back to school.

it seems to have taken me a little longer than i thought to finish that last update. so, i'll just write about whatever i can think of...

jude turned six months old on january 7th. his six months check up was the following monday, and he had to get three stinky, dumb shots. i hate his vaccination days. it never bothers him for more than 10 minutes, but i hate it. anyway, he weighed in at a whopping 22lbs & 9oz and measured 29inches. he's been in size 4 diapers for probably a month, as well as 12-18 month clothes. i hope that the growing starts to slow down a bit because he got a whole new wardrobe of clothes in that size for xmas and i'd like him to wear them for awhile. not to mention i realized that with each diaper size increase, there is less in the boxes. i don't suppose he uses as many as when he was say, a size 2, but nonetheless...

and along with his growing body comes a growing brain. he gets more intelligent and understanding everyday. the looks he gives throughout the day are hilarious. some things he can't quite figure out and so he knits his furry little brows together and then looks to me, then back at the source of his perplexion, then back at me, etc. he also holds objects out in front of him and turns them over and over, passing them from hand to hand, in order to get a closer look. he does this with his own hands a lot, which i think is quite funny. and he's finally gotten a little taste of his feet. he got one in his mouth while i was bicycling his legs in the tub and then every now and again during a diaper change.

speaking of which, i am no longer concerned with his constipation. he went about 4 days without a bowel movement and of course i called the doctor who told me it was perfectly normal. they advised me to switch him from rice, so now he is a barley cereal boy. it's a bit more grainy than the rice, but he seems to like it. and now that i've got the recipe down for that as well i don't even have to thin it out with milk. i am having such a great time learning how to cook... even if it is only simple purees and baby cereal. everyone has to start somewhere! i'm becoming so nutrition-savvy as well. i'm trying to step out of the box where his fruits and veggies are concerned. so far i've steamed and pureed green and red pears, mango, avocado, banana, yellow squash, and beets (that i admittedly mistook for parsnips until my hands were purple at the end of the disaster). waiting in the wings are some actual parsnips, carrots, a sweet potato, and an acorn squash. i've tried to be good about the 3 day rule, so all he has actually eaten have been the pears, mango, banana, and squash. i will say i've given him tiny tastes of everything but only hoping that such a small amount wouldn't spark any allergies. either way, he's shown no signs of harm! to help with my endeavor as a baby chef, mom ordered me a baby steamer/pureer and some freezer containers. i have been using my breastmilk freezer bags and if i keep that up it will end up being just as expensive as buying the store bought baby food.

aside from this, things have continued pretty much as they were since my last post. he's still only rocking on his knees, no crawling yet. he can still sit up for quite a long time by himself. he is still cramming everything into his mouth... and this has actually been better since he's started taking a pacifier regularly for the past three or four weeks. it's much easier on my conscience that he isn't licking the floors. i'll deal with the pacifier habit when we reach that point.

being a parent is insane. it's one decision after another. sure, we all turned out alright (in our own warped way) but things have changed so much since our parents raised us and their parents raised them. and medical opinion is constantly changing, so what/who do you trust? everyone has their ideas and everyone has their two cents to add, but it ultimately boils down to you, the parent. if i choose to let my child do this or that how is it going to affect him when he's 5, 15, 50??? so i try not to think about the implications of my decisions too much, and go with my gut or what seems the most right. i guess we just wait and see how it all turns out...

jabberwocky.

so it seems that just over two months ago i entitled a blog "chatterbox." what was i thinking? obviously i am a first time mom, because here i sit just eight short weeks later... with a real reason to entitle a blog "chatterbox." so, since i've used that one up, here i will begin what i've not so creatively titled "jabberwocky."


just within the past week has my strong, silent type turned into a jabbering monkey. he had been gnawing on anything within arm's reach and suddenly decided that the gnawing was much more fun while trying to talk. sure, i'd been noticing him putting vowel-consenant sounds together a LITTLE, but boy oh boy! he has really figured it out! he moves his mouth in so many ways now and i can actually see the comprehension when he is watching the way my mouth moves when i am talking to him. it's insane how different my boy is these days! i keep expecting to hear the ma-ma-ma or da-da-da sounds that i've been dying for. but seriously, the little jabberwocky is adorable. he talks, he plays, he scoots, and he just does so much more than he did six months ago... go figure! and six months has flown by!

he started cereal about a week and a half ago as well. that has been fun. much more work for me, but fun nonetheless. i decided at some point several months to go au naturale with mr.jude. so he is only breastfed, a co-sleeper, a sometimes slinger, and an organic, homemade food eater who waited nearly the full six months before his first bite. my doc (OBGYN) and jude's doc both talked to me in depth about the benefits of waiting and also doing the homemade thing. they both warned me full well about the dangers of starting solids too early and i'm glad i listened. it's not a method for every mom nor a path for every baby, but it totally worked for us. and i'm not so rigid that i waited until six months to the day (or later) for the cereal thing. i just did a lot of research, trusted my gut, and listened to jude. originally i had decided to start feeding him on christmas day, so that zachary could be a part of it, but of course things planned with babies never work out. but i did wait until a morning that zach was home from work to feed our little one for the first time. the morning time is ideally the best time to introduce new foods in case of allergic reactions to ensure that your ped's office will be open for just such an occasion. but luckily, there was no need of that for jude, though he did make terrible faces and act as though i was torturing him by feeding him on that initial day. but since then he has adapted nicely to the new texture and i have perfected my recipe and portion size for his rice cereal. i will say the rice has constipated him somewhat (not uncomfortably) and so i have added 1/2TBSP of organic pears to his morning ceral and 1TBSP of pears alone in the evening. it seems to have helped although he hasn't been going every day and so i guess it's one of those lovely TMI questions i will bring up with my pediatrician. but if there is one definite thing that has changed about me since i have become a parent, it is that nothing seems like TMI (too much information) to me nowadays. i call my mom to talk about jude's puke, poop, penis... everything. my friend elijah made the comment that he wished he could be a baby because all you have to do is survive and you are incredibly impressive. "oh look he's pooping, eating, smiling, etc... how special and wonderful!" lol. i guess it's totally true.

speaking of impressive, i have a super scooter on my hands these days also. he slides backward all over the hardwood floors like a pro. he can turn himself all the way around with his hands, too. on not-so-slippery surfaces he can get onto his knees and hold his position or rock back and forth for up to a minute before tiring or getting bored. it's astounding really. three and a half weeks ago he couldn't do that! i am so stoked to see this boy crawl. (though i do kind of dread having to chase him.)

mr.jude has also learned to sit unassisted. this was one of the clues that he was ready for solid food. just a couple weeks ago he could barely sit alone for a few seconds before tipping over, now he can sit for several minutes (or until he decides whatever is in front of him is no longer as interesting as what is beside him) but he still prefers to be on his tummy and moving around.

and since he's been much more easily entertained and self-entertaining, he is getting a little easier to travel with. today i took him with me to register for class and it wasn't all that much trouble. sort of. haha. no, he was great. very sweet, quiet, and clingy. he rarely makes a fuss these days (not that he ever really has) and is an absolute peach in public. he seriously just quietly clung to my shoulder and observed everything today until engaged by my advisor to whom he actually opened up to a little and even said a few ooo-glee-blahs.

i am just convinced that i have the best baby ever. especially lately. last month he went through a hard to get to sleep phase off and on and i sometimes have struggled to get him to nurse at night (hence the bottles at night for the past few months) and that kind of thing, but lately all of that has disappeared. he went through a week or so of teething discomfort recently, but since that has worn off for the time being, he is an angel. he goes to bed between 9-10:30 most nights now by nursing and then simply laying beside me with his pacifier. sometimes i have to rock him in my arms for a couple of minutes, but it's that easy really. i have noticed that he night-wakes or cat naps when no one is in the bed with him or at least close at hand, but i think that is a personality trait instead of a bad habit. and honestly why wouldn't i want to lay in bed next to that sweet boy for hours while he sleeps? it works for me, because when he is in another room sleeping, i am in and out of that room at least every 3 minutes. (worry wart, right here. admitted.) but anyway, so goes to sleep like a dream and then he sleeps until about 6ish when he nurses and goes back to sleep, wakes up around 9ish to nurse again and then usually goes back down until 11. i get to sleep in! it's lovely. he is totally his mother's child. and he never cries when he wakes up. he just starts talking, or either lays there silently and reaches out and touches my face. !!! i know, right? howwwww cute. i just love him!

i will admit that he is a whiner. a total and complete whiny-baby. he makes this cute little puppy sounding whine. and mostly during the evening or when he is hungry/tired. but it's hardly annoying, more endearing. he only cries when he is overly tired at night, sometimes when he night-wakes, or if he smashes his nose on the quilt or a toy. he got his first bruise last week! and it was all my fault. i felt like total crap about it and probably would have cried had i not been around so many people. we were at zach's cousin lauren's house visiting (she has a son, noah, who is just 19 days younger than jude) and i had him sitting in front of me and i turned to get a bib and he tipped over and hit his head on a cabinet. of course i was mortified, but he didn't even cry. i scooped him up and held him for a long time. did i mention that i felt really bad? ugh. it was the worst. and then a couple days ago mom was playing with him on his quilt and i was sitting on the couch next to them watching a movie and she had him sitting up and i guess we both got distracted by the movie but he definitely fell backwards and bonked his head on the floor. and cried. i immediately jumped up and swooped him up and talked gently and reassuringly to him (which usually works to calm him down) and he would stop cryingm think about it, and then start bawling again. it was really sad. again, i felt like the worst mom ever for not watching him. but i guess i do learn from these accidents. anyway, it still sucks...

what else? hmm... i don't know. it's 11:30 and i am utterly exhausted. i will write more later :)