Max's style 04.03.11

I feel as though I keep losing track of how old Max is.  Not losing track exactly, but confusing the concept of age.  In Spanish, the verb that is used for turning a certain age is cumplir, which literally means to complete.  Max has completed 7 months of his life.  I feel like saying he is 7 months old is misleading....

What a month it has been!  Max is saying momma!!!  Well, maybe not exactly but it sure sounds like it and he does it seemingly with intention.  Many times while he's crying he will say mom mom mom momma over and over again.  All of the kids at daycare were so excited to tell me he was saying momma!  He is rolling over like a champ, laughing at us all of the time (we have some video of him cracking up and it some of the best footage I have ever seen), and constantly learning new things.  We officially started swimming lessons a few weeks ago and he loves it.  He's gone under the water a number of times now and every time he comes up, he looks around for a bit and then gets excited, ready to do it again.  We go with 3 other friends, all of his girlfriends, and it is so much fun.

Our lives have just fallen into a nice groove with Max.  He is so easy to take out with us, never really fusses or cries, even when we spend the day out and about, in different restaurants, or shops, or just out exploring.  He loves seeing new people, and familiar faces alike.  He is always smiling.  I was lucky enough to take him with me to a Student Council conference last month (3 days in a hotel with 1500 teenagers) and he was awesome.  He went to workshops, lunches, dinners and was fine through all of it. I was constantly stopped and asked how old he was and was complimented on his behavior.  He certainly made me one proud momma.

He also loves going to school (well, daycare).  He is the youngest of 6 children there and it is just the perfect fit for us.

I am still able to nurse Max at least once or twice a day.  I would love it to be more but with working, it just can't happen any more than that.  I can't believe how differently I feel about it, thinking back to those first few months when it felt like the hardest thing to do.  Don't get me wrong, it was one of the hardest things to do but I am so happy that I have stayed with it; I only wish I was still able to do it exclusively.

We are 100% on gdiapers now.  We had a slow start to using them, mainly because he was peeing out of them so frequently and it was overwhelming to use them.  They are wonderful though and I happy not only with the ease of them, but also how much they lessen our impact on the environment.

Our biggest challenge lately has been sleeping.  He was doing well for the last few months but we were still swaddling him.  It is late in the game to still be doing so but we knew he wasn't at risk for rolling over swaddled and he just slept so well that we that we kept doing it.  We finally stopped cold turkey Friday night and the little bugger slept through the night.  And then again on Saturday night.  But come Sunday, it was a different story.  Since then, he has been waking a bunch of times, wide awake, unable to simply fall back asleep.  I have had to nurse him in order for him to sleep again which is a habit I do not want to fall into but it becomes a necessary evil when I have to get up and go to work at 6am.  He is also teething and I think right in the middle of a growth spurt so I think all of these things combined have added to our difficulties at night.  I know we will get through it; it's just been a little difficult.  You know you are overtired when your 15 year old students are asking you if you are, in fact, tired.  They can't even begin to imagine...

He loves showing off his swimming moves during tummy time now!

I like to call this one his seal pose

Max's style 03.06.11

Max is officially six months old (and 2 days) so here is a photo shoot of the little guy.  And boy, he does look like a little guy now.  He's all smiles...

rugby shirt- gift from a friend

tan pants- Target

striped socks- Trumpette Marshalls

Max's first solids (or a really messy afternoon)

I will let the pictures speak for themselves but we all had a blast, including Max.  I think his favorite part was the bath at the end.  Dinner time will never be the same again!

Max's 5th month

In one week, my baby will be 6 months old.  I can't even begin to wrap my head around that.  Six months old.  And what a little boy he has become.  Or big boy, I should say.  He is over 16 pounds now.  He laughs all of the time.  Seriously.  He is such a happy little baby.  The picture of him with the huge smile on his face is one that I got from my (wonderful!!!) daycare provider.  It came with a text that said "Hi mom, I'm having a fun day.  Love you!"  It doesn't get much better than that.  He loves blowing raspberries, jumping and the word poop.  I am a little nervous that it might actually be his first word.  It cracks him up every time we say it, so we end up saying it a lot!  His sleeping habits have gotten drastically better.  He generally goes down around 7:30 or 8:00pm.  I am still nursing him and once in a while, he eats in the middle of the night but lately, he goes until 5:30am without eating.  He does usually wake up once or twice and needs me to put his pacifier back in but he has come such a long way from where we started.  He's also clearly ready for solids.  We wanted to wait until he was officially 6 months old to start but when I was out tonight, Damien gave him his usual 6 ounce bottle and Max wanted more and ended up taking 10 ounces total.  He loves to watch us eat and the last few days he has been smacking his little lips, almost like a little old man without his dentures.  He loves singing and loves to pull my hair.  That I can do without!

Here are some snapshots from the past month.  Each and everyday that passes I am more and more in love with my little family...

(apparently this is the month that Damien and I start exploring with putting things on Max's head...)

This is what a sick monkey looks like...

Friday Max turned 5 months old and we spent the day at the doctor's.  Well, not the day exactly but the morning at least.  It started on Thursday when I picked him up from daycare.  By the time I got home, he was running a fever of 101.8.  A few hours later, it was up to 103.5.  Not what any parents want to see, especially new ones.  A call to the doctor, a dose of baby Tylenol and a cool sponge bath later, we got it down to 102.5.  Max slept on me that night and his temperature was pretty consistent throughout the night, around 101.7.  By Friday morning, however, it was back up to 103.4.  We were at the doctor's by 10am and then off for a chest X-ray because he also had a persistent cough.  Now I don't know how many of you have had to watch/aid in your infant getting a chest X-ray but let me tell you, it was awful.  He had to sit in what looked to be a medieval torture device as I held his arms over his head.  Needless to say, he cried a lot.  So did I.  Luckily, his X-ray came back clear and he was diagnosed with an ear infection.  We started him on antibiotics yesterday and he is nearly back to normal today.  His fever broke at around midnight last night and by 2am, he was all smiles.  I even recorded him singing right around that time. 

Before Max got sick, I had wondered how I would really know when he was sick.  I have never been good at telling when someone felt warm and the idea of taking his temperature constantly just to check on him seemed a little excessive.  But let me tell you.  I knew.  From his glassy eyes, hot head, unwillingness to nurse from me, and overall demeanor, it was only a matter of minutes before I was sure that my little monkey was in fact, sick.  But just like everything else that has happened in the last 5 months, you just figure out what to do.  From cold compresses to obtaining a urine sample via a small bag, you just learn as you go how to be a parent.  And inevitably, you become a good one.  

Happy 5 months baby.