was described as a good dog!  Certainly not in our house anyway.  She keeps escaping under Macy’s fence and ending up in various yards around the neighborhood.  She is the BIGGEST knucklehead.

I think that’s pretty much it.  We are excited for John’s sister Michelle to get here.  She’ll be here for a week over Christmas.  She’s not seen Hayden yet, so we’re really excited for that introduction!

Happy Thanksgiving! November 27, 2007

Boy did I have a wonderful Thanksgiving!  I actually got four Thanksgivings.  That’s not bad for my first time!  The Sunday before Thanksgiving one of Mommy and Daddy’s friends, Hollie, had some friends over for a Thanksgiving meal while watching the Colts game.  (Speaking of which, what is going on with Adam Viniteri?  When did he become such a lame-o kicker?)  Then on Tuesday my day care had a Thanksgiving lunch and parents could come have lunch with their kids.  Mommy and Daddy came to the lunch and they sat in the infant room with me and ate their meal.  It was funny because they had to sit in these little kid chairs at a little kid table.  So silly!  Then Thursday was real Thanksgiving and we went to Grandpaman’s and Grandma G’s.  Mommy’s cousin Mandy came to celebrate Thanksgiving with us.  I love when she comes to visit because she has these fun nursery rhymes that she sings to me.  She brought all these photos of Mommy’s and her grandparents when they were young adults.  They had a great time looking through them all with Grandpaman and hearing stories about what my great grandparents were like.  It turns out my mommy looks a lot like my great grandma!  Mandy gave Mommy a beautiful picture of Great Grandma Harfst that she is going to scan in and put on this site soon so you can be the judge.  Daddy thinks Great Grandma Harfst was a hottie!

So back to all my Thanksgivings… Friday we went to Grandma and Grandpa Hammond’s for my final Thanksgiving.  I got to see my cousins Jesse and Robby and my aunts and uncles.  I had a lot of fun.  It won’t be long before I am causing all kinds of trouble with my big cousins!

Mommy’s friend Emily is in town from San Francisco, so last Monday she and Daddy went out to dinner with her, Reena, Sunil, Tom, and Tracy.  I stayed home and Grandpaman and Grandma G came over.  Mommy put me to sleep before she left, and I stayed asleep for about 45 minutes.  Then I woke up and it was time to PARTY!  Oh, they tried everything to get me to go back to sleep, but I laughed at their feeble attempts.  They thought I was going to sleep when I had my grandparents over?!  That is far to exciting for sleep!  We hung out; I made sure they didn’t steal anything.  It was the best!

This weekend we put up the Christmas tree and decorations.  I love looking at the twinkly lights on the Christmas tree.  Mommy says I have to be really good so Santa brings me lots of presents.  I said to her, ‘Mommy, haven’t you been paying attention?  I’ve been the best baby for nearly 4 months now!’  Sheesh — what is she like! 😛

Daddy feeds me August 27, 2007

Friday I turned 3 weeks old, and Mommy and Daddy decided it was time for me to try a bottle.  Doctors, lactation consultants, and books had told them they had to wait until about this time so I don’t get nipple confusion.  So Mommy pumped some milk and Daddy gave it to me in a bottle later.  It was the greatest!  I love it when my daddy feeds me.  I didn’t have any problems with the bottle or when I went back to Mommy for food.  I just like my food I guess!  They also started letting me have a pacifier (Daddy calls it a ‘dummy’ – he has some funny words for things!  Nappies for diapers, cot for crib, pram for stroller – where does he come up with this stuff! 😉 ) sometimes, as like all babies I find comfort in sucking.  (Not unlike the Bears — oh yeah, high five!)

Last week my parents’ friends Sunil and David came to visit me.  I got in cahoots with Lucy and we did the ol’ one-two on David.  He was cradling me, and I got hungry and started rooting around.  I was level with where I figured his breast must be so I opened wide and started nestling in.  Everyone thought it was hilarious, but I was just trying to be resourceful.  Then as I was distracting everyone with my own version of ‘nipple confusion,’ Lucy came up to him and stuck her nose up the side of his shorts.  She really got right on  up there.  Between fits of laughter my mommy told her to go for his wallet.  We make quite the little comedy duo, my dog and me. 🙂