I don't know how they did it...

...but they got me to sleep on my own last night. I went to sleep at 9 PM without fussing at all, woke up at 2 AM to nurse, and then woke up again at 5 AM to nurse. And each time I went back to sleep with barely a fuss at all. Hmmm. They must have put something in my milk.

Maybe I'll get back at them tonight. We'll see.

Oh no, they di-in't

So mama and daddy have this crazy idea that they are going to teach me to sleep on my own in my co-sleeper all night long. And, get this, they are going to encourage me to stop nursing every 2 hours throughout the night so that I can start sleeping for longer periods. HAH! Good luck, parental units!

In our first stand-off last night, I didn't go to sleep until 4 AM. That means that mama didn't either (daddy slept in the guest room since he's the one who has to get up to go to work). Since I get to make up for my lost sleep through naps during the day, I'm pretty sure I will outlast mama.

Bring it on!

Oh yeah, I've put some more pictures up so that you can see just how handsome I am.

Pictures: January 20, 2008

This works well for me

After my 3 AM meal this morning, I grabbed mama's nightgown, pulled it open, and spit up down the front of it. It's so much more comfortable for me when I don't get spit up on myself! I need to remember to do that more often.

Managing expectations

Even though I'm not even 3 months old yet, I've already figured out that if I manage expectations well, it's really easy to impress my mama and daddy.

I've very carefully laid out the groundwork over the past 11 weeks. I refused to sleep on my own under any circumstances. I'd sleep happily in a carrier or in someone's arms, but the second I was put in my crib or cradle I'd wake up screaming. As icing on the cake, I was particularly fussy at night, waking up as frequently as possible to nurse.

The result of all of this hard work has been that mama and daddy have gotten accustomed to holding me 24 hours a day. This has been great for me because I love being cuddled. After all, I'm still in the "4th trimester" -- that 12 week period when I am learning how to live outside of the womb. But now that I'm reaching the end of my 4th trimester (shouldn't they be called "quarters" instead?), I think it's time to assert some independence.

All nighter

Last night I was a very hungry and fussy boy. I woke up every 1-1/2 to 2 hours to nurse, and even when I'd had enough and spit it up all over Mama, I still wanted more. I barely got ANY sleep! I think I'll go take a nap...after I nurse one more time.

Gosh, Mama looks kinda tired too. She really needs to get more sleep.

My peeps

Yeah, this is the crowd I roll with (click for big).



I went to my baby class reunion last night (Mama wrote more about it and posted some pictures on her blog). I hung out with my bud Benjamin (he lives a couple blocks from me and we rule the 'hood...or at least we will, once we've gained neck/head control) and checked out Oliver's sweet hairstyle. It was fun.

And yeah, I'm small. Does everyone need to make such a big deal about it? I mean c'mon -- putting me next to Amadea to compare how much bigger she is even though she's two months younger? That's just insulting. She's such a CHILD...how could you even begin to compare us?

Oh yeah, and I have to explain about my style. I got to wear my cool Jayhawks pants, but my Daddy pulled them up to my armpits and made me look like a Poindexter. It doesn't look so bad in the picture I posted here (Mama fixed them), but there are a couple shots on Mama's blog that are pretty embarrassing.

Early morning wake-up call

It is currently 6 AM and I am crying for no reason. Mama has been nursing me since 4 AM, and every time she tries to stop I start screaming again. Keeping 'em on their toes!

Zachary: 2, Adults: 0

There's a new sheriff in town

Helloooooo blog world! It's me, Zachary! I decided that I'm tired of letting Mama do my talking for me, so I'm taking over this blog. After all, she has her own blog. Does she need two? I didn't think so.

From now on, this blog is all about me and my thoughts! If you're curious about what Mama's doing or what she's thinking (even if it's about me), head on over to her blog to find out. Otherwise, stick around to see what I'm up to!

Keep in mind, these posts might be short because I'm not quite as wordy as Mama. And there's the small detail that I don't actually know how to talk, let alone type, yet. So how are these posts getting written? Magic, my friend.

I'll end this with a little snippet to tide you over until my next post:

I did something new last night, just to keep Mama and Daddy on their toes. At 3 AM, I suddenly started screaming at the top of my lungs. Not crying, mind you, just screaming. Without waking up. I screamed like I was in excruciating pain for about a minute, then stopped and continued sleeping peacefully. Of course, Mama and Daddy were jolted awake and couldn't get back to sleep afterwards because they were so rattled. But I slept like, well, a baby.

Mama called the doctor today to see if there's something wrong. He said that it sounds like night terrors, but that I'm far too young to be experiencing those. I guess I'm not supposed to have nightmares until I'm at least 6 months old, and night terrors won't start until I'm at least a year old. So I've confounded them all. Hah!

Zachary: 1, Adults: 0

Sleeping baby

This may be a small achievement, but I'm excited about it:

Zachary fell asleep! By himself! Lying down! Alone! For the first time in over two months!

I nursed and changed him and he started to yawn. So I swaddled him and placed him in the cradle, which I've moved to the guest room (the only room in the house that had full blinds and thus can be darkened a bit during the day...the enormous skylight in the nursery is going to be an issue as Zachary gets older and needs to nap in his own room). He started kicking and crying, so I sat with him and sang to him but didn't take him out of the cradle. He eventually calmed down, and I tip-toed out of the room. He started crying again, but stopped pretty quickly (less than five minutes). I peeked in and saw that he was awake and staring around the room, but he wasn't fussing. A few minutes later I looked in, and voila! He was asleep!

And now, he is awake and crying. Hmmm. Baby steps...

New pictures added - Jan 13

It's been awhile since I've added pictures, so I just put a bunch up from the last two weeks. You'll see that Zachary is getting even more handsome every day! His eyebrows have really filled in, which make his expressions so much funnier. And his eyelashes are now thick and long. I'm jealous.

Zachary is still not happy about lying down on his own, and we're not quite sure how to fix that. Everyone says that he'll outgrow it, so we're hoping that's true. He does manage pretty well in the swing every once in awhile, and when he's wide awake he likes to lie on his play mat or in the crib and kick wildly while he looks at the mobiles or mirror. But he gets bored after awhile and starts to fuss, and he has yet to actually take a nap lying down alone in his crib.

He also does these funny little "sleep screams". That's when he's fast asleep and he suddenly wails loudly for a couple seconds without waking up. It's startling to me (it's a very loud and purposeful cry, not a sleepy murmur or grunt) but it doesn't seem to bother him.

In this latest batch of pictures, he's really starting to show his personality. Sometimes I'm amazed at how mature he looks! Not the way he did when he was born (and he looked like a little old man because he was so skinny and wrinkly), but like an actual child instead of a baby.

Pictures: January 13,2008

New game

Zachary learned a new game last night. This one is called "start screaming uncontrollably and when mommy holds you close to comfort you, spit up on her face". It was fun.

Did it work?

Margaret asked if our experiment of putting Zachary down to sleep by himself last night worked. Errr...no. He cried the entire time (we tried for 15 minutes this first time) and when I went to check on him, he'd spit up all over himself. So not only did he manage to get both legs and one arm out of the swaddle, but his onesie was soaking wet. I changed him and nursed him, and then we tried it again for 10 minutes. No go.

It might be too soon to try this with him, since he still spits up whenever we lay him on his back. Even if he were able to soothe himself to sleep, he can't do it when he's uncomfortable and wet. We are also just reaching the typical "peak" of evening fussiness/colic (6 weeks after his due date), so it might be hard to work on his sleep habits while we are all being distracted by the witching hour(s) fussing.

I'm hoping this is really the peak of the fussiness and it will start to get better! Did I mention that on New Year's Day, he had a marathon fussing session? He cried for 4.5 hours straight, then slept for about 2 hours, then cried for another 5.5 hours straight. Maybe that was the peak.

This is miserable

We're seeing if Zachary can put himself to sleep tonight, and it's not working very well so far. It's killing me to sit downstairs and listen to him cry on the baby monitor. I hope that he can calm down soon, because I'm not going to last much longer. Apparently, he has more endurance than I do.

Rockin' Mama

I've noticed that I've picked up a new habit since having Zachary. Since I'm usually either holding him or wearing him in a baby carrier, I sway back and forth to calm him. Now I do it even if I'm not holding or wearing him. I constantly sway back and forth, back and forth...

2 month check-up

Yesterday was Zachary's 2-month check up. He's doing really well and growing right on target, even though he's still at the very bottom of the growth charts (3rd-5th percentile). He weighs 8lbs 12oz (up from 6lbs 14oz at his check-up a month ago) and is 21-3/4" long. He's still in the 10th percentile for length and head circumference.

Yesterday was also the start of his immunizations, so he had to take one oral vaccine for rotavirus and get three (yes THREE) shots in his thighs for DTaP, HepB, Hib, PCV and IPV. The nurse giving the shots was amazing -- I have no idea how she did it so quickly! By the time the first shot registered with Zachary, she was already done and had the band-aids on his legs.

But boy, did that first shot register. Zachary's eyes popped wide open, then his mouth opened wide, and then he screeched a scream of pain like we've never heard. After the first scream, his mouth and eyes stayed wide open and his face turned red, but it took several seconds for another sound to come out. The poor little angel! I immediately picked him up and started nursing him, and he latched on fiercely and didn't let go for awhile. I'm so glad that I'm nursing and can use that to soothe him at times like this!

The rest of the afternoon, Zachary was kind of in shock. He sat in his car seat and stared straight ahead without making a fuss, which is really unusual for him. He eventually fell asleep, but he woke up to feed normally. He had a fever in the evening, so we did our best to make him comfortable and we were eventually able to get him to sleep. He seems to be better now and he's fever's gone down, so we'll just be keeping an eye on him today to make sure that he's OK.

The doctor also gave us a prescription to help Zachary with his acid reflux. Normally I'm not a big fan of medications, especially for my baby, but Zachary is in so much pain after he eats and it's so hard for him to get to sleep. He can't lie down on his back comfortably, so we have been unable to put him down to sleep on his own. We don't want him to develop bad sleeping habits (i.e. getting used to be rocked/nursed to sleep and held by Mama or Daddy all day and all night, the way it's been for the past 2 months) and the doctor said that we should start to encourage him to fall asleep on his own...once he's not suffering from the acid reflux pain. So we'll see how this works, and hopefully he will quickly grow out of the reflux and we won't need the medicine anymore (the medicine doesn't cure the reflux, it just reduces the acidity so that Zachary's esophagus isn't being burned as painfully when he bubbles up).

As far as other developments, Zachary is definitely smiling now (a big open-mouthed smile) and is a bit more interactive. He coos and gurgles more and will sometimes mimic me when I make faces at him. His tears have come in, which makes it a lot harder to see him cry, and his voice (i.e. his cry) has gotten a lot fuller and louder. He can hold his head up for short periods of times, and moves it from side to side when he has tummy time. He's relaxed his hands a bit so they are not always curled up into tight little fists, and his movements are starting to get a bit smoother. He still kicks kicks kicks when he's lying down and often when he's nursing (when he's nursing at night in bed, he kicks sleeping Daddy in the arm or head). He's not very interested in toys, but he will follow his Nemo from Auntie Trisha around if I move it in front of him (the other toys, not so much). I think he likes the bright and contrasting colors on his Nemo, or maybe he just remembers that we played "Finding Nemo" on the DVD over and over in the postpartum room after he was born. And, just like his Daddy, Zachary LOVES mirrors. He'll actually pause in his crying to admire at that handsome boy in the mirror for awhile.

Developmentally, Zachary seems to be somewhere between his birth age and his gestational age. The doctor said that's normal and he will catch up by the time he's 12 months old. His sleep patterns are definitely following his gestational age (i.e. they are 3+ weeks behind his birth age), so we are just now reaching the peak of his evening fussiness. At least, I hope we are reaching it and an end is in sight! He has some good nights, but he makes up for them with nights like Tuesday, when he cried from 5:30 PM until 10 PM and then got up at 3 AM and cried until 8:30 AM. The 5-hour stretch of sleep was nice, but not when sandwiched by 10 hours of non-stop crying!

So that's the latest on our little man!

New year, new pictures

We've had lots of family here the past week, and I added a post and pictures to my other blog. I've also added a few Zachary-centric (although the holiday and visitors were pretty Zachary-centric as well) pictures here.

Zachary is 8 weeks old now, and he's changing every day! He still likes to make a lot of different faces, and he's adding more to his repertoire every day. He coos and gurgles more frequently now -- mostly in the morning when we have playtime before we get out of bed to start our day. He's getting bigger and heavier too. In fact, he's actually grown out of his diapers and has moved up to a Size 1! (He's been in a Size NB - Newborn until now.)

We realized that Zachary needed a larger diaper once he started blowing out the top of his diapers every time he soiled them. The first couple times we thought we'd just put his diaper on too loosely, but after a full day of blow-outs, we figured we'd get the next size the next time we bought diapers. Then, after he peed on his Mama while nursing (and yes, he was fully clothed and diapered, yet still managed to soak me), we (I) decided we'd get the next size of diapers immediately. The peeing incident happened at 4AM, and I was at Fred Meyer when they opened their doors at 7AM. Of course, they were out of Size 1 diapers, so I went to QFC (also out) and Bartell Drugs. I got to Bartell's right before they opened, so I stood outside with a man who was also waiting. When the doors opened, we both went directly to the diaper aisle. He looked at me and said, "Emergency?" and we both laughed. (By the way, Bartell's was also out, so I went to Safeway and FINALLY found them.)

When I was at Fred Meyer, I looked at some of the newborn baby outfits. I saw that Zachary is too big for them, but it was only a couple weeks ago that he was too small for them! It made it clear how much he's grown, and it made me a bit sad to realize how quickly we've moved past his "brand new baby" stage. Everyone keeps telling me to "enjoy it, they grow so quickly" and it really is true. Even though sometimes (mostly at 2AM when he's screaming at the top of his lungs) I feel like time is standing still.

Zachary still has a hard time with evenings and night, when he starts to fuss and cry and there doesn't seem to be anything we can do to soothe him other than nurse. The books say that fussiness/colic tends to peak at 6 weeks after the gestational due date (in other words, the 3+ extra weeks we got because he was early don't count towards the 6-week time line) and gradually taper away by 12 weeks. He'll be 6 weeks past his due date next Tuesday, so we'll see if things start to get a little easier!

Pictures: January 1, 2008