Clock watching

I hate this part of the morning. The part where I have to wait to eat and I'm really hungry. I have to take my thyroid medication on an empty stomach and then wait an hour to eat after I take it. I can have water, but that's it. I also have to wait 4 hours to take anything else like multivitamins and Tylenol. Even though I've been on this medication for 4 years now, I still hate this part.

What will happen if I do eat before the hour is up? I imagine that the medication won't work as well and I'll end up feeling like my veins are filled with cement instead of blood. Therefore, the most I'll risk is 10 minutes. I admit, sometimes I just can't wait the full hour and I'll eat food 50 minutes after taking the medication.

The clock is getting close to the magic hour so I'm going to go make some coffee and pour myself a bowl of cereal.

Applesauce

Who knew it was so easy to make? Not me until I made it today for Malcolm. He likes it, but makes funny faces when he eats it. I'm assuming it's a reaction to the tartness.

Co-sleeper update

Monday night, I put Malcolm to bed in his co-sleeper. He proceeded to wake up every half hour. The last time he woke up before I went to bed, Tony went up to settle him. Unfortunately, he's still having difficulty putting him back down and getting him to stay asleep. So, when I went to bed, Mal was put in the bed with me.

Tuesday night, I put Mal to bed in the co-sleeper again. This time, he only woke up once before I headed to bed. The next time he woke up, I was already in bed. I picked him up to settle him, but could not figure out how to put him back down in his co-sleeper while I was sitting on the bed and holding him while sitting up in bed was KILLING my back. So I put him down in bed with me again.

Tonight, he's in his co-sleeper again and I guess that I'll have to get out of bed when I put him back down. We'll see how long I can keep him out of our bed since, in all honesty, he's there because it's easiest for me.

Before this week, I'd settle him by nursing him. I've stopped that and he didn't seem to even notice which is a surprise to me. We're making progress and it's been at the right pace for all of us.

So...

Last Wednesday, I put Malcolm down in his co-sleeper when I put him to bed. That night, he woke up every 1.5 hours. That was an exhausting night. The next night, 2 of his diapers leaked for some unknown reason which meant he woke up twice crying to get into some dry clothes. The second time was around 1:30 AM. He didn't go back to sleep until around 3:30 / 4 AM. For some reason, Tony wanted to stay up with him even though he had to get up for work in the morning. We were both pretty exhausted on Friday. Fortunately, we haven't had any more incidences since then.

Friday night, Chris, Allison, Natalie and Cory came over to hang out. Yay, friend time! Chris brought over his PlayStation 2 to give to us along with Guitar Hero II and Rock of the 80's :D This is a fun thing since my computer's video card is too slow to run the Guitar Hero III game I bought and I can't upgrade since I have a laptop.

Thursday night, Amanda came over to babysit so Tony and I could go out on our first date since Mal was born. Since the restaurant we wanted to go to was only serving a fixed menu since it was Valentine's Day and it was not vegetarian friendly, we went to an Ethiopian restaurant. Mmmm! I love Ethiopian food.

Introducing table foods to Mal has been fun. He now eats banana, oatmeal, avocado and yams. The process is slow at first since you can only introduce a new food every 4 days. I think I may introduce rice cereal next so he has some variety in his cereals. I'm a little concerned about making it, though. I don't have a food processor so I puree all of his food with a blender and I'm not sure if my blender can handle uncooked rice. It was suggested that I use a coffee grinder, but I fear coffee residue getting into his food. I know I could just buy commercial rice cereal, but it's incredibly processed and it's so much more expensive than making it myself. What to do, what to do...

The Eleventh Goal

The 11th goal: instilling better sleep routines with Malcolm. This has been the goal that I've been focusing on the most and have been experiencing moderate success. First part = putting Malcolm down for his naps in his playpen instead of his swing or rocker. I gave away the swing to take away that crutch and am able to put him down in his playpen about half the time. The thing is, he has to be completely asleep before I can put him down on a flat surface to where he won't wake up but can put him in his rocker as he's falling asleep. Sometimes, it's hard to tell when he's completely asleep. I feel good about getting him accustom to sleeping in his playpen.

We've been experimenting with the nighttime routine and have recently come to the conclusion that he sleeps much better when he has an evening bath. When I don't give him a bath, he is more likely to wake up about an hour after we put him to bed and not go back to sleep for 2-3 more hours.

Since he was born, we've been following Dr. Sears' theories on sleep. It's what has seemed natural to us from the start. Mal's not the perfect sleeper, but it's unreasonable for us to expect him to be. Honestly, we don't have a problem with his sleep habits; I just worry that he doesn't get enough sleep at night when he stays up until 10:30/11 pm at night. One of the babies in our PEPS group was waking up every two hours pretty much every night. If Mal was doing that, then we'd have a problem. We're still going to see if he'll take to the co-sleeper to see if he's ready to sleep on his own at night. If not, it's no big deal.

Malcolm vs. Screech

Don't worry - he keeps his claws in :)

6-month letter

My adorable Mal,

You turned half a year old yesterday - how exciting! We've spent a lot of this month holed up inside due to the cold, rainy weather. When the sun does come out, we go for walks around the neighborhood. Even though I bundle you up lots, you still seem to get cold.

We were introduced to your second illness this month: the stomach virus. I think we can all agree that it was no fun at all. Both me and your Daddy were so happy that you recovered quickly.

Your Granpa and Nana came for a visit - you loved the extra attention and never wanted to take your naps. You were pretty fascinated by the funny noises that Granpa makes. He invented lots of them when your Mom was growing up because they made me and your Aunt Jenn giggle a lot.

This past Wednesday, we went to the pediatrician's office for your well-baby visit and he gave the thumbs-up with your development. You are currently 13 pounds, 6.4 ounces and 25 3/4 inches tall. Your vocabulary is continuing to expand and you love sitting up even though you still need a little help. Table food is our newest adventure and so far you seem to really enjoy it which makes my job much easier.

Me and Daddy fall in love with you more and more each second; sometimes it feels like our hearts will burst!

Love,
Mommy

Malcolm's first food

Malcolm's first food
Originally uploaded by Snake in Seattle

The little guy turns 6 months old this week so we've started him on table food yesterday. I pureed banana with a bit of formula and he loved it. I made it a bit too liquid, so today I used half the amount of formula. And, of course, it's a big mess.