6mo checkup

Our sweet little guy has the funniest stats. He weighed in at 17lbs 3oz and was 24 3/4in long. which put him at 50% on weight, 5% on height, and 45% on head size! So he's more average on weight this time, lower on height and jumped up on head size. He had to get 3 shots and one oral vaccine. He did great with the shots this time. Cried of course during the actual shots, but was over it shortly after Daddy picked him up! I had planned to nurse him for comfort like last time but he didn't even need it. We just waited until his next regular feeding. He did give the doc the puckered-up face and a little crying like he does with most men right now. Doc did most of the rest of the exam either with Jack holding baby or with Jack right there next to him. That seemed to work fine and keep him content. The mirror mounted on the wall by the table was definitely his favorite part of the checkup. He played on his tummy staring & banging on the mirror, such a cutie.

Sweet Potatoes Everywhere

Jax started sweet potatoes last week... yummy.. (He also started applesauce & bananas this week, but they didn't really lend to funny photos or video).



The next day, I had a random chance to gather sweet potatoes directly from one of the local farms. They were done with the harvest and were letting folks take what was left. Of course all the 'big ones' were gone but there were plenty to be had. I wandered out in the fields in my Rainbows (ha) with one of my reusable shopping bags to see what I could find. I don't usually eat or buy sweet potatoes, so I wasn't 100% sure on how to determine the best ones. A helpful lady basically told me to get the biggest ones... duh. I filled my bag as full as I could and Jack made fries & chips from them this weekend (soooo good!!).

Fair food heaven

Fried cheese. Fried mac & cheese. Fried pecan pie... well you get the picture. It was all sooo good & I'm already wishing we were there again!

We took advantage of our current at-home status to go to the fair during the day. Since we usually go at night, this was a nice change, but it was still crowded. Jaxon was very alert and interested in all the people walking by. We tried to show him the animals & the rides and he really just wasn't impressed. Except the piglets! I guess the squealing got his attention. They really were funny squealing & fighting with each other! The rest of the time he just looked around from his stroller and never really made a peep except when he was hungry. The rest of us indulged ourselves in all the lovely fair food. The new thing this year was fried pecan pie which is one of Jack's favorite pies. He said it was really good. The only thing new I tried was the fried mac&cheese but it was not all that - tasted like Kraft blue-box mac.

Some other cute pics to share from this week:

Child Seat Safety

Are you using your child car seat correctly? 5 out of 6 car seats are installed incorrectly! Wow!

I came across this video in my random web surfing and it prompted me to review our car seat usage. (Don't you love the old fashioned car seats in that video? Scary). After watching the video I referred back to our owners manual for the seat & found a few items we needed to adjust which I did immediately. I challenge each of you to take some time this week to review your car seat usage even if you have been using it awhile & think you are doing it right (we thought we were). If you do not have your manual, you can either call the manufacturer for a new one (should be a phone number on the seat itself), or check their website for a PDF version.

We found that the soft strap covers I picked up recently at a consignment sale were preventing us from putting the harness clip at the right level. Soft straps are no good if they don't hold him in properly. We removed those & I also re-adjusted the shoulder straps to the proper level (they should be at or below the shoulders, not above). I also removed the toys from the handlebar (at least while in the car) after the video pointed out that these could hit the baby during an accident. I talked to a friend about the position of the handle itself & am wondering if we should put it down. Our manual says that is okay it the upright position but she said the customer service told her not to have it up (same manufacturer) even though it was clearly different information than what was in the manual. (I am not even sure if it's possible in the Mustang). One item we were unable to change was the location of the seat. It is safer in the middle seat but this may not be feasible for everyone. For us it's not possible. Jack has to have his seat back so far because of his height and the Mustang has bucket seats in the back so the seat would not fit in the middle.

I had heard that fire stations locally were no longer doing checks due to liability (don't remember where I got that from) but that's not exactly accurate. The City of Raleigh does offer a car seat safety program but you must request an appointment which is only available at a few local stations & they will education you on how to install the seat. You can also go to BuckleUpNC.org to find other places for a check. For those in other states, the resource page of buckleupnc.org has links to programs around the country. SafeKids.org is another resource. I found a couple of places that are nearby I can try.

AB turns one!

I really failed on the photography at AB's birthday party so forgive me.. you'll see this is not up to my usual standards. Sadly, I had setup some good shots, but at some point had messed up the settings on the camera (prob when I was holding the baby). Ugh. Anyway we had a good time at the party. AB was gorgeous, really got into the gift opening portion, & was not all that interested in the cake (ha!). Jaxon did great, mostly giving everyone is patented serious stare. He thought AB's new gifts were pretty cool especially the ones pictured here.

Catching up

I am still here. I have not abandoned the blog. Not intentionally anyway. For the last few weeks I've had items to post but each time I sat down to the computer I got distracted. Can bloggers have writers block? Hmm..

So this post is my attempt at catching up. I'll attempt to make it a quick summary of the last fifteen days but I am prone to lengthy descriptions.

Jaxon went to his first football game at the beginning of the month! We usually go to NCSU's Homecoming with the alumni association so he came along with us and did amazing! We carried him (didn't want to deal with a stroller at the game) either in my sling or Jack's arms, which was a bit rough from our parking spot in practically the next county. The alumni assoc. tailgate left a lot to be desired, so we met up with KK briefly before going into the game. We found a great family bathroom (with a nice changing table) in the newer part of the stadium so I was able to get Jax taken care of before we went down to our seats. Our seats turned out to be really good, about 10 rows up from the end zone. That's a lot better than where our seats have been for previous homecomings. I think Jax was mesmerized by all the newness. He was quiet but very alert and surprisingly sat rather still through most of the game. Everyone around us was impressed at how well he behaved though he did once grab the hair of the man in front of us, ha! He downed a 10oz bottle at halftime which was really the only point he had fussed at all. And he even somehow slept through an entire quarter in my arms. We thought we'd have to leave early but he did fine & we really only left a few minutes early because of the long walk back. After the game we went by to see Gigi and ended up having her babysit while we ran to PeiWei for dinner (soooo good!). Papi was at the UNC game so we missed him. We also stopped by Grandpop & Grandmas house while on that side of town. Uncle Chris, Uncle Brinn & Aunt Gabi were all there too so it turned out to be a big family day. Jaxon was beat by the time we finally got home.

Another reason I've not been posting regularly is Jaxon's new sleep patterns have been wearing on us. I got to a point this week when I told Jack that I wished we were back to the days of feeding every 3 hours all night. At least then I knew what to expect, usually he was sleeping soundly between feedings, and I was actually less sleep-deprived than I've been the last few weeks. So here's our routine lately: bedtime ritual sometimes starting with a bath (such a cute soap covered thing) and always ending with nursing, then sleep 30-45 mins, wake up screaming, soothe by mama or daddy, sleep 30-45mins, scream, soothe, repeat. Usually he gets in bed around 7pm and the fits usually stop around 10pm. Then he sleeps until normally 4-5am when he wakes for his morning nursing & finally gets up around 7am. Some nights are much worse, very few are any better. Our best guess is that this is all related to teething. When it first started (see catch a cold) we thought it was teething or an ear infection, but then he had that little cold. He's well over that now, but the night wakings continue. I watched a video tonight on a baby in a similar situation (though worse) and it gave me some hope. See the video here (4mins). I've already started reading the book mentioned, and will review it when I am through.

Jaxon is still not 100% sure about his Bumbo seat, but we try it every few days. It seems to be more fun if there is a doggie nearby as there was in this video. I love his little 'huff' at the end. He's getting very close to mobile which is my theory on why he's not crazy about this seat (holds him too still). He lunges for things he wants when he's in your lap or arms, can do some goofy scooting moves using mostly his face & legs, loves to stand while you hold him up, and recently started this tent move where he pushes up on his hands & feet into a A-shape briefly. I think he'll be crawling very soon.

This week we started Jax on rice cereal. His first foray into the solid food world seemed to be enjoyable. I'm not sure how much of it he actually swallowed, but that's to be expected the first time. I mixed it very thin using expressed milk based on what we'd read, but what a mess! I knew this was a messy experience, but I wasn't expecting him to actually blow bubbles in the food on the spoon. I think that it was mixed too thin for his age (maybe that advice is better for the parents who start cereal on younger babies). I had better luck when mixing it a bit thicker the following couple days. Our local grocery did triple coupons last week and I had a ton of baby coupons so I stocked up on all sorts of organic cereals & baby foods for him. We still plan to make our own but I'll still stock up whenever deals come by for convenience. I'm sure we'll have more fun pics with lovely carrots & other pretty colored food all over the place soon!

How do you 'catch' a cold?

I knew better. I really did. I just had to let everyone know that JP was sleeping thru the night (whether real or perceived, the pressure to get him sleeping thru the night was strong & though I tried to ignore it, I was so glad to tell everyone that we'd "finally" hit this milestone).

But the mommy-jinx got me.

The VERY next night, JP woke up suddenly & screaming within less than an hour of going to sleep. This was not his usual fussing, it was painful, face turning red, 'help me' screaming. We tried everything to calm him and nothing was working. No fever, no symptoms other than the screams. We thought maybe it was teething so we gave him some Tylenol and I tried to calm him with nursing. Eventually he fell asleep next to me. I was NOT going to move him like I usually do so he stayed there all night. He still slept most of the night thankfully. The next three nights were very similar though not quite as bad. We tried altering his sleep schedule & moving his reflux meds to night-time but neither seemed to help.

During this time, I'd been dealing with a sore throat myself which finally turned into a bit of a stuffy nose. It has been minor, but we think that's what was bothering him. Last night he sounded awful and could barely breathe. I took on the unenviable task of putting saline drops in his nose. He did not think much of that. It went over better today, so I think it was the combo of it being a new experience and his already worked-up state. Doc & Gigi both had pretty much the same advice - elevate the head of his bed, saline drops, humidifier. Call if it gets worse or if he gets a fever. It's only bothering him at night, and apparently only in that first couple of hours of bedtime, so he'll be fine.

But he's still technically sleeping through the night! Ha...

The timing was probably bad, but we moved him to the crib this week as well. I wouldn't have done it while he was having a rough week, except that he really was getting too big for the bassinet. It wasn't a big deal to him but has been an adjustment for me. He's really not slept in there more than a few hours since he was born. So I'm not used to the little things like remembering to put the siderail down BEFORE I try to gently move the sleeping baby to the bed. Picture shorty me trying to lean over the rail while my feet come off the floor and I'm crushing my ribs with the rail.. all the while trying not to plop the kid down too hard on the mattress - oops woke the baby. Or trying to hold him still in my arms while figuring out yet again how to operate the siderail.. oh yeah, lift first, then kick.. CLANK... oops woke the baby. Of course I hear you.. put him in the crib 'drowsy but awake'.. yea right..

The Cost of Diapers (CD Part 2)

Did you know that disposable diapers through potty-training usually costs $2000-3000?! That's a lot of money! A simple cloth diaper system (I'll explain all the types another time) can be very inexpensive but $300-500 is probably most realistic. That's a savings of at least $1700 on the first child. Once you add additional children, the savings are even higher as most cloth diapers will still be in great shape for years of use. As I mentioned yesterday, this was the primary factor that had me sold on cloth.

There are a ton of different types & brands of cloth diapers. The most economical choice in CDing is always prefolds with covers. Basically this is the typical white cloth diaper like what some parents use as burp cloths. Covers vary, but the wrap style is most common. A basic prefold costs $2 each and a typical velcro-type wrap costs $10. (There are a ton of articles and calculators on the costs of diapers, but I'm going to use what I've seen or paid myself at my favorite and most frequented companies). Prefolds usually come in two sizes, infant & toddler, while covers can come in all sorts but normally S,M, & L. We have about 30 prefolds which is more than enough to get through 2-3 days, plus you need at least 3-4 covers in each size (depending on your laundering schedule). So thats $120 for prefolds & $120 for covers from newborn through potty-training, at a total of $240! This is the most basic system and the costs obviously go up as you add quantity or more variety. Some of the most popular (and what we use at night-time) are BumGenius and FuzziBunz which are easy to use and require no folding. These usually are about $15-20/each but even with splurging on a few of these, cloth is still very inexpensive.

If considering it, you should also take into consideration laundering. We found our water bill did not increase at all in the 5 months we've been CDing. Our electricity bill has been slightly higher in these 5 months compared to the same time last year. But, we've also been home at lot more often including cooking at home more and keeping the A/C cranked, so it's hard to say how much of the increase is from the the washer/dryer. If you want to be sure, there are calculators online that will help you figure out the cost of the extra loads, we just didn't think it was worth the effort to calculate.

The other day a friend asked me if it was still financially beneficial at this point to switch over to cloth from disposables (her son is 13mos). My gut reaction was that yes it would be, but let's figure it out. She purchases diapers today at a club warehouse for $32 which covers about 35 days of diapering (176 diapers/pack). For ease, we'll only calculate the cost up to the start of potty-training which WebMD says usually will start between 22-30 months (ending at about 38 months for boys & 36 months for girls). So my friends baby has at least 9-10 months of diapers left at a cost of $288-320. If she goes with the simple prefold system I outlined, she'll only need 30 prefolds in the toddler size and probably 4 covers in large. That's $60 for prefolds and $40 for covers at a total of $100. Is that worth it? Well yes, financially it is definitely cheaper and even leaves some room for some nice FuzziBunz. Of course there is more to it that just the money...

The Diaper Debate (CD Part 1)

You have got to be crazy. That's what I said to Jack the first time he mentioned cloth diapers while I was pregnant. I didn't consider cloth even an option, like most new parents of our generation. Diapers are disposable, that's just how it is.

Fast forward eight or so months later, and I have to say I've done a complete 180. Now I'm the one explaining: No we are not crazy, Yes we wash them ourselves, No we are not hippies, Yes it is easy to do. Since so many of my friends are here with me in the diapering days of our lives, it seems I'm talking about our baby's fuzzy bum a lot. We are the only cloth diapering trio that we know, we sometimes get honest questions from interested parents. In fact though I'd already started this post, I even had a request to blog about it!

For a quick background, I'm the oldest of four siblings and the oldest of all my cousins, on both sides of the family. Being the oldest and female, I'd changed a fair share of diapers before even getting married. All disposable of course. I knew what to do with disposable diapers and disposable wipes - ball it up and throw it away. I even knew how to work various diaper disposable contraptions that 'seal away' the odors. I had NO IDEA what to do with real cloth diapers. When we first considered it, I had visions of archaic large flat diapers that had to have some complex fold & pin method to wrap up baby. I had no confidence in my ability (or my husbands) to apply this method without poking holes in our child, nor in the feasibility or quality of cloth. Jack went to a daddy-only prenatal baby class (Daddy Bootcamp) where two new dads brought their babies in and spoke to the class. By luck, one was cloth diapering his little girl. Jack came home telling me about cloth diapers that look just like disposables. What? I didn't understand. He said they looked just like a 'regular' diaper, with velcro and elastic and everything. This is when the adventure started...

4wks old in his AIO diaper

As I do with just about everything else in my life, I turned to the web for answers. After a few weeks of researching cloth diapers (type in 'cloth diapers' in Google and see if you don't get information overload!), and the types, costs, washing methods, etc; I was convinced that it was the way to go. So what was the primary deciding factor? Well money mainly. But also that I thought we could do it. (What good is saving money if it's not feasible?). When I learned how much money we could save over disposables I was shocked and more than willing to give it a try. After five months of CDing, there are lots of reasons why we love it and are still doing it.

...to be continued.

10wks old in a prefold and cover