40 Weeks Old

Sleeping

Over the past week we've gotten in a pretty good routine. He napped decently at daycare most days, slept pretty well at night, and we even kept him on a good schedule over the weekend (yay for not screwing things up!). Typical day involves waking up between 5:30/6, first nap around 9, second nap starts around 1/2pm, then bedtime at 7:30. His naps on the weekends are pretty consistently at least one hour, usually two for the morning nap. At daycare it's less consistent, I guess due to noise and general distractions, it's harder to get good sleep. Sometimes I wish they would be more consistent about putting him down to nap at the same time each day, but I guess that is a lot to ask (and of course, I'm sure he wouldn't always cooperate!).

Sweet napping babe

Night time is pretty good, usually just an early-morning wakeup due to poop (oh how I wish we could re-schedule his digestive system) around 4/5am. Sometimes we can get him back to sleep after changing, sometimes (like this morning) not so much. Occasionally we'll have a MOTN (middle of the night) wake-up, but usually it's not too hard to get him back to sleep after just some rocking.

Hanging out on an early weekend morning.

If I hadn't mentioned it before, I'm also ready to say that we've officially night-weaned (i.e. he doesn't eat overnight anymore). This is a huge step! And that brings us to...

Eating

We have no trouble in the eating category! Kid loves his food. This week he's been having peaches and cantaloupe with dinner, along with grilled zucchini. On Saturday he got some fancy dinner (with our Valentine's meal) - parmesan risotto and steak! He loved the risotto.

He's going to be feeding himself with utensils before too long!

Still nursing am/pm on weekdays and 5x/day on weekends. And still getting enough surplus to put away a bag or two of milk in the freezer each week! Hoorah!

Spoons also make good percussion instruments.

Life

We had another snow last week! Thankfully it was enough to look pretty during the day, but it was gone about as quickly as it came down since the temps warmed up in the afternoon.



Still trying to encourage some crawling, but he mostly just supermans and fusses. They say he's starting to scoot around at daycare a little bit, but he's still not getting very far.

Grannie and Grandpa Wetmore came to visit on Saturday (a belated birthday celebration for me), and we went out to lunch at Upstate Craft Beer Co. Dargan was great, and he's now recognized by some of the staff there!

 

Pics from around the house:

 
 



Another visiting wrap... this is Aquaria:
 

And Monday ended with some icy weather... perfect for couch snuggles!
 

Upcoming

• Dargan's 9 Month check-up on Friday

9 Months Old

Three quarters of a year old! How does this happen!?

"Who me??"

Nothing to report, just the usual smattering of photos and outtakes... he wasn't in a great mood this morning.

Rollercoaster

Sleeping

We seem to be on a roller coaster of sleep. We'll have a few days of great sleep, and then BAM he's back to being awake 2-3x per night. I don't get it! Sometimes it's our fault (we throw  his schedule off somehow) but sometimes we do the same routine as always and it's still a crapshoot.

Last week I think I did pretty well keeping him on a schedule. I was on my own Monday thru Thursday (Scott was traveling for work) and I did my best to stay consistent. Monday night wasn't great - woke up for an extended period of time from about 2-3am.

"WAAAHHHHHH"   ;'(

The next couple of days were good (I think? It's all a blur!) and only had one wake-up at about 4am. This weekend we screwed up his schedule, of course, so things haven't been great the past couple of days. I think we need to double-down on the overnight sleep training and really put in a strong effort there because we've been giving in to his fusses for the sake of (hopefully) getting him quiet quicker so we can sleep. Sometimes it works, sometimes he wont' stay asleep.

Bedtime is still good (usually). A few nights last week he was so tired at bedtime that he fell asleep while I read him his bedtime story!




Eating

On the food front, we are alllll kinds of good! He's taking to table food really well, we've gotten more and more creative with his meals.

Feeding himself green beans.

We basically give him 2 vegetables, a protein/fat, a fruit, and a carb (crackers/cookies) each meal. Most of last week he ate sweet potatoes and green beans for his veggies, and greek yogurt as the protein/fat. I would usually give him a few bites of whatever I had for dinner, just so he could try it.

 

Dinner one night: Baby yogurt, sweet potatoes, black refried beans, pulled bbq chicken & pork

Avocado and cheese quesadilla - this was a big hit!

Excited about bagel & cream cheese Saturday morning!

He's also getting better and better with the straws - still gets a surprised look every time he takes a big gulp, but it's amazing how quickly he picked it up!

One other feeding-related item: I froze my 100th ounce of milk this weekend!! I'm SO excited that even at almost 9 months, I'm able to build a stash of frozen milk. Granted, 100oz won't last but a few days (he probably eats about 20-25oz/day) but this is really exciting for me. It means I can go somewhere overnight (like, for a work trip) and we won't have to supplement! I never imagined I'd last this long, especially with my supply worries early on, but so far things are still going well. SO HAPPY!


Playing & Life

Generally Dargan is a pretty happy guy - plays by himself really well, loves to snuggle, doesn't get too upset over most things. Just love it!

He's definitely a morning person... is soooo happy when we wake up for the day (after nursing, of course).



Early Saturday morning selfies...



Playing with my slipper on Saturday...

And finally... still just one tooth...  got a photo where you can see it!

First Tooth!

It's official, Dargan has his first tooth! After months of excessive drooling and gnawing on everything in sight, a little chomper finally broke through on the lower left side. I haven't been able to get a good photo of it yet, but maybe he'll let me soon.

You can almost barely see it in the shadow under his tongue... 

Food

We're getting better at the table food this week. We made a batch of steamed vegetables (carrots and broccoli) for him to eat at dinner each night, then we try to get one protein (frequently greek yogurt) and another item - starch or fruit. In addition to that, we'll give him small bites of whatever we have on our plate. This way we know he's getting a good enough meal, plus we're able to expand his horizons with different tastes but we aren't sunk if he hates it.

Dargan's dinner: steamed veggies, greek yogurt, and apple sauce

Yum, veggies!

In addition to table foods, he's still nursing about 5x per day. Early morning (right after wake-up), breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack, and post-dinner / pre-bedtime. I've slightly reduced his bottle volumes at daycare from a heavy 5 oz. down to about 4.5 oz. I'm going to start doing 4 oz. bottles this week just because at home he's seemed less and less interested in nursing after meals. Overnight feeds are still a bit unpredictable (more on that later).

His other big achievement is drinking from a straw sippy cup! It took him a couple of weeks to figure it out, but now he takes good sips from the straw when we hold it up for him. He also knows how to blow bubbles into the cup with the straw. :-P

Playtime

I have to say, Dargan is really good at independent play. I often wonder what he's thinking about when he's playing by himself. I credit daycare for getting him good at this! He will just sit and play with his toys for a good long while.

At daycare, Ms. Sandy has Dargan doing what she calls "tummy bootcamp" - he's not crawling yet, so they're trying to encourage it as much as possible. He's getting better at tummy time, pushes up on his arms really well, but still not making any moves towards getting his hind end up or moving. I'm not worried! I kind of enjoy being able to set him down and come back to find him where I left him. :)

Sleeping

We're still making good progress here, and actually had three days in a row of zero feedings overnight. He still woke up a few times during the night, but either was able to be rocked back to sleep or fussed for a bit and went back to sleep on his own. Friday night was phenomenal - he only briefly woke up and fussed around 3 am, but neither Scott nor I had to get out of bed at all overnight. AND he slept until almost 6:30am! 

Napping is also a challenge but we're getting better. We really only see this on the weekends since he's at daycare the rest of the week. He's great at his morning nap - both days this weekend he has napped 2+ hours. Afternoon naps are another story. Saturday we were out and about, so that messed up his schedule, and he only ended up napping in the car. Sunday I could tell he was getting tired and fussy, so I went up and put him in the crib. He fussed on and off for almost 30 minutes but finally fell asleep and napped about an hour.

The stages of Dargan sleep:

1) Refusal; 2) Play with hands; 3) Sleep.

Other Fun with Dargan:

Just a happy guy at home!

At Upstate Craft Beer Co. to celebrate Mom's birthday :)

Early morning smiles before work/daycare

Weekend mornings at home!

Outdoor fun - hanging out while mom & dad take turns mountain biking

Helping with laundry

Oh, and this weekend we've also gone through his clothing drawers and removed all of the 6 month onesies. He's too long for them and they strain to snap! His short little legs are still fine in 6 month pants, but the onesies and shirts? Nope. Where did my tiny preterm baby go?!