Keeping up with the Hoffmans

Baby Theo, breastfeeding, friends & family, musings

Flying with a baby…

March 19, 2014 Keeping up with the Hoffmans

As I mentioned in my last post, we took Theo to Hawaii last month. It was our first time flying with him and we pretty much just dove right into the deep end with a 5 1/2 hour flight. I did quite a bit of research ahead of time on tips for traveling with a baby, but the truth is, you really never know how your baby will act until you just do it. With that said, in case any friends or family need advice, or any strangers stumble upon this blog while searching for tips, here are my two cents based on my limited experience flying with a nine month-old:

Booking the tickets:

Since children under two can ride on your lap without their own ticket, we went this route to save money; however, we purposefully booked an aisle and a window seat for D and me, hoping the middle would stay vacant. Different airlines have different policies, but many will allow you to bring your car seat on and use it in the empty seat if it’s is still vacant at boarding time (here’s Alaska Airlines‘ policy). I figured, best case scenario we get to bring the car seat on for free; worst case scenario, we offer the person in the middle the window seat. It’s not like they’d refuse. Our plan worked on the way there. On the way home our flight was full and we had to gate check the car seat.

Having done it both ways now, I’ll say this: if you can swing it financially to spring for that extra seat, it may be worth it, particularly on a long flight. On the way there when we had the car seat, we were actually able to get him to fall asleep for a little while (he sleeps great in the car, so I imagine it felt similar). On the way home, he squirmed the ENTIRE flight, and I had to stand most of the time. But if you’re on a budget or can’t justify the price of an extra seat, you may just get lucky and have an empty middle seat – especially for a touristy destination like Hawaii where people are less likely to be flying solo. Either way, you definitely want that aisle seat, so you can get up easily. Because chances are you’ll be up a LOT.

In-flight entertainment:

I had read one article that suggested buying a couple new toys to introduce while in flight, hoping the novelty would hold the baby’s attention more than toys they already know. This might work better with an older child. Or maybe my kid is just super ADD. But he was interested in the new toys for all of five minutes before he was squirming again. A napkin, a plastic cup and the in-flight magazine held his attention just as well, so my advice would be to save your money and not go gangbusters buying a bunch of new toys like I did, especially since you aren’t going to want to buy noisy electronic toys, so your selections will be rather limited.

Food actually held his attention much better than toys did. What can I say? My kid loves to eat. I brought some squeezy pouches and a spoon, and fed him small bites of food at a time, and that bought us about an hour. Puffs are always a hit, and as a bonus, you can let them hold and shake the container, which doubles as a rattle.

The best form of in-flight entertainment, I discovered? Other people. For a social baby like mine, having old ladies coo at him was pretty much the greatest thing in the world. Oh, and other babies can be great distraction too. Go on a walk and visit with the other babies on the plane. Chances are, their parents are also trying earnestly to keep them happy and will be grateful for your company for the sake of their own kids’ entertainment.

Mile-high diapers:

Nothing makes you realize just how tiny those airplane bathrooms are like trying to wrestle a squirmy, poopy baby on a changing table the size of a place mat. During turbulence, I might add. (Imagine my horror when the fasten seatbelt sign came on while I was doing damage control on a blowout.) The last thing you want to do is add a giant diaper bag to the mix, especially since there’s nowhere to set it except on the nasty floor. I’d suggest getting something like this; something you can stow in your big diaper bag under your seat, and quickly grab before heading to the lavatory. It folds out into a changing pad, which you’ll want anyway (in case the person before you lost the battle with poopy turbulence!).

Despite the fact that I normally prefer cloth diapers, we went with disposables for the flight (and the entire vacation, actually), which I would highly recommend. They pack more compactly and you don’t have to worry about wet bags or carrying smelly diapers back to your seat. There’s enough going on already when you’re flying with a baby, and there’s something to be said for the convenience of just being able to toss them in the trash and forget about them. I’d say that’s a pretty good overarching theme for flying with a baby: do whatever is most convenient and makes your life easiest. You can save the planet or worry about instilling good habits another day.

One more tip: on many airplanes, only one of the bathrooms has a changing table. It took me forever to figure this out the first time I went into one of the non-changing table lavatories.

What (and how) to pack:

The rules will be different if you’re traveling solo with a baby (and in that case, you have my condolences), but here’s what we did, and it worked well for us:

The diaper bag was my one and only carry-on. I had my wallet, phone, chapstick, gum, and the rest was stuff for Theo. Don’t even bother with magazines or books for you – chances are you won’t have much time for yourself and if you do, count yourself lucky and get some sleep! If you’re feeling really optimistic, maybe consider installing the Kindle app on your phone and downloading a book ahead of time. But you’re better off saving your bag space for baby stuff. Back to the diaper bag: in addition to minimal items for myself, I had my nursing cover, the diaper changer thing I linked to earlier (stocked with diapers, wipes and hand sanitizer), an extra change of clothes for Theo, several small toys and books, and some baby food in a small bottle cooler bag with an ice pack. I put the toys and food in the outside pockets where I could quickly grab them if he started to fuss. I also packed my manual breastpump in case he decided not to nurse and I needed some relief. I ended up not needing it, but if you have a finicky or distracted nurser and a long flight, it may be worth it.

I had D carry our rollaway carry-on bag, which had extra changes of clothes for both of us, extra diapers and anything we couldn’t live without for a couple days in the event our checked luggage got lost. We checked one very large bag with everything else for the three of us. Normally I hate paying to check a bag, but when you’re traveling with a baby you need a lot of crap that’s hard to fit into a carry-on. Plus it was nice to not have to worry about dealing with yet another bag through the airport and onto the plane. So walking through the airport, D carried our rollaway and empty carseat, and I carried the diaper bag with Theo strapped to me in a carrier (I have the Beco Gemini and it’s awesome – it was also a lifesaver for the flight home when I had to stand/walk the aisle the entire time). For a really tiny baby I would have considered bringing our snap and go stroller for the carseat and wheeling him through the airport since you can gate check strollers for free. But since we knew we wouldn’t use the stroller at our destination, we opted not to bring it.

What to wear:

I would recommend wearing pants or a skirt you can get on and off with one hand instead of jeans or anything you need to button, so you can hold the baby with one hand and get your pants up and down with the other (on a related note: if you go to the bathroom to change the baby, don’t forget to go yourself while you’re there – the last thing you want is to have to go later when the baby finally falls asleep on you). If you’re nursing, you’ll obviously want to wear a top with easy access. I would recommend stretchy low necklines as opposed to anything with buttons or clasps. Less to fumble with in already tight quarters.

Footed jammies are convenient for baby. He’ll be comfortable (and hopefully sleep?) and you don’t have to worry about losing shoes or socks. Plus, then you don’t need to take pants completely off to change him and risk dropping them in the nasty lavatory or something. Bring a couple extra changes of clothes – for you and baby. We had a blowout about 20 minutes into our flight, thanks to some antibiotics Theo was on for an ear infection that caused massive explosive poops several times per day. Speaking of ear infections…

Ears

I was really worried about his ears in flight. I had heard babies can sometimes have trouble equalizing the pressure in their ears on takeoff and landing, but surprisingly we didn’t have much of an issue, even though we were dealing with the tail end of an ear infection. He got pretty fussy on takeoff on the way there, but I had him in his car seat and was trying to feed him a cold bottle of pumped milk, which he wasn’t having. About halfway through our ascent with him screaming, I took him out of his car seat and nursed him instead and he instantly calmed down. We nursed most of the way through descent until he lost interest and got distracted by the turbulence (which he thought was fun – laughed and squealed with every bump and drop, even though my stomach was in my throat). Thankfully he didn’t seem bothered by his ears at all.

Security

Security was a lot easier than I expected it would be. On the way there we got waved through a special line and didn’t even have to take off our shoes or remove liquids from our bags. On the way home, we had to go through the whole song and dance, but they still let me wear Theo through the scanner, and even though we had to declare the breastmilk and baby food (they made us take it out, briefly looked at it and then waved us on through), you don’t have to adhere to the 3-1-1 rule when it comes to breastmilk, formula or baby food (or ice packs to keep the aforementioned cold).

Other passengers:

This was perhaps what I was most nervous about – getting dirty looks (or worse) from other passengers. I read somewhere that you should hand out candy or Starbucks gift cards to the people around you, but that just seemed overly apologetic to me. Yes, he’s a baby and he’s rude and noisy sometimes, but he has just as much right to take a vacation with his family as anyone else does. If he were particularly fussy I could see offering to buy your seatmate a drink, but it felt like overkill to me to preemptively apologize for your baby just for being on the flight.

Actually, most people were really nice. A few people even commented about what a good baby Theo was being, or gave me a knowing look and told me I was doing a good job; that they’ve been there before. We only had one rude encounter when the woman across the aisle from me made a loud passive aggressive comment to the person next to her about me standing in the aisle for the whole flight (believe me, lady, I’d much rather be sitting).

I’ve always tried not to show my annoyance toward fussy babies when I know the parents are doing the best they can, but I also can’t say I’ve ever paid any parents a compliment for having a good baby either. But I’ll admit, it really meant a lot to be reassured that I was doing a good job, or even just to hear people tell me how cute Theo was. I’ll remember that next time I fly and will go out of my way to tell a flustered looking parent that they’re doing great.

This turned into a long post and I haven’t even gotten to the actual vacation part yet! I’ll stop here and will save that for a separate post. With that, here are a few pictures of my little flyer.

Baby Theo, breastfeeding, friends & family, monthly updates

Nine Ten months old.

March 18, 2014 Keeping up with the Hoffmans

Welp, I procrastinated long enough that I’m just going to combine the 9 and 10 month updates. Thankfully, I’ve been pretty good about at least taking the photos on time. Theo turned 9 months old while we were in Hawaii last month, hence the beach towel photos. I’ll probably put together a separate post about our vacation, and things I learned traveling and flying with a baby for the first time, but in general, it was a really fun trip and we got some great photos.

Stats: 19 lbs. (16th percentile), 28.35 inches long (39th percentile). He eats great, but he is so active that he just burns everything off. I also have a feeling our short genes are starting to manifest themselves. Sorry, bud.

Milestones: We finally have teeth! Two bottom teeth popped up within about a week and a half of one another last month, and I think the top ones are starting to come in now, as he has been extra fussy and his gums have been swollen the last few days. Teething sucks! He had his first major fever last month, which was pretty scary. It got at high as 104.8 at one point. I called the doctor, who told me not to worry until it got over 105 (uhh… isn’t that close enough?!). She also said that how he was acting was a better indicator of how serious it was than the actual number. Aside from being a bit crankier than usual, he was still cruising around the house and getting into things like his usual mischievous self. Thankfully he got better after a couple days. He’s babbling a lot now but doesn’t seem to be assigning words to anything. He also blows raspberries and makes this funny popping sound with his mouth. Sort of a cross between a “p” sound, but nearly silent. It’s hard to explain, but funny. He climbs stairs like a champ and walks with a walker! I’m sure actual walking is just around the corner…

Sleeping: Sleep continues to improve. Every once in a while I have to get up once with him, but he’ll usually put himself back to sleep if he wakes, and most nights he sleeps from about 7:30 or 8 p.m. until 5 or 6 a.m. On weekdays we just get up at that time, and on weekends, we pull him into bed with us and he’ll usually let us get a few more hours. His favorite way to sleep? With his butt in the air. So cute.

Eating: He’s doing awesome with solid food and eats pretty much everything now, as long as it’s relatively soft. Sometimes he’s randomly picky about what he eats, but if you feed him something he knows he likes, he’ll eat and eat and eat forever. I swear the kid has a hollow leg. He’s showing less interest in nursing, which is both freeing and a bit sad. During the workweek I only nurse him briefly in the morning and at night before bed, and on the weekends, he’ll nurse maybe two other times. One thing he’s started doing lately is biting me when he isn’t interested in nursing. Especially now that he has teeth, that HUUUURTS. Not cool, buddy. I really wouldn’t be surprised if he self-weaned from nursing before a year, even though I am hoping to nurse for a year. I would even consider extended nursing beyond a year, just in the evenings maybe. But I have a feeling his lack of interest will dry up my supply here pretty soon. Our doctor doesn’t really want us to switch to cow’s milk before a year, but it also seems odd to introduce formula for just a month or so. I’ve got a nice freezer stash, so even if my supply tanks completely, we’ll at least have a couple weeks to talk to the doctor and decide what to do.

Likes/Dislikes: My little babyzilla loves knocking things down. He has these little stackable toys, and he will haul himself across the room to knock them over if he sees you stacking them. He’s also obsessed with opening drawers and cabinets, so we’ve had to install cabinet latches on everything. He’s developed some MAJOR separation anxiety lately and doesn’t like to be held by anyone he doesn’t know well. Heck, even if I leave the room and D is with him, he starts screaming. I’m flattered, but it’s exhausting to feel like I have to be joined to him at all times when I’m home. Despite his attachment to me, he isn’t much of a snuggler, except for the time he was really sick. He really does not like to sit still. Lately he’s developed a fascination with taking off his shoes, socks and pants. The first thing he does when we put him in his car seat is take off his shoes and socks. He’s even resorted to taking off other kids’ socks at daycare! He has also taken his pants off at daycare a few times. Thankfully he hasn’t started taking off other kids’ pants! Still loves bathtime – probably his favorite time of day, and mine too! He’s just so cute splashing around, babbling and playing with his toys. Although, just in the past week he’s pooped in the tub almost every night! Hopefully this doesn’t become a habit…

Mama: I got my first postpartum period last month. I’m grateful breastfeeding was able to keep it away for as long as it did, but all good things must come to an end, right? The return of my cycle has made me realize we could try another baby if we wanted to, but neither of us is ready for that quite yet! Maybe we’ll revisit the idea in 6 months to a year…

Okay, I’ll wrap this up with a few pictures from the last two months.

Who needs toys when you've got a beer box? — Who needs toys when you’ve got a beer box?

A little fever can't slow down Batman! — A little fever can’t slow down Batman!

Happy Valentine's Day! — Happy Valentine’s Day!

Baby Theo, breastfeeding, friends & family, health & body, monthly updates

Eight months old.

January 17, 2014 Keeping up with the Hoffmans

Little man likes to move it, move it. Crawls at an alarming speed (can’t take your eye off him for a second), pulls himself up to standing, climbs on EVERYTHING and cruises along furniture now. He even briefly stood unassisted once. I know walking is right around the corner, which is both exciting and terrifying. A side effect of all this moving? The inevitable wipeouts. He managed to give himself two black eyes in the week leading up to his eight-month photos, and yet another one just the other day. Poor guy.

Stats: 18 or 19ish lbs., according to my super scientific method of weighing myself on our bathroom scale holding him and not holding him. We’ll get an exact measurement at his 9 month checkup next month.

Milestones: As I mentioned above, he is very mobile. He’s also been teething, though he still has yet to have anything break through. It’s strange – he was so uncomfortable for about a week and a half. His gums were inflamed, he was gnawing on everything, and we had to give him Tylenol multiple times per day. I could see his bottom two AND his top two teeth through his gums… and then everything seems to have stopped. There is still a translucent layer of gums over his teeth, but they haven’t broken through and don’t seem to be bothering him anymore. From what I’ve read, this isn’t uncommon – to slow and stop like this before finally breaking through. Still, I’m anxious for them to just cut through already. Oh, and he claps his hands now, which is so cute! Still not doing a ton of babbling (with consonants, that is – still mostly “aaah” sounds).

Sleeping: I’m excited to say, sleeping is going GREAT! We had a bit of a regression during the worst of the teething (and he has also battled frequent ear infections, which sucks!), but once he got over the teething discomfort, he settled into just waking up once per night, and the last three nights, I haven’t had to get up with him at all! I’m almost afraid to type that – I’m sure I just jinxed it. It’s been great, though. A couple of times I’ve heard him wake through the baby monitor, and he’s either fussed for a bit or just babbled and played in his crib, but in both scenarios he’s put himself back to sleep on his own without me having to go get him! I hope this keeps up. But a wise woman once told me to never trust a baby. So we’ll see…

Eating: Eating is going so much better now that we’re in a new daycare (that in itself deserves its own post). He is mostly finishing his bottles, and has even explored some new solid foods. Just yesterday at daycare he ate turkey, cheese and crackers. Seriously! At home we’re still mostly feeding purees (still making my own baby food which is super easy), but he does like to eat rice crackers (Mum Mums), and also really likes yogurt melts. He’s still getting the hang of perfecting the pincer grasp. Most of the time he just fists the yogurt melts and then tries to shove his whole hand in his mouth to make the transfer. This results in a lot of drool and melty yogurt dripping all over his chin and clothes. We usually time dinner to coincide right before bathtime just for this reason! 🙂

Likes/Dislikes: Speaking of bathtime, he still loves it. We’ve made the transition from the infant tub to just putting him in the actual bathtub. He kept trying to climb out of the infant tub and since he’s good at crawling and sitting up on his own now, we figured the real tub was pretty safe. There was one incident where he flung himself backward and hit his head on a toy, and another time where he slipped and dove headfirst into the water (which scared both me and him!), but overall he’s doing great. Not many dislikes, though he is starting to show just a little bit of separation anxiety when I leave the room or drop him off at daycare. And when I come home from work and he’s crawling on the floor, he gets really sad if I try to put my things away before picking him up. He’ll chase me down the hall, crying after me. It’s both sad and cute.

Mama: I’ve been bathing suit shopping lately, which is NOT fun postpartum. We’re supposed to go to Hawaii in a couple weeks (though there’s a chance the trip could get postponed due to the health of D’s grandma – more on that another time). I’ve lost all the baby weight – in fact I’m actually down below my pre-pregnancy weight, but my body is just different. I always assumed my midsection would be the part I’d be the most self-conscious about postpartum, but while I’ve got a tiny bit of a pooch, it’s really not that bad. Interestingly, for the first time in my life I’m totally self-conscous about my boobs! It seems like no bathing suit top will contain these puppies, and they just seem kind of big and floppy now. I miss my perky C cups.

Speaking of boobs (it’s amazing how much of my brain space is occupied by boobs these days… that and poop), breastfeeding is still going well, and I’m still pumping at work. I got new insurance this year, so I was able to take advantage of the fact that breast pumps are 100% covered, and I got myself a second pump to keep at work. It’s nice to not have to lug the pump back and forth every day now, and my new one (a Medela) is a lot more efficient than my old one (an Ameda). I can get just as much, if not more output in about half the amount of time. So it’s nice to keep the new one at the office and then I just use my Ameda on days I work from home, as well as the occasional morning pump. With T sleeping longer stretches, I find myself pretty engorged in the mornings now, and he isn’t always interested in eating much when he first wakes up, which means I have to work pumping into my already busy morning routine those days.

So that’s about it. I’ll save the stuff with D’s grandma for another post, and I also have a long post I’ve been working on to talk more about our daycare situation. It’s been quite the roller coaster, but the short story is that we’re really happy with the new daycare, which makes the incompetency of the old place even more glaring. With that, I’ll leave you with some photos from the past month…

Watching the Cougs play in the New Mexico Bowl with cousin Ryder.

Uh oh... time to lower the crib mattress! — Well, hello there… guess it’s time to lower the crib mattress!

Christmas nap at Grandma and Boppa's. — Christmas nap at Grandma and Boppa’s.

Teething baby who wouldn't go down for a nap until I wore him around the house. — Teething baby who wouldn’t go down for a nap until I wore him around the house.

Climbing and pulling himself up on everything.

...and I do mean everything. — …and I do mean everything.

Bathtime babe with a black eye. :( — Bathtime babe with a black eye. 😦

Baby Theo, friends & family

Santa! I know him!

December 18, 2013 Keeping up with the Hoffmans

(line from Elf, in case you aren’t familiar).

Last weekend, we took Theo and his cousin Molly to see Santa at Molbak’s in Woodinville. We knew we wanted to do Santa pictures, but had been debating where to take him. Some Santas we’d seen were downright creepy, and the Nordstrom Santa, while decidedly less creepy, came with long lines and more expensive photo package prices. We’d heard that the Molbak’s Santa was authentic looking, less crowded, and had a take-your-own-photo setup. Perfect. Cheap. Low-key. And this way we could make sure we were happy with the photo.

So D’s sister, her husband and their 7 year-old daughter Molly came over to watch the Seahawks game last Sunday, and then we headed over to Molbak’s to meet Santa afterward. Molly was cute and brought an illustrated wish list to share with him, and Theo didn’t even cry. He was so fascinated with the embroidery and fur on Santa’s sleeve, though, that it was hard to get him to look at the camera!

I’m happy with the result – but is it terrible to admit I sort of wanted one of those epic Santa meldowns? I suppose next year is really when the stranger danger is in full effect.

Baby Theo, breastfeeding, friends & family, monthly updates

Seven months old.

December 18, 2013 Keeping up with the Hoffmans

Where is time going? Our little dude is 7 months old now, and so much fun. I love him more and more every day, and every age is “the most fun age.” I’m sure that’ll stop at some point (not the loving him part – the “this is the most fun age part”) – maybe at the terrible twos? I can’t wait until he can start talking to us. He is so funny and full of personality and I can’t wait to understand a little more about what’s rattling around in that little brain of his.

Stats: 17.5 lbs and 28 inches. Even though that seems huge to me, he’s dropped quite a bit, percentile-wise, which has me concerned. I know some ebb and flow is normal, but I can’t help but worry whether he’s eating enough. He doesn’t seem to eat as much as other babies I know, and he doesn’t always finish his bottles at daycare, which bothers me (more on that in another post). But the pediatrician didn’t seem concerned, so I’m trying not to be either. Easier said than done…

Sleeping: Hallelujah, we have finally turned a corner on sleep. He’s waking up once or twice per night these days, and only needs to nurse back to sleep about half the time. The other times, if we let him fuss a bit, he’ll usually put himself back to sleep, and often without even full-on crying. He mostly just whimpers and whines and rolls around, and then it just stops and he’s out cold almost as soon as it started. To be honest, though, I don’t really mind getting up with him once per night. I feel like I see him so little during the workday, so the middle of the night nursings are sort of our special time. I sit in the rocking chair in his room and we snuggle while he eats. On the weekends he usually wakes up around 5 or 6, which is when we get up during the week, so I just bring him into bed with us and he’s happy to roll around in between us for a while (usually slapping our faces and trying to get us to play!), before he’ll conk out again. Most weekends we sleep in until around 8, and we’ve slept as late as 10 on occasion! I feel sort of spoiled and know it won’t be long before he’s an active toddler, raring to go at the crack of dawn!

Eating: With the exception of Thanksgiving, we’ve just been introducing one new food per week. This last month he’s had bananas and squash, and we meant to introduce pears last weekend, but the pears we got at the store still don’t feel very ripe. As soon as they ripen more, I’ll mush them up for him. So far the only thing he’s not crazy about is avocado, but I find if I mix it with something else like sweet potatoes he’ll eat it up. He didn’t like squash at first either, but after a couple days he started eating it. Our next green veggie we’re trying is green beans next week. We’ll see how that goes! I’m tempted to start giving him finger foods since he’s developing the motor skills for picking up small objects, but I’m terrified of choking. I know I’ll have to get over that fear eventually. He can’t eat mush forever. Still doesn’t have any teeth.

Likes/Dislikes: Kid likes to MOVE! He is crawling like a champ now and looooves to be on the floor. We’ve had to watch the dogs a little more closely because of it. We had an incident a couple weeks ago where Stewie growled and snapped at him when Theo got too close while Stewie was chewing on a bone. I, of course, FREAKED out. I would never get rid of my dogs, but I also could never live with myself if something happened. After talking with the president of the rescue group I volunteer with, though, she assured me it was completely normal. That dogs will correct babies/kids, and that if Stewie had wanted to bite, he would have. It was a warning, and we shouldn’t punish him for warning, because if you extinguish a dog’s ability to warn, that’s when you get dogs who seem to snap out of nowhere. When that happens, it usually isn’t out of nowhere, but the dog had been taught not to warn and so the dog doesn’t act until he just can’t take it anymore. So we make sure all bones and dog toys are picked up when Theo is on the floor, and we make sure Theo doesn’t disturb the dogs in their beds. Our rule of thumb these days is that we allow the dogs to approach Theo (as long as they don’t totally molest his face off), but we don’t allow Theo to approach the dogs. We’re just playing things safe until they get more accustomed to each other. Apparently this is very normal once crawling starts, and things may get a little off again once he starts walking. It’s our job as parents to ensure everyone is safe. Wow – that got long and detailed. It really isn’t as big of a deal as I felt it was at the time. Just a good reminder that dogs will be dogs and we need to respect them and not put them in a position where they feel the need to defend themselves.

Other likes continue to be mostly the same – bathtime, meeting new people, going grocery shopping, etc. There isn’t a ton that he doesn’t like these days. Still not crazy about getting strapped into the car seat, but he doesn’t fuss as much as he used to.

Mama: Breastfeeding is still going well for me. Pumping is still annoying. I went out of town on a business trip last week, and pumping and scalding my milk was quite the hassle since I didn’t have access to a stove. I had to scald my milk in a bottle warmer from the hotel room (using this method). I found the bottle warmer method to be quite a bit slower than just dumping everything into a pan on the stove and heating it – and trying to pack my pump, cooler bag, bottle warmer and two days’ worth of clothes into a carry-on bag was like playing a really frustrating game of Tetris – but it’s nice to know I have an alternative way to scald my milk when I’m out of town, and I was able to bring back more milk than he drank while I was gone, so I didn’t fall behind on maintaining my freezer stash. In exciting news, I’m getting a new pump! Since I have new insurance, I figured I’d take advantage of the fact that breast pumps are 100% covered now. I’m not crazy about my current pump (Ameda Purely Yours), so I ordered a Medela, which I had heard good things about. I’m really hoping I like this pump better than my old one, but at the very least, it’ll be nice to have a backup in case one breaks, and also this way I can keep one at the office and one at home instead of lugging it back and forth every day.

Okay, I’ll wrap up this already long post with some photos from the past month…

Apple Cup. Cougs were losing, hence the scowly face on dad.

Christmas tree shopping in the pouring rain.

...or a laundry basket. Seriously. No need for fancy toys this Christmas! — A kid and his laundry basket. Seriously. No need for fancy toys this Christmas!

Snuggling and sleeping in on the weekend.

Hanging out with his buddy Travis at our friend's holiday party. — Hanging out with his buddy Travis at our friend’s holiday party.

Baby Theo, friends & family

First Thanksgiving.

December 5, 2013December 5, 2013 Keeping up with the Hoffmans

Theo’s first Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. We went to my in-laws’ house where Theo enjoyed playing with his cousin and even got to sample some Thanksgiving dinner! We brought along some pureed peas and sweet potatoes for him to eat, and then I fed him a few tidbits off my plate. He loved mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, and I even let him gum a hunk of turkey (with me holding onto it so he wouldn’t choke on it). I’ve been pretty careful about only feeding him one new food per week so we could easily identify any allergies or food sensitivities, but it was fun to “let loose” for one day (woo… look at me, going crazy). I figured since we’re doing things by the book every other day, it would be pretty easy to identify that it was something he ate that day if something affected him negatively. Thankfully, he did great.

Baby Theo, breastfeeding, friends & family, health & body, monthly updates

Six months old.

November 25, 2013 Keeping up with the Hoffmans

What a fun age. Everyone says that about six months, but it’s so true. Theo has become less cranky and whiny almost overnight, smiles and laughs all the time, and is almost CRAWLING. Dear God, help us. I am so not ready for a mobile baby.

Stats: I’d guess around 17 lbs. I dropped the ball on making his six-month appointment and wasn’t able to get him in until next week and he’ll be almost seven months old by then. But when we took him in for an ear infection a few weeks ago and they weighed him, he was around 16 lbs.

Sleeping: Sleeping is finally getting better. I finally broke down and we started sleep training a little over a week ago (“Ferberizing”). I read two sleep books with opposing views: one – the Ferber method – is more traditional on letting them cry it out a bit, and the other one bills itself the “no cry sleep solution,” which is more in-line with attachment parenting style. I consider my parenting style to be somewhere in the middle. Since I was morally conflicted about how I felt about letting him cry (I didn’t want him to feel abandoned), I tried the no sleep version first. As I mentioned last month, I picked up some good pointers, but in the end, I wasn’t seeing the results we needed. So as painful as it was to listen to him cry, we embarked on a stricter sleep plan. At the end of the day, it’s important for his health to get more sleep.

We had two primary issues to deal with: teaching him to self-soothe, and getting him to eat less during the night. He’s old enough now that he shouldn’t have a physical need to eat during the night, but he had gotten used to it and so it was hard to break that. To teach self-soothing, Ferber recommends responding to his cries at increasing intervals of time, without picking him up. The idea is to let him know you’re there (shush him, pat his back, talk to him, etc.), but he should ultimately soothe himself without you and fall asleep on his own. So the first night you go in after 3 minutes, then 5 minutes, then every 10 minutes until he falls asleep. The second night starts at 5 minutes, then 10 minutes, then 12 minutes… and so on. Simultaneously, to reduce night nursing, we made him wait at least 2 hours before nursing the first night, 2 1/2 the second night, 3 hours the third night, and so on. So according to our sleep plan, if he woke and it had been enough time to nurse, I would. If not, we’d do the waiting intervals. Most nights he falls asleep again after only crying for 10-20 minutes, so we usually only have to go in once before he puts himself back to sleep. By the time he wakes the second time, it’s usually been enough time that I can nurse him. So we’ve been averaging two wakeups per night — one where we let him cry and put himself back to sleep, and one where I feed him. Oh, and did I mention we decided to put him in his own room/crib when we started this process? We figured it would be easiest to make the transition all at once.

We still have a ways to go before he’s sleeping through the night, but at just two wakeups per night, we’re in a much better place than we were just a couple weeks ago, and it really is nice to have our room back to ourselves.

Eating: Theo is really enjoying “solid” food (read: mush). We’ve been introducing one new food per week in order to keep an eye out for allergies or sensitivities. So far he’s had baby oatmeal cereal, avocado, carrots, sweet potato and peas. We may break our “one food per week” rule this Thursday on Thanksgiving and let him sample a few of the softer things from our plates. We’ve also introduced a sippy cup of water, just for practice. He still gets the hydration he needs from breastmilk, but the sippy cup is fun for him to learn on now, even if he’s not getting a lot out of it. He really loves it though! Nursing is still going well, though now that we’re trying to shift some of his caloric intake from the night to the daytime and sending him with more in his daycare bottles, I’m finding I’m having a harder time keeping up with demand when I’m pumping. I’m working to try to increase my supply, but in the meantime, I’m thankful I’ve been able to rebuild my freezer stash so we can dip into that as needed.

Likes/Dislikes: He is quite the social butterfly and loves anything where people are paying attention to him. Trips to the grocery store are essentially giant flirt-fests for him. He’ll stare at people until they look at him, and then crack a huge smile, which usually gets people cooing at him. He just eats it up. What a ham. Not crazy about his car seat or going on car rides these days. I don’t think he likes not being able to see us. Unfortunately, he’ll be rear-facing for quite a while longer, due to car safety guidelines. He fusses a lot when we first get in the car, but then he usually calms down after a while.

Mama: Not a lot is new with me. Doing well with my weight, but still soft around the middle. I have a crazy appetite these days. I’m way hungrier breastfeeding than I was pregnant. Thankfully breastfeeding burns so many calories. I’ll really miss being able to eat whatever I want once we wean! Still hoping to make it to a year breastfeeding, though if I can keep up my freezer supply, I’d love to give up pumping if my stash could carry me to the year mark and just nurse in the evenings and on weekends. I really do enjoy nursing for the most part, but would like to take my pump out into a field somewhere and beat it, Office Space style.

Here are some photos from the past month, including some professional family photos we had taken last weekend.

Trying to feed himself with a spoon. Needs practice... — Trying to feed himself with a spoon. Needs practice…

Baby Theo, breastfeeding, friends & family, monthly updates

Five months old.

November 1, 2013 Keeping up with the Hoffmans

(Make that, 5.5 months old)

I can’t believe we almost have a six month-old. It sounds so old! But I am loving watching this little guy become his own person. Every day is something new. It’s funny how I used to think we had an easy baby. I definitely do NOT think he is an easy baby anymore. To the contrary, he is proving himself to be quite the little handful, but I still love him just the same. I think he is going to be very smart, inquisitive, and will probably be the type to test his boundaries, if I had to guess from his personality. He will be keeping us on our toes, for sure!

Stats: Somewhere around 16 lbs. It will be interesting to find out for sure in a few weeks when he has his 6 month checkup.

Sleeping: Ugh. Just… ugh. It’s getting progressively worse. I read a book last month called The No Cry Sleep Solution, as I had hoped to help him develop better sleep habits without letting him “cry it out.” I picked up a few good pointers in the book, but I think I’m moving on to a more aggressive approach, and I just downloaded Solve Your Child’s Sleep Programs by Richard Ferber on my Kindle. “Ferberizing,” as it’s commonly known, does require some crying, but I think it’s for the best, as it’ll teach him to self-soothe. I’m learning through reading, though, that it’s not quite as brutal as I initially thought. You don’t just ignore them and let them cry alone for hours on end. You go in at longer and longer intervals to assure them you’re there, without just resorting to picking up and nursing, which is the one surefire way to instantly calm him.

That’s the hardest part about this whole thing. It’s like, would I rather just give into him so I can get some sleep tonight? Or should I be strong, so I can get more sleep in the long run? I know the latter sounds like a no-brainer, but when it’s 3 a.m. and I’m exhausted and I’m up with him for the third time that night, and I have to get up in two and a half hours to put in a full day at work, it’s just so much easier to pull him onto the boob so I (and he) can fall back asleep.

One thing we did start doing a few nights ago, is we got rid of the Magic Sleep Suit. It was super helpful for the transition from the swaddle, but I think we reached a point where it was keeping him from putting himself back to sleep when he would stir, as it kept him in one position on his back. Think about it: when you wake up in the middle of the night, you probably change positions, roll over, and fall back asleep. Since he couldn’t get into any other position than starfish flat on his back, I think it made him fussier. I’ve noticed a slight difference since we got rid of the sleep suit … though I’m afraid to even type that out, for fear of jinxing it! But I’ll occasionally hear him whimper through the baby monitor and if I wait it out instead of going to him immediately, sometimes he’ll roll over and then fall asleep on his own.

Eating: Oh, one thing I forgot to mention in my previous paragraph, that I think may be affecting sleep, is the fact that he is definitely eating a lot at night. I previously thought he was nursing just for comfort, but I went out of town for a couple nights two weeks ago and D was on his own with Theo for the first time overnight, and Theo drank EIGHT bottles between 7 p.m. and 4 a.m.!! So clearly he is taking in a lot more calories at night than we previously thought (reverse cycling). To help this, I’ve been slowly increasing the amount I’m sending him in his bottles to daycare, in hopes of getting him a little more full during the day.

We also tried solid food for the first time last weekend! I was originally going to wait until he officially reached 6 months, but I figure any extra calories I can get into him during the day can only help. And he’s also been totally eyeballing our food whenever we eat, so he was ready. We’re starting with just one feeding per day of baby oatmeal cereal, and this coming weekend we’ll move on to pureed veggies. I picked up some carrots and avocado this weekend, and I’m planning to start making my own baby food. I’ve heard from some people that it’s better to start with veggies instead of fruit, so they don’t learn to only like sweets… and I’ve heard from other people that you should start with fruit instead of veggies because it’s an easier transition and is sweet like breastmilk. As with all things baby, there is SOOO much conflicting advice out there! So I figured carrots and avocados were a good compromise. They’re veggies, but they’re on the sweeter side of things (unlike broccoli, which can be a little bitter). We’ll see. So far he loves oatmeal, although more food ends up all over him, the floor, the dogs, etc. than in his mouth. But he’ll figure it out.

Likes/Dislikes: As I mentioned earlier, he is developing quite a personality, and is not shy about telling us what he likes and doesn’t like. Still loves bath time. Seriously, I’ve never seen him so happy as when he’s in the tub. It’s incredibly cute. He goes bonkers in his Jumparoo, and is starting to like tummy time a lot more, now that he can move. He isn’t crawling yet, but that’s coming very soon. He does pushups, rolls, inchworms and scoots around in circles. He’s also starting to get better about sitting up. I can balance him and he’ll stay for a few seconds before toppling over. He loves looking at any kind of screen, so we’re trying to be more careful about not letting him “watch” too much TV. This screen fascination has made middle of the night nursing a bit more difficult since looking at Facebook or playing Candy Crush on my phone was previously the only way I could stay awake. Now it’s often way too distracting for him, though, since he’ll pull off and crane his neck to look at my phone instead of nursing.

Mama: I’m down below my pre-baby weight. Hooray! I actually weigh less than I have in years, though my midsection still needs some work. I’ve had to give up running for the time being, simply because I haven’t had the time. I’m hoping to pick that up again soon. I’m still pumping at work, though I’ve had a few days where things have gotten busy and I either haven’t had time to do it as often as I should, or I just simply forget. I almost never get that “full” feeling anymore when I need to empty, like I used to. So it’s way too easy to go longer than I should between pumping if I’m not watching the clock. I’m trying to be better about this since I don’t want my supply to start dropping. I’m almost halfway to my goal of breastfeeding for a year.

Okay, that’s about it for now. Here are some pictures from the past month:

This is what happens when Daddy dresses him. Yes, that is a nightgown he is wearing as a shirt.

Baby Theo, friends & family

Belly laughs.

September 30, 2013 Keeping up with the Hoffmans

I just remembered and found this video on my computer. It’s about a month old, but it deserved its own post, so I wanted to make sure to get it in here. This was the first time Theo really laughed, and we were lucky enough to catch it on camera. You can’t see in the video, but I was totally crying. It really is the most amazing sound in the world.

Baby Theo, monthly updates

Four months old.

September 30, 2013 Keeping up with the Hoffmans

Mr. Theo is now four months old (actually, I’ve put this off so long that he’s closer to 5 months now). I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but I can’t believe how fast he is growing up. He is really developing quite the little personality and is starting to look more like a little person every day. I couldn’t pick a favorite picture this month, so here’s a mini-collage from his photo shoot. I think it perfectly captures how active he is. He just does not sit still!

Stats: 15 lbs (52nd percentile), 26.26 inches long (90th percentile!). Our boy is long and lean — who knows where he got that from, since those aren’t terms I’d use to describe D or me. It’s funny how he doesn’t weigh that much in relation to his length, yet everyone always comments on what a chunky baby he is. He does have a lot of rolls and the most adorable chubby thighs. 🙂

Sleeping: He is going through a pretty bad sleep regression, which, in talking with other moms seems to be pretty normal for this age. Some have referred to it as the 4 month wakeful period. Essentially, a lot of babies get so distracted by everything during the day that they don’t eat as much as they should, and then at night when it’s dark and quiet and there are fewer distractions, they choose that time to eat. He’s also been dealing with a cold for about 4 weeks now, so the frequent night wakings could be just because he doesn’t feel well. I’m starting to really get tired of the sleep conversations, though. It seems like whenever anyone finds out I have a baby, their first question is, “how is he sleeping?” And when I say he still wakes up 2-3 times per night, it’s like I can hear their silent judgment. Or maybe I’m just imagining it. But really, why does everyone seem to expect that babies this age should sleep through the night? Sure, I’d love to get more consecutive hours of sleep, but I just have to remind myself that babies who sleep through the night are the exception, not the rule, at this age.

I did start reading a book on sleep habits, called The No Cry Sleep Solution. I’m not quite ready to do any official sleep training at this point, and I waiver back and forth on whether I believe in letting babies “cry it out” (which is what’s involved in traditional sleep training methods). This book is more about understanding baby sleep habits and finding ways to support healthy sleep without letting them CIO. One thing we are doing is trying to get him into more of a bedtime routine, and are putting him down earlier than we were. Whereas before we were just taking him to bed when we went to bed (usually around 10), we realized that he was pretty cranky in the evenings and could probably benefit from an earlier bedtime. So now we try to get him down around 8, and that seems to be going much better. It doesn’t make him sleep any longer, but he’s not quite as fussy in the evenings, and it gives us some time to relax sans baby, or get stuff done like dishes or a little bit of work. I call our routine the “four Bs” – bath, book, boob, bed. I’m hoping the repetitiveness will help him to fall asleep faster over time, and the book I’m reading says a good bedtime routine is crucial. I do worry sometimes, though, that the bath and book rev him up instead of calming him down. He LOOOVES bath time, but that usually involves a lot of squealing and splashing. And he gets really excited when I read to him, and tries to turn the pages himself and everything. So I’m not really convinced it’s a relaxing activity for him. We’ll see how it goes after a few more weeks, and if we’re not seeing any improvement, we may experiment with a different routine.

Another new development on the sleep front since last month, is that we ended up getting that Magic Sleepsuit I mentioned last time. It’s wonderful! Again, it doesn’t make him magically sleep through the night, but it does seem to help him to fall asleep faster, and he doesn’t flail around like he was with the swaddle, and I’m not worried about him rolling over and ending up face down in the mattress like I did when he was swaddled. He is a rolling machine these days, which made swaddling unsafe.

One thing we are struggling with a bit now are naps. He takes a pretty good nap in the mornings, but really protests his afternoon nap. I’ve been working with daycare to try to get him into somewhat of a consistent routine that we can carry over on the weekends, but he is just such an active baby that he really doesn’t want to miss anything. It’s something we need to work on, because he gets pretty crankypants in the evenings when he doesn’t get an afternoon nap. But napping is another thing that book is supposed to help address. I’ve just started the book, so I’m hoping we’ll learn some new tricks.

Eating: Still loves to nurse, and is taking a bottle like a champ. Only complaints in the eating department are that he likes to nurse a lot at night now, and he is starting to get a bit more particular about the conditions in which he nurses. He doesn’t like being covered, which means when we’re out in public he tries to rip the cover off, or will sometimes fuss and not latch on right away. But it’s manageable. It’s funny how I always thought we got such an easy baby — but really he just hadn’t grown into his personality yet. He’s definitely not shy about telling us what he likes and doesn’t like! Which brings us to…

Likes/Dislikes: He always wants to be upright these days, and only likes the swing for naps now. He likes to sit in his Bumbo seat, and I think we’ll get him a high chair soon, even though we won’t be starting solid foods for another month or so. He always wants to be right in the middle of the action, so we need somewhere to put him while we’re in the kitchen or eating at the table. He doesn’t like his pacifier much anymore, which is a bummer since it means I’m his pacifier, but I suppose that’s one less thing we have to break him of later. He LOVES the ceiling fan, and has also started noticing screens lately – our phones, iPad, laptops, TV, etc. He loves to watch football (just like daddy!). I think the different colored uniforms contrasted with the green field must be fascinating to him. Yes, we let our baby watch TV with us. Surely we must be rotting his brain.

Mama: I can officially say I’ve lost all the baby weight – yay! My stomach skin still looks all loose, though, and I still have a bit of a pooch, so I certainly won’t be rocking a bikini anytime soon. Good thing it’s almost October. 🙂 We’re going to Hawaii in February, and I’m hoping my body will have bounced back by then. I recently started a Couch-to-5k running program and I’m hoping that’ll help me build some muscle tone and maybe shed a few more pounds. I’ve also been taking Stewie running with me, and I think that’ll be good for him. He’s always been sort of a nervous dog, and I worry that his nervousness could make him less tolerant to a grabby toddler when the time comes. I worry a lot about the dogs in general, to tell you the truth. They have pretty much ignored Theo for the most part, though Maggie grumbled a little bit last night when Theo was on his blanket on the floor and turned to face her. She got up and moved, which was the right thing to do — and I hope to teach them that walking away when they’re tired of the baby is always the right choice — but it did bother me to see her do that. I’m not one of those people who gives up on their animals when a baby enters the picture. (I do dog rescue for crying out loud – how hypocritical would that be?) But I never could have prepared myself for the love I would feel for this tiny human we’ve created and just how protective I would be with him. I hope we can continue to work on building the dogs’ tolerance of Theo and making him a positive thing to them. We’ll certainly have our work cut out for us once he’s mobile, though!

Okay, that’s about it. Next week he’ll be 5 months old, and I’ll try to be a little more timely with that post! Here are some of my favorite photos from the past month.