We took a little road trip this weekend and had a blast. We stayed with friends about 2 hours north of us who have a 3.5 month old. Since we got there past the kids’ bedtimes, they didn’t meet until the next morning while we got to have our “grown-up” time in the evening. Miles appreciated playing with all of his friend’s cool toys and playmats, though he wasn’t too interested in his actual friend. Perhaps this was because Miles thought his 6 month old self was too cool for a 3 month old. Soon enough that kind of age difference won’t matter a bit…

All you care about is my playmat?

The next day, we travelled about 30 min into the nearby big city to meet up with the gals from Love+Love=Marriage and their adorable son, Holland. The two boys seemed very interested in each other, and Miles was his charming, smiley self for the mostpart.

Who needs to smile when I can fit my hand in my mouth?

 We all indulged in gourmet chocolate treats (well, the boys just watched) and then walked around the city, shopped and chatted. We hope to meet up with them again in the future as they are really cool people

Sunday’s weather was beautiful, so Nutella and I took Miles to the park for a walk around the lake and a small picnic. Miles’ new thing is that he dislikes socks and tries desperately to pull them off. This is quite amusing to watch as you push him around in his stroller and the socks stick off the tops of his feet longer and longer each time he grabs them. We finally gave in to his sock-less demands and let him air out his toes in the warm day’s sun. Hopefully he doesn’t keep doing this when it’s 20 degrees out. Sorry, Miles…winter is just around the corner…

Reducing my supply has gone more easily than I had anticipated.  I still breastfeed Miles first thing every morning.  But since Sunday (5 days) I have gone as long as was comfortable before either pumping or hand expressing.  As the “demand” has dropped so has my “supply.” Here’s detail of how it’s gone:

• Sunday: breastfeed 8am, pump 6pm, hand express 10pm
• Monday: breastfeed 7am, hand express 6pm, hand express 10pm
• Tuesday: breastfeed 7am, hand express 9pm
• Wednesday: breastfeed 7am
• Thursday: breastfeed 7am

I feel full when I wake up  but the rest of the time I’m fine.  For now, Miles is still breastfeeding well first thing in the morning, and I’ll keep it up for as long as that’s the case. 

Strawberry’s mom stayed over on Tuesday night, so once Miles went to bed we had the opportunity for a midweek date night.  Our exciting date location… the mall.  We induldged in some Godiva truffles and bought Miles the most perfect (and appropriate for him) onesie ever.  It was $2 on the sale rack at B@by G@p.

In other exciting news, we are looking forward to a meet up with the lovely Love+Love=Marriage family on Saturday.  Holland and Miles are birthday twins, and we may all just faint from the power of their cuteness combined.  Once we recover, we’ll be sure to post photographic evidence.

Miles is 6 months old today. Wow. At first, it felt like we would never get here. The first 3 months dragged on…but now we’re here and time has shifted into high gear. It really is nice to be at this point. He’s so entertaining and getting mobile, and you can see those little wheels a-turnin all day long. We know the next 6 months are going to move by at lightning speed, and we’re excited to see all of the many more changes that they bring.

It was Baby’s First Halloween yesterday and we managed to hit some houses in our neighborhood and see some friends. It had been a while since we’ve been trick-or-treating so it was nice to have a good reason We did a family costume of the Flinstones. I was Wilma, Nutella was Betty and Miles was Bamm Bamm. Nutella, the crafty little seamstress she is, made all the costumes herself.

Like the caring parents we are, we are not allowing our 6 month old to indulge in the sugar-laden bag o’ goodies we got, and are eating all some of them on his behalf. Except for the strangest item I think we’ve ever received after a night of trick-or-treating- melted pop-ice. WTF? Needless to say, that one went right into the trash. Miles favorite thing of the night? A puffy little bag of pretzels that he chewed on for a good 5 minutes while we walked (the bag, not the pretzels).

1. I will not miss pumping.
2. I am looking forward to wearing an underwire bra again.
3. I do not feel guilty about stopping breastfeeding.

Well, I made it to 6 months.  That was my goal from before I even became a mother.  Today will be the last day I schlep my pump to and from work.  I’ll pump tomorrow and then that’s it.  Our early morning breastfeeding will continue for a little while I hope, but I’m not counting on it.  I’ve got 2 bags of milk in the freezer and Miles happily takes formula.  I did very well, but now, I’m done.  It’s certainly with mixed feelings of guilt, pride, and relief.

Today was Miles’ (nearly) 6 month well-baby checkup. How is this kid 6 months old on Sunday?? Nutella and I were both able to be there, and Miles did very well. His current stats are:

16 lbs 5 oz (30th percentile)
27.5 in (85th percentile)

Does this officially make him a string bean? The doctor said he looks very healthy, and even though he still sleeps like crazy (around 16 hours a day), there are no signs of anything wrong. She showed us that his two bottom teeth look like they’re going to break through very soon. Then came the shots, and he did so well. He was playing with a toy when he got the first shot, and just as he was going into cry-mode, the second shot was done and it was over. He cried for maybe 30 seconds, then we gave him a bottle and he was fine. Such a good boy! Our next visit will be at 9 months and there will be no shots, hooray!

In other news, Miles has found his feet and loves grabbing them. He is still trying hard to crawl but usually only manages to move himself backwards. The few times we’ve seen him move forwards, he lifts his butt high into the air, standing on his tip toes, and flops forward. It’s very entertaining to watch. He’s also had 7 different types of food now (applesauce, avocado, rice cereal, peas, chick peas, banana, squash) and we’re starting to give him a little more quantity and sometimes twice a day.

Now we’re looking forward to Halloween!

Solid food continues to be a fun adventure.  We tried banana tonight, and while Miles enjoyed eating it, we’re not entirely sure it agreed with him.  He was super cranky for about 20 minutes after eating it, fussing like he does when he’s got a big burp stuck. We wonder if perhaps it made him phlegmy or refluxy.

I got a book on Baby Led Weaning.  It was written in England where the term “weaning” refers to the introduction solids, not  the stopping of breastfeeding.  Basically, it works on the theory that babies should be able to decide the what, when, and how of food.  No purees, no spoon feeding.  You sit a baby at the family table for meals, offer a variety of foods from whatever you happen to be eating, and let the baby explore on its own.  As you might imagine, this makes a great mess, but it is supposed to allow the baby to learn how to be a good eater in terms of healthy choices and feelings of fullness.  I find the theory intriguing, but Miles is having so much fun with mushy food and the spoon.  I’m a little bit at a loss as to what to offer him to eat with his hands.  You see, I’ve pretty much bought into the more mainstream theory of food introduction, where low-allergy, easy to digest foods are offered one at a time with 3-4 day breaks in between offering something new.  BLW doesn’t really seem to do that.  I mean, if I were to offer Miles food from our plates, he’d be getting couscous and a roasted chicken breast with many spices.  We did try to offer him some larger pieces of banana (rolled in rice cereal dust) and sweet potato, but when he tried to pick them up he squished them and got upset that he couldn’t get them into his mouth. I think perhaps picking and choosing from each theory may be our choice for now.  Oh, and you can bet that our chihuahua is very happy about the possibility of more food coming her way.

For now, here’s the picture of Miles in his jumper.  He still hasn’t gotten it, but he likes it when someone else makes it jump.

Just hanging around

I’m feeling “bullet-y” today…

• Miles so far loves applesauce, sweet potato, avocado and Earth’s Best brand rice cereal (not Nabisco). He gets jealous if we are ever eating without him. And when there’s nothing more left in his bowl, Operation Distract and Remove Baby From High Chair must commence or he gets upset.
• Starting next week, the daycare situation is: my mom Mon-Wed, me working from home and watching him on Thursdays, and Nutella’s mom on Fridays. Hoping this will work out for a while.
• My mom slept over last night which allowed Nutella and I to have “date night.” Nutella’s company is having a large client dinner next week (which she is in charge of), and in return, the fancy restaurant gave Nutella a free tasting dinner for her and a companion. So that’s what we did last night- 2 different wines each, salads, entrees, and dessert in a romantic wine cellar for the cost of a nice tip. I had a huge grin on my face the whole time.
• We bought Miles a jumper (the kind you jump in, not the kind you wear). I will mention that the doorway we’re using it on is twice an average doorway size, so we don’t have to worry about him ever hitting the sides. So far he has no idea how to use it, but it’s only been a day. He likes chewing on it and just hanging around. We think he doesn’t quite know how to use his legs yet and hopefully this will help. I have to say, it looks awfully fun to me. Too bad about the 25 pound weight limit. Nutella commented that there are likely ones available in adult sizes, but you’d have to shop at a VERY different sort of store…
• Since our moms get to see Miles a lot, our fathers inevitably end up feeling less involved. So we planned a bowling outing on Sunday for everyone. Hoping everyone will have a good time. Wishing you all a good weekend!

Remember last week when we said Miles wasn’t quite ready for solids?  Well, things changed rather quickly right after that and we have now begun to seriously explore the world of solid food with Miles.  So far, baked sweet potato was a mild success when eaten off of our fingers, but he couldn’t figure out how to hold the piece and then get it to his mouth.  Homemade applesauce was a big hit, first off of our fingers, then from his highchair tray via his thumb, and finally, by spoon.  The spoon itself was introduced with some rice cereal mixed with breastmilk.  The cereal he didn’t much care for, but OMG, did he LOVE THE SPOON.  See evidence below.

Open wide!

My spoon!

Next up, avocado!

Today is the fourth day that my mom is watching Miles. No matter what time she left her place or our place this week, her one-way drive was always 1.5 hours. Last night she stayed over with us and slept on the couch. There’s no way we can keep this up. The thing that really sucks is that my parents had plans to sell their place and move closer to us (not just to be closer, but because they also don’t like where they live). They had a buyer in August and were all ready to go to settlement, when it turned out the buyer had lied on his taxes and no mortgage company would give him a mortgage. So it fell through and they had to put their place back up on the market. We are all hoping it will sell this month, but you know how the housing market is right now.

So what we’re trying to do is see if Nutella’s mom could possibly watch Miles twice a week when she’s able to, and I’ll be working from home once a week starting next week (my boss(es) are thankfully laid back and ok with flexible hours and WFH). On those days, I may work remotely all day long on and off (to get those 8 hours in) while taking care of Miles myself. So our daycare situation is still working itself out.

In other news, Miles now sits with us at the dinner table and has begun mimicking us when we eat. He’s like a little baby bird opening his mouth when we do, and intently staring at the movements of our forks as they go from plate to mouth. Just for fun, we finger fed him a little sweet potato and homemade applesauce this week. He seemed very confused, but kept motioning for more, and in fact, did end up swallowing tiny bits of each. It was adorable to see him with a furrowed brow and pursed lips as he sucked on the bits of food in his mouth. We’re not giving him anything else new for a while and we still don’t think he’s truly ready for solids, but the experimentation is fun.

Here are a couple pictures from the pumpkin patch the other day…

Today was the beginning of an era in the Vermillion household.  Strawberry went back to work and her mother (GA) came over to take care of Miles.  She’ll be caring for him Monday-Thursday and then my mother (GV) comes over on Fridays (this plan may end up changing).  They each live about 45 minutes away (in opposite directions from us) when there’s no traffic.  Of course, weekday mornings and weekday evenings are heavy traffic times for our city.  Today, it took GA an hour and a half to get here and then another hour and a quarter to get home.  This is NO FUN for anyone and we are now putting some plans into effect to try and make her commute easier.  I’ll be shifting my work day a bit earlier and Strawberry will be shifting hers to start and end an hour later than before.  We may end up trading weeks on these new schedules, too. Hopefully, this will mean lighter traffic for GA.  Fingers crossed that this works out, because she and Miles had a lovely day together.

We know that we’re lucky that this type of care situation is possible for us, and yet, we both miss Miles like crazy.  Work seems so unfulfilling when we think about our boy at home.

In lighter news, Miles is picking himself up onto hands and knees and desperately wants to crawl.  So far, he manages to rock a bit and then falls back down, often several inches BEHIND where he started.  He’s certainly determined though, and we think he’ll get it pretty soon.  A thorough cataloging of our baby proofing needs will take place this coming weekend.  Here’s a little video to show his progress…