take 2

This should be more centered if you're reading it on the blog and not in reader.

6 months

Boo Bear (your daddy’s nickname for you),

You are 6 months old today! Where have the months gone? You are such a big boy and your personality shines brighter everyday. You love to sit up and play with your toys. You would much rather be on your bottom than on your back or tummy these days. It’s so neat to see you pick up your toys and make noises with them, switch hands, throw them, and of course put them in your mouth. This month you have started to sit in the BOB stroller without your car seat. You love looking out at the sights and are enjoying our walks even more now. Another favorite “toy” is the bathroom counter and mirror. You love to stand up on the counter and make silly faces in the mirror. This brings out your smiles quicker than most real toys. You have also started blowing raspberries and still “talk” up a storm when you are in the mood. You have started stretching out your eating and naptimes to go longer between both. I’ve enjoyed this change. You have just recently started formula and you have 6, 6 ounce bottles each day and you take 3-4 short naps each day. You are going to bed so much better and you only wake up one time at night for a feeding then you don’t wake back up again until the morning (usually around 6:30). I’m so glad we bit the bullet and did some sleep training because all of us are getting much better sleep now which makes for much better days. This month you have started sitting in high chairs are restaurants. You’ve done well sitting up while we eat and playing with your toys. This is a nice change from sitting on our laps and grabbing everything on our plates : ).
This next month will bring some changes for you. You will be getting your DOC band and working on stretching out your neck. I know you will do great with both of these things and I’m not worried at all. You will also be getting a taste of fruits and veggies soon. I’m excited to see you eat different foods.
Looking forward to your 7th month! Love you Boo.

Update

We went to the specialist yesterday to evaluate B's head shape. It was a very informative appointment! They took pictures of him in many different positions to get different views of his neck and head, and then we meet with a physical therapist to discuss the recommendations.

The biggest issue we talked about was the tilt of B's neck. This picture makes it a little easier to explain...


See how his head is tilted to his left? This is a common position for his head to be in when he is looking straight ahead. The medical name for this is Torticollis ( a twisted neck in which the head is tipped to one side, while the chin is turned to the other). This was something we noticed when he was younger but we thought it had corrected itself. Apparently not : ( Her recommendation was for him to start physical therapy to stretch out the neck muscles. She said that this is common in babies, but easily corrected with proper treatment.

They also recommended that he wear a doc band for 10-12 weeks. She said that the band in combo with the PT would be the best combination for him. His main flat spot is at the base of his skull which is the hardest spot to correct, but there are other more noticeable parts of his skull that are uneven.

We got a lot of information yesterday, but it was all very helpful. We will see his pedi next week for his 6 month appointment and make all of our decisions about the PT and band at that point.

So if you want to google it he has Torticollis and Plagiocephaly.

Open Mouth, Enter Foot

B's newest trick.

"Under Construction"

On Tuesday we have an appointment for B to go see a specialist in town who deals with flat spots on babies heads. At 2 months old B was diagnosed with a mild case of plagiocephaly. This simply means a flat spot on his head. You can see in the picture above that the right side of his head is further forward than the left side. We have done as much as we can at home to even out his head, but as the pedi told us at his 4 month appointment...we've just stopped it from getting worse.

The treatment for this is what the call a doc band. B would have to wear a band (or helmet) on his head for 23 hours a day from anywhere from 3 to 6 months.

I have mixed emotions about this appointment. I know that it is mainly a cosmetic procedure and he would be fine with an uneven head, but at the same time I don't want to look at him at 2 years old and think we did the wrong thing by not fixing it. Of course I'm jumping the gun a little bit because we haven't even had his appointment yet.

I'll keep the blog posted!

I'm a mom ... this proves it

I've been thinking about getting a Pandora bracelet for a while now. It's always seemed very "momish" to me so now seemed like a good time to get one and start my charms off with a mom charm (seen better in 2nd picture) in honor of B and this new chapter. The thing I like about this bracelet is that it's a modern day charm braclet and it's a great way to mark important events in our life. I'm excited to build my bracelet one charm at a time!

166

166, thats how many nights I have woken up countless times to feed or soothe Bennett. Last night was night number 1 of not waking up at all! Yes, B slept from 7:30 - 7:00 without waking up (and he only fussed for 3 minutes when we put him down). Of course the one night he doesn't wake me up the rain storm did, but that's ok I'll take what I can get.

This was night number 4 of our sleep training and by all accounts it's worked really well for B. I know it's probably not this easy with every baby, but every baby is different.

I'm so happy that B is better rested during the day and we can tell it makes a difference in his daytime disposition. He has still been taking his short 30 minute naps, but has been staying awake for longer periods of time between them.

This should be the last of my sleep posts for a while : )

Day 2

wow. I woke up at 7:00 this morning and felt so well rested. B had a great night last night! He went to bed at 7:30 last night, woke up once to eat at 2:30, and slept until 7:45 this morning. He got 12 hours of great sleep! I woke up at 7 expecting him to be waking up soon, but as you can see he kept sleeping. It was a weird feeling being up before he was. So far so good with the sleep training. No worries, I'm not crazy enough to think this will last forever, but it's a good start. This might only be interesting to me, but I want to make sure it's documented somewhere so I remember for baby #2...not coming for a while though (not pregnant, not even thinking about it)!

and I'll leave you with this...love this face...

Sleep, oh Sleep Training

I am currently (7:10 on Friday night) lounging quite comfortably in Bennett’s Nap Nanny (funny sight) on the floor of our bathroom listening to Delilah on Magic 95.5 while Dave does daddy duty tonight. Let me explain further…

Our cute little fellow has sporadic sleeping habits at night. Some nights he will wake up 2 times but sometimes as many as 4 times. Needless to say…it’s getting old. At our 4 month appointment our pedi advised us to read the Ferber book and to let him go to sleep on his own without parental intervention (rocking, bouncing, etc). I have been dragging my feet on this because I didn’t want to hear my little one cry. I have read MANY books and all of them have different opinions on sleep. The one idea that makes the most sense to me is the “graduated extinction method.” This is Ferber’s method and is also one of the methods in “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child.” This method is the idea that you put you baby to bed awake and check on them in different time intervals if they are crying. The time intervals get longer each time and each night. The purpose of this is so that they learn how to fall asleep on their own so when they wake up at night (we all do we just don’t realize it) they are able to go back to sleep without mom or dad rocking them. Last night it took B 40 minutes to put himself to sleep. He didn’t cry this whole time, which was much better than I expected. He would fuss for about 15-30 seconds then soothe himself for a minute and repeat this for a while. He also only woke up once at 3:15am and I fed him which I knew I was going to do. One wake up a night is perfectly fine with me at this point, and if he’s hungry of course he can eat.

Oh! Dave just came in…tonight it only took him 20 minutes to fall asleep! I’m hoping to see improvement each night and where he can get to the point of not fussing and just going to sleep.

I’m hoping the one wake up last night wasn’t a fluke and that tonight we will have the same luck. I think it will be much harder to let him cry when it’s later at night. I know that in the end this is all good for him it’s just hard. I also know he is safe, fed, clean, and warm he has just learned that mommy’s arms are where he falls asleep not his crib.

and I'll leave you with a picture : )

This was taken this morning after our first night of sleep training

I'm obsessed....

with taking pictures of B sitting up! He has just recently started (1st time on 3.23.11) sitting up and it has become a whole new world for him. He loves to play, laugh, and "talk" while sitting up and pretty much thinks he is the most special thing in the world when he does (in my eyes he is)!

Here is some proof of my new obsession...

Growing Up

From here...



To here...


Oh sweet baby B, you're growing so fast. slow down! Love, Mommy : )