Six Months Today

Today is Wren's 1/2 birthday. He is exactly six months old and at his six month pediatrician visit this morning the doctor said

"He looks like any other baby. He is doing just what he should be doing."

We feel very pleased with him. Here is a picture of him (taken by Frost) yesterday.


His Stats
Wren weighs 19lbs 10oz (85th %), is 28 inches long (90th%tile) and his head is 17 and 5/8" (60th%tile). He had his HIB, PCV and Rotovirus vaccinations. We delayed DTaP for a month to reduce the number of shots he received in his leg since we are using only the right one.

He is rolling from front to back and back again (although less so on the side that requires him to use the left leg), sitting, grabbing for food, moving toys from hand to hand, standing supported and just generally looking about for trouble. We have been told to babyproof our home as he should start crawling during the next 3 months!

Rattlemania
Wren loves rattles. This surprises me. We never bought rattles for Frost because he wasn't particularly impressed by them. Wren hangs onto rattling toys and shakes them methodically with one hand. If he drops the rattle he works hard (rolling, stretching, grunting) to retrieve it. Unfortunately, the rattle often ends up between his legs. If he fails to find it he chews his hands for a bit and then cries until it is returned. His favorite rattles are this ball and a duplo lego piece. I have a 2 minute movie showing Wren playing with his two rattles:



That Crazy Mohawk
Wren is very social and loves to stare at faces, especially new people. People also like to stare at him - at his hair in particular. His hair is very fine and stands completely straight up in mohawk. The pediatrician called it "stylish". More than one person has commented that he doesn't need gel. Its true. It keeps growing longer but it hasn't fallen over yet. It is especially erect after a hairwash. You can probably see the mohawk in this first picture on the floor chasing the rattly ball:




"Hey, where did that ball go?"

Teething
Wren has been having a hard time growing his teeth. The second tooth came threw 2 days before he turned 6 months and he has been very fussy and quick to cry during this period. Yesterday, after his nap, he had bloody spit from the gum bleeding where his tooth is coming through and he had blood on a cloth he was chewing a few days earlier. He is also showing signs of growing one of the lower incisors. We have been giving him Tylenol at bedtime which seems to help but he is not sleeping as well as before this period.

Sleep Update
Wren is still doing a lot better than before at night but he has fallen off from the glory days of early sleep training. We believe this is due to teething but it may take a few days of hard work to remind him not to wake and come into bed with us after 4am. Recently, he has had a lot of trouble getting back to sleep after 4am nursing so we have had him in bed and this hasn't helped my nights. He has also woken more frequently in the 10pm-4am period which he was sleeping through before. He is generally putting himself back to sleep on his own but it sometimes takes 45 minutes of silence and then whining, then silence, then whining before he is asleep. Last night he cried (shrieked) in a different way that sounded like pain and Josh rocked him back to sleep. So, there are bumps in the road but since he puts himself to sleep every night with little or no crying and does the same at nap time, we have come a long long way.

I feel this is long enough already so I will try and post some other shorter updates on Matters Wren. In particular, I want to mention our share in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) with Jubilee Farm. Here is Wren eating the garlic shoots we collected from the farm this week!



Before I head off to book and bed... I am thinking of Izzy who is facing airway surgery tomorrow for a hemangioma. I hope it goes well and she feels a lot better afterwards. Also, Ramona, who is having open heart surgery on Friday to repair an aneurysm at the site of her RVOT patch. Her family is hoping the surgeons can do a safe repair AND put in a shunt to improve her cardiac function as part of a staged repair for her serious heart condition. Good luck to both little ones.

Baby, baby

Last week I was asked to clean the baby dolls at Frost's school. After they had had their baths I let Wren look at them. As you can see he was stunned. After staring at them with intent interest for a while he grabbed them and then started to chew on them.

Sadly, they went away and wouldn't play with him anymore.

The Office

I just have to say that The Office is my favorite TV show. Its hysterical. I am going to have to get the whole thing from Season One and watch it with wine somenight(s). Anyone want to join me?

A tooth, a tooth!

I think Wren is growing at least one tooth. His front middle gum has a tiny hole in it that wasn't there yesterday and its white around it. There are also reddish lumps on either side of the middle teeth. He is chewing and drooling but he has been chewing and drooling for 3 months now.

The only difference is that he is a bit more fussy during the day despite being well napped.

I am making sushi rolls for dinner. I have just made a folded seasoned japanese omelette for some tamago sushi. It is the first time in over a year I have made this. It was fun. It is sitting in the bamboo roller right now cooling.

I am also doing smoked salmon sushi medium rolls, small rolls with cucumber and avocado for Frost and some medium rolls with tofu and vegetables for Frost. I am in the mood for wasabi. Someday Lynne and I are going to have to go to her neighborhood sushi spot for a treat because I am really missing out on the unagi with this dinner. Its my favorite by far.

Josh is having mac and cheese for dinner and sushi for starter but he doesn't know that yet.

Fabulous night

We have had some ups and downs with sleep this week but bast night was the best yet. Wren went from bedtime till getting up without crying ONCE! (although he just cried for 10 minutes for nap. Ugh).

He went to bed at 8.15pm. I had meant to put him down earlier but he woke so late that morning and napped 2 hours which meant he had a catnap at 5.30pm and wasn't tired by 7.45 as I had planned.

I put him down alert and expected crying but he was fine and rolled about a bit and went to sleep!

I nursed at 10.30pm (when he roused, thanks for those who suggested that) and he went back to sleep afterwards.

I nursed again at 4.30am when he roused (half an hour later than normal) and he went back to sleep again at 4.45 with a bit of gas and gurgling stomach. I think it would be better to eliminate this nursing but I will work toward making it later.

He woke at 6am thinking it was morning and cooed and chattered in his bed. Usually I pick him up and nurse him at this point but I hid under the blanket and by 6.25 he had gone back to sleep until 7.10am which was the HOPED FOR waking time.

This week we are selling his rainforest swing on Craigslist and it has been replaced with a Baby Einstein jumperoo thing. Its a little seat he stands in surrounded by baby psychedelia. He can bounce out his enthusiasm.

Wren is extremely rolly polly thesedays. He still prefers to roll one direction only (towards his swollen leg) but is doing that with alacrity. He rolls from tummy to back and then back to tummy often enough to make me dizzy. He is starting to push up with straight arms and can sometimes move forwards but pushing against the floor with his feet. He has also started to lift up his legs and arms a bit off the floor in that "airplane" stance.

Frost loves playing with Wren and comes in every morning and tries to lift him up by his arms into standing position. He loves to hold him upright while he wobbles.

Frosts's birthday

Every night as he goes to sleep Frost tells me he thinks about his birthday party. He plans it to be like a game of chase at school where he gets lots of cool presents *from us*.

He is full of desires - triggered by ads on TV and by passing interests - but has certain themes which recur. As of today, these are the things Frost has put on his birthday wish list (for later discussion with Grandparents!):

1) Star Wars lego minifigures especially Darth Vader and some guys with lightsabers. These are hard to procure and you end up having to buy a set such as this one to get lots of "the guys":


2) The Castle Skull Fortress by Papo


3) A playmobil Knights Market Shop


4) 3 Playmobil Green Dragon knights (& their leader)



5) Some bad guys from Papo.





6) Candy


Frost has decided to sell his current Playmobil castle and a big truck to raise money for some of his hoped-for gifts including this new castle. We shall see if this works out.

Day 7 and the hacky sack

Wren has a new favorite toy - an old orange and plaid hacky sack of Josh's. He loves to hold it and shake it and chew it and drop it. Unlike many other toys he can play with this for an extended period. He is very driven to chew and drool and his greatest excitement is getting hold of handfulls of hair and tugging. He also laughs when Joshua pretends to bite his tummy or shoulder. I think he is ticklish.

Tonight is very hot and both Wren and Frost tossed and turned before getting to sleep. Last night Wren slept very well despite an unscheduled 4am wakeup when I left the alarm on by mistake. I nursed him since we were all wake and he had trouble getting back to sleep (was chatting and kicking in the crib) then slept in till 7.15am so we had an easy day with the 3 naps fitting in just fine.

He is napping much better now he is being kept up shorter periods between naps. He never wakes in less than an hour and has slept for over 1.5 hours at a naptime two days in a row.

Tonight I am going to see what happens if I don't wake him to nurse at all after 10pm.

Sleep Training Day 6

In less than a week life has been transformed. Wren goes to bed around 8pm without crying or nursing. I nurse him in his sleep when I come to bed and again around 4am and he wakes at 6.15am. He is still a bit restless from 4am-6ish and I am working to eliminate that 4am nursing in case it wakes him from a deep sleep period and he has trouble settling in again.

This morning I nursed him when he woke and he slept till 7.30am!

Yesterday we started putting him down to nap after 2 hours awake or when he looked tired. This was substantially sooner than the schedule I had been following for the past 5 days. His naps when MUCH better this way - perhaps avoiding him becoming overtired. He napped 1 hour each nap, almost 2 hours one nap and had a little short 4th nap from which I woke him to make sure he would be tired at bedtime.

Tonight I am going to try and not wake him for his 4am nursing and see when he complains.

He is a happy fat chunker - weighed 19.5 lbs at the naturopath yesterday. It was so great to be able to see a naturopath instead of a specialist allopathic doctor. We talked about Wren's eczema and food introduction. When he is 6 mths we are going to start with yams, pear, apple purees with a few drops of a mild prescription iron. He is to have no grains for 3-4 months longer due to Frost's gluten problems and his eczema.

Today we are going garage sale-ing.

The Shrieker from the Black Lagoon

I have been so mesmerised by sleep training that I have neglected to update about all the fun things that Wren is doing lately. Firstly, from the title, Wren is shrieking up a storm. He loves to make loud noises and smiles when you copy him and shriek back.

Physically, he is making many new moves. Despite rolling over both ways a week ago he is doing it no more frequently and often has to be coaxed. I would say he is on the way to mastering rolling but really rediscovers it every day when he rolls over and then lies there looking stunned. Hands are something completely different. He has a sense of supreme confidence about his hands. He grabs at anything within reach and is rather too accurate for my comfort. In the past 15 minutes he has grabbed:
1) my hair
2) My glass of water as I drank.
3) the frog on his mobile.
3) The straps on the carrier.
4) his other hand.
5) His toes.

He is very interested in food. Although I swore he wouldn't get to taste food until he was 6 months and day he has already sampled watermelon and banana in tiny tastes. He chomps them seriously and swallows. Once, I gave him a small piece of banana to mash in his hands and he spent a while industriously mashing it up and then tasting it from his fingers. I actually allowed him to wrench the piece off the banana and after that he was very very eager to get the banana back and shouted and cried when it was out of reach.

Now the sleep stuff. Okay, I have never been an advocate of crying-it-out techniques of sleep training except as a last resort. I am having to rethink. My life is 100% better since we started sleep training. I get 3hrs in a row almost every night and even when I dont' I sleep better because the interuptions are shorter, sort-of-planned and happen in the early hours of the morning rather than midnight till 3am when I used to have trouble. The past two nights wren has put himself to sleep without any fussing and I have caught him before he woke to nurse twice. He still gets up too early but that is a much easier problem to cope with.

Tonight, I plan to elimate the 1am nursing so he will go from 10pm till 4am. I anticipate a waking or two while he becomes used to this but he has only been nursing for 5mins or less at 1am so he won't be suddenly starved. If he can learn to sleep 10pm till 4am I will be super excited (even more sooper excited than I am!) The book says he can sleep 11 hours easily without nursing but I am lacking a bit of faith on that count.

Meanwhile, with all my new found alertness I have been catching up with tasks around the house. I have been selling off unwanted things from the basement and have made about $100 in dribs and drabs. Of course I am also buying from Craigslist so I may not have any net gain yet. I am often stunned by the things people buy and sell on Craigslist. Today, I noticed someone offering this choice item: "Dark wood oval coffee table (dog bites on the edges)"

I have also been doing some gardening and preparing for summer by getting water balloons and an inflatable boat. By the time real summer comes around many essential items will be out of stock in our local shops - displaced by the fall merchandise two months early. I cannot fathom this except to say that I must be the most disorganized consumer to be caught by this marketing strategy year after year. Until this year!

Now, Wren has woken from one of his 3 scheduled naps and despite "the book's" theory he seems unwilling to use the last 20 minutes of allotted naptime. I think I will work on naps more vigorously when he is sleeping reliably at night. Now I will go and rescue him from the bedroom.

Sleep Training Night 4

Last night was the best yet. Wren went to sleep with NO CRYING or fussing or moaning. I brought his scheduled nursings forward half an hour and managed to catch him asleep for two of them (10pm and 12.50pm) but he snuck in a 3.45am waking for the 4am one and cried for 10 minutes. the major problem last night was the time he is waking. He is up for the day at 5.45am which is too early.

I left him in his crib (in the room) and he kicked and rotated and played with his little bear blanket until 6.15 when he started to fuss a bit. I got him up and we played in bed till 6.30am. Then Frost heard us get up and got up all puffy eyed and sulky and unco-ordinated, complaining about being BORED and wanting TV. That's when I made up a new rule of No TV or breakfast till 7am.

Anyway, this is a better problem to have. I feel we are making progress.

Tonight may be a bit worse as we are going to try and eliminate the 1am nursing but Wren has not agreed to the plan.