Elliot's Broken Wrist

Tuesday night, Elliot took a tumble down the basement stairs and fractured two bones on the underside of his wrist, the ulna and the radius. RIGHT as the first Small Group of the semester was getting started in our living room upstairs. I took him to urgent care that night, where they put him in a splint with a sling, and the next day, an orthopedic doctor put him in a hard cast for the next month, after which we go back for more x-rays and, hopefully, removal of said cast.

By the time Small Group ended Tuesday night and we got to the pediatric urgent care place, the decks were stacked against us. It was two hours past Elliot's bedtime, he was crashing from eating a billion cookies earlier in the night, he fell asleep in the car on the way there so we had to wake him up, and he was in a whole lot of pain - all of which left him TERRIFIED, and he responded to the exam like a caged animal, kicking and screaming. Literally. I didn't know whether to feel worse for my poor, scared, hurting boy, or the doctors he was physically fighting. He wouldn't even accept their offer of a lollipop. He said no to every flavor choice they gave him, until finally he yelled, "No! I don't want ANY of that stuff!"

Well, OK then. He was just so done.

The next afternoon at the orthopedic doctor's office, Elliot was a completely different person. He was super chatty with the nurse, discussing how there are bones in his body to help him move, and how he broke some of those bones. He talked about his yellow rain boots and how they were too small and he shouldn't have been wearing them on the stairs. And he loved looking at the pictures of his bones INSIDE HIS BODY on their big computer screen. He picked a dark blue cast and sat there very calmly as they wrapped it around his arm. No kicking, no pushing, no screaming - just some minor hesitation and a whimper or two. It's amazing what a good night's sleep and a little experience can do for a scared little boy.

They were probably wondering why I was so happy to leave that appointment with a happy, chatty son... with a blue lollipop in his mouth.

First Day of School, 2016

We kicked off a new school year today! Each kid took a turn coming into my room for a private parent-student conference, answering aloud the questions I read them from the plaque. I wrote down exactly what they said.

Lily
First Day of: 5th (I can't even...)
I am 9 (She then thought maybe she should add a percentage, but decided against it.)
63.6 lbs, 46'6"
My teacher is: My Mother
I love to: Play on screens

I want to be a: Doctor or Vet (her normal answer is vet - I haven't heard her say doctor before.)
Favorite color: Purple (She went back and forth between purple and magenta, but finally settled on purple.)
Favorite book: Cam Jansen (We have been ordering them from the library as quickly as we can, because she is just blowing through them.)

Jacob
First Day of: 3rd
I am 8 1/4 (He was very specific) =)
63 lbs, 45.5" (Should have been 45.6", as in 45 1/2 - boo, my math.)
My teacher is: My Mom
I love to: Play video games (He speaks the truth.)

I want to be a: Scientist (I've never heard of this before...it almost felt like he said the first impressive thing he could think of, but who knows - maybe it's been kicking around in his head!)
Favorite color: All of them!
Favorite book: Ricky Ricotta (He then added Cam Jansen, too.)

Samantha
First Day of: 1st
I am 6
48.4 lbs, 3'11" (Ummm not sure why I wrote 11", considering the only two options were whole and half...)
My teacher is: Mama
I love to: Color (Really. Seriously. Girl can COLOR ALL DAY.)

I want to be a: Spy (You can't tell, but she is wearing all black behind that sign, because, silly, that's what spies wear!)
Favorite color: Blue
Favorite book: Snow White (She recently discovered my copy from when I was little, where something new pops out on every page, and she LOVES it.)

Elliot (When I first asked him his name, he said "E" because he saw that I was going to write and figured I needed help.)
First Day of: PreK
I am 4 (he actually said 3. This is the one answer the kids gave me that I didn't write. I just thought it would be too confusing when looking back. We've been trying to convince him he's 4 for the last two months, but he's still not on board.)
34 lbs, 33.6" (Again, I botched the height...not sure why that was so hard for me! haha)
My teacher is: Daddy (Apparently, Ryan is teaching him all sorts of things when I'm not around.)
I love to: Paint (We don't do a lot of painting at home...maybe he's trying to tell me something.)

I want to be a: Elliot
Favorite color: Green
Favorite book: Thomas ("The Thomas book with the dinosaur!")

Note to self for next year - buy real chalkboard chalk. The sidewalk chalk wrote great, but it was hard to write with the super wide tip.

Vocab

Elliot just added one new "word" to his repertoire: All done! Sounds more like "Ahh-dahh" but hey, that totally counts ;)

Frequent, daily words:
Car (Cahhhh) - over and over and over and over allllll day
Hot (Haaa) - with a very concerned look on his face
Yum! (Ummm!) 

Uh-huh
Uh-oh!

Just a few times:
Cracker (cah-cah)
Hi (Hahh!)
Hello? (Hehh-oh?) - when picking up a toy phone
Water (dahh-dahh) - just a few times yesterday

And today:
All done (Ahh-dahh)

Yes, I realize it's not much for a boy who will be two in just over three months (wow! when did that happen?), and there's still no Mama or Dadda, but we'll still celebrate every new little word, and encourage him to keep going!

Stats from Elliot's 18-Month Visit

February 20, 2014 (almost 19 months)
Weight: 22lb 14.5oz (28th%)
Length: 30.5" (2nd%)
Head Circumference: 49.5"
Weight/Height Ration: 68th%

So glad little buddy is gaining weight! Not sure why he's so short - waiting for Ryan's tall genes to start kicking in here! His weight to height ratio is GREAT, and after all that "failure to thrive" nonsense in his first year, his weight is very solidly back on the chart. Praise the Lord!

As with the last visit, the biggest concern was his speech. Or lack thereof. I think he is officially our slowest speaker. (Sam was officially our EARLIEST speaker...and hasn't stopped since.) Both Jacob and Lily were also speech delayed, and both were seen by Early Intervention, with a prognosis that they were just slow...or lazy. Only EI probably phrased it better ;)

Dr. Craig said most babies are expected to say about 50 words by the time they're 2, but with Elliot's late start, she said she'd be happy if he's saying 20, so long as he is also putting at least two words together. We shall see.

We talked again abut his possible allergy to fried egg whites - he's fine with baked eggs, since they're cooked at a higher temperature. She said we have to wait until he's 3 to test any further ourselves, although if we wanted to take him to an allergist, they could test him there. I wish our insurance was better so I could try that out! But for now...we wait. Better than the last doc who told me if I really couldn't wait to test out egg whites once more, make sure I do it in the parking lot of the ER!

I told her about his stubborn and persistent nature - which she just attributed to him being 1 1/2, but Mama knows better. He most certainly started having very strong opinions much, much earlier than any of the other kids. His persistent nature (remember the part about him being born 12 minutes after we arrived at the hospital?) is mirrored in his sisters - definitely not in his brother, Jacob the Quitter.

I mentioned his few signs: all done and up/down (both are very frequent), milk and more (infrequent/inconsistent, though we have seen them unprompted a handful of times). He points a lot, though oftentimes when you give him what he's pointing at, that's not what he wants at all, so we keep trying until we realize maybe he just likes pointing - who knows!

A couple other things I wrote down to tell her:

• He loves playing hide-and-seek - no better thrill than being sought and then jumping out with an incoherent yet loudly excited, "Bjhdjf a jasdfj!" (Here I am!)
• He is a good helper. "Elliot, can you pick that up for me? Elliot, put that back! Elliot, can you put your toys away?" Except of course when he doesn't want to listen. See that part about him being stubborn, above. One of his favorite games with Lily is taking the toilet plunger out of the bathroom (a no-no), finding Lily, and happily obliging her cheerful, "Elliot, can you put that back, please?"
• He loves cars. He sleeps with cars, carries them around ALL DAY, throws them, drives them everywhere (sound effects included), rolls them down the ramps Jacob builds him, and shrieks like a Nazgul when he can't reach one, has one taken away, or can't find the one he's looking for. Not that we always know which one he's looking for. See that part about him not speaking, above.
• Lastly, he LOVES his siblings. LOVES with the most emphasis possible. And it is very, very mutual. Lily delights in taking care of him, and Jacob has no greater joy than entertaining him and making him giggle. This stage where Elliot is endlessly entertaining to the kids is wonderful. They think everything he does is hysterical, and he is more than happy to put on a little show. I am also looking forward to Elliot being a little older so the boys can really PLAY together - they are going to be thick as thieves, those two. Samantha is still up in the air about her little brother. One day she likes him, another day they just bother each other. He pulls her hair, she knocks him over. At 3 1/2, she doesn't have the maturity to realize that he is treated differently because he is a BABY, not a threat. She gets mad and yells when he does a snatch-and-run with her toys (which is of course why he always does it), while Jake and Lily just roll their eyes and laugh, "Oh, Elliot!" and gently take it back (or more likely let him keep it - spoilers!). 

Overall, Elliot is a sweet little boy. He is silly and serious all at once, with some new-found charm mixed in. He is thoughtful and smart, though not very communicative. Half the time, I don't know what he wants, because he hasn't figured out an alternate way to tell me - or maybe I'm just not that good at reading babies...even after four of them.

Finally Gaining Weight

Elliot's 12-month well-visit plotted him securely back on the growth chart in the 9th percentile at 18lb 6 1/2 oz. I was super excited to hear this, especially considering he was well off the bottom of the curve at his 9 month visit and had to see a gastroenterologist.

The gastroenterologist thought his lack of weight gain and his abnormal blood work were indicators of nothing more than a virus, and to prove her theory correct, she had his blood work re-done. Surprise, surprise - it all came back perfect, just like Mama and GI knew it would!

When I asked the doctor about how his numbers looked on the breastfeeding chart instead of the WHO (World Health Organization) chart, above, he said he wasn't so concerned about actual percentiles, just about the curve - which is funny, because they certainly worry about the percentile when the kid's not actually in one.

So either way, he's doing great, no matter what chart you use - just like I always thought he was.

His head circumference is back up in the 90th percentile, which is where it started at birth. Funny, he didn't seem to have a giant head like Jake and Sam did when they were born - more like a perfect little cue-ball - but I guess it still measured big. He was 28.5" long (7th percentile), and his overall weight-for-length number was really great, too: 20th percentile.

(Trying to pry the door open, so he can play with the kids in the hall...)

The doctor was very happy with how much Elliot communicated. "Wow, he's talking to you a lot, mom!" It's funny how you need a doctor for perspective sometimes. I don't remember how much noise the other three made at this exact age, and wouldn't think all his little jabberings were "a lot," but after two late talkers (NOT SAM), I'm happy to hear it.
 
The doctor was also super happy with how active and attentive Elliot was. He said he could skip a whole bunch of questions because so many things were OBVIOUS - how well he crawled and cruised and stood, how well he made eye contact and tracked everything visually, how he smiled at the doctor and interacted with everything the doctor did.

"Oh, hi, Mama!"

The doctor said the small rash all around his neck was eczema. No surprise considering both Jacob and Sam had the same exact rash as babies, and that Lily has been battling eczema on the backs of her legs for years (it's been very minor for the last 6 months, PRAISE THE LORD).

I mentioned how Elliot's thrown up after eating eggs on two separate occasions, and the doctor said that probably means Elliot has an egg allergy. Argh, allergy is never a word you want to hear. I was hoping the doctor would say that happens with babies sometimes, but it kind of freaked him out, and he told me to take him to an allergist to "establish a relationship" now. Well, unless the allergist is funding that "relationship," we'll be waiting until he's old enough to actually DIAGNOSE and do something about said potential allergy, and in the meantime, we'll just refrain from feeding him scrambled or fried eggs (baked in recipes are OK because they're cooked in much higher temps than just pan-frying, so avoidance is not as hard as it may sound).

Have you ever seen a happier patient??

He looks right...

I look left...

All together now!

"I got my 2nd tooth today...nom, nom, nom."

 

I couldn't resist. I had to add the one of him with his huge staring Elliot eyes.

My sweet boy.

Roseola and a First Tooth

Elliot had a super high fever all weekend, and then Monday morning, the tell-tale rash appeared on his belly: Roseola!

Thank goodness that's all it was. Tuesday, it was fading from his belly and spreading onto his back. Wednesday, it was fading from his back and spreading up the sides of his cheeks / under his ears, and down the front of his legs. Today, it's mostly gone.

Tuesday, he cut his first tooth - bottom right. He must have been so miserable all weekend with fever AND the tooth coming in.

(You can hardly see the tooth I circled, but believe me, it's there!)

Funny how his sister is losing teeth, and he's finding them!

He's eating like an old pro now, and my babyfood-making affinity is in full swing. I'm trying to stuff him full to make up for all the time he lost - and he's happy to oblige. His 9-month visit is fast-approaching and I'm hoping for some improvement on the ol' growth curve. When you're already in the 1st percentile, there's literally no where to go but up, right?

Elliot Eating, Part Two

So in just a matter of weeks, Elliot has gone from gagging on food so strongly he throws up, to begging for the food to be put in his mouth faster! It's been an amazing transformation.

Once the gag reflex subsided, he started accepting a wider variety of foods and will now pretty much eat anything we put in his big gaping maw. I've even started adding formula to some of his more liquidy foods in hopes that he'll get used to the flavor and take a bottle or two this weekend for Ryan while I'm away at the church's women's retreat. (Not sure I'll have enough milk pumped to last him the whole weekend, but I'm working on it!)

Just a week ago, he started wanting to eat more but still didn't have the mechanics of it down. He was so used to me putting bits of crumbled food like bread on his outstretched tongue, that every time I tried to get a spoon in there, his eager tongue would inadvertently push it out of the way. Today, after practicing a few times daily for a week, there is no tongue fighting my spoon and feeding him is a much simpler process. He will happily scarf down three meals a day.

Now all of a sudden, the big question isn't, "When will he start eating and growing?" but, "Whoops - he wants to eat all the time and we don't have anything to feed him!" So this morning while Jacob was at preschool, me and the girls took him to Pathmark for groceries to make baby food.

*Tangent: Three kids at the grocery store is immeasurably better than four. I'm not sure why, but I'm thinking it has something to do with a heaping dose of perspective... and only one kid walking around freely. End tangent.*

Now his daddy won't have any trouble figuring out what to feed him while I'm away - worrying about him refusing to take a bottle will be enough trouble!

The Best Way to Travel

Jacob's a wonderful big brother and really, really can't wait for Elliot to grow up and build ramps and play trains and ride bikes. Until then, I guess they'll find their own creative ways to do boy stuff together :)

Sittin' Around

Elliot started crawling so quickly at 7 months (seriously, like a couple days of practice and then he was off! haven't seen him since!) that he never really took the time to master the art of sitting unassisted. Who has time to sit when you can CRAWL?! Places to go, things to do. Within the last few days, I've actually wondered if he COULD in fact sit without any help, because I'd never actually seen him do it.

Until today.

All of a sudden, he was like, oh cool, here's something else I can do while I'm down here if I don't feel like going anywhere but don't want to lay down. And he sat there on the carpet chewing on a [closed] marker for like 15 minutes. So, um, ok...guess that answers that!

Should I also mention that just a week or two after he started crawling, he discovered the art of pulling up (and letting go)(and falling over)?

Elliot Eating

Today, Elliot ate this much bread for dinner (plus about a teaspoon of shredded lettuce) and this much apple for lunch. Then he was really tired. For Elliot, this is a TON. No making himself gag so hard he puked - I guess there's hope yet!

Random Kid Update

- Sam's first day of preschool was last week, and Jacob started back at preschool last week, too. Sam cried for the first five minutes and then was fine.
- Elliot slept thru the night for the first time EVER two weeks ago, at six months. He did it once more this weekend. Here's hoping his nights of waking up to or three times to eat are finally at an end, because Mama's tired, kid.
- Yesterday, Lily finished "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" - phew! And last week, she finished the first Handwriting Without Tears book (it's orange). A couple weeks ago, I had switched her from Explode the Code (ETC) book 1 to book 2 before she finished book 1 because I thought it was too easy for her, but then she was making too many mistakes in book 2, so I'll have her finish book 1 before moving her on now.
- Two weeks ago, Jacob finished "Get Ready for the Code" - the first ETC primer. Now he's on "Get Set for the Code." He has absolutely no problem with the phonics in this book and should probably be on book 1 with Lily (he's on lesson 36 of "...100 Easy Lessons). I'll probably skip "Go for the Code" and put him right on book 1 when he's done with "Get Set..." The problem is he's sort of able to properly form letters with lots of help and concentration, but still prefers scribbling and very quickly loses focus, so the two required skills for this book are so far apart from each other (reading and writing) that I feel strange advancing jumping him ahead for one reason when the other is so far behind.
- Samantha is still an excellent color-er.
- Elliot has now tried rice cereal, bananas, applesauce, avocados, broccoli, pancakes, whole milk yogurt, and I'm sure lots of other things, but he still HATES it all. Except for this one random night, he was very happy with all the broccoli Ryan was finger-feeding him off his plate while holding him during dinner, but I was not happy with him waking up ALL NIGHT because, HELLO? broccoli?? Actually, food usually makes him throw up. Literally. First the avocado and then the yogurt. He gets it anywhere near his throat and he gags so hard he pukes all over. So what do you do with a kid who won't take a bottle and won't eat?!?!
- Lily's self-proclaimed favorite subject is math. She's currently doing addition and uses her fingers to add (I need to start drilling her with flash cards soon). It's very rare that she gets one wrong, though her 7s and 9s are frequently backwards.
- On that same note, Lily has had a lot of trouble distinguishing between b's and d's the last couple of months, which is kind of strange because she didn't used to have this problem. Can a child develop dyslexic tendencies with certain letters/numbers AFTER not having any?
- Jacob's favorite school book is his Kumon Tracing book. He could care less that he's already done each page at least twice and is happy to continue tracing over what he's already traced before. I'm just happy that he'll sit and properly (and eagerly) hold a pencil for long periods of time, regardless of what he's doing.
- Sam hates pooping. TMI? She could hold it in forever, but as the days wear on and she becomes increasingly, obviously more uncomfortable and therefore crabby, we have to force her to sit on the potty until she poops. (Fortunate for us she's a little delayed in her gross motor skills and can't get off the potty herself, so she has no choice.) There is much screaming - half in anger at us, half in pain/fear of the poop. But she is always sooo happy and relieved the minute it all comes out. Though her poop stops up out toilets. Seriously! No matter which one she uses, we have to unclog it after every time she goes, because she holds it in so long, it's like trying to flush a baseball. There is much prune juice and fiber gummies in her every day life. She's doing great with potty training otherwise...
- At his 6mo checkup, Elliot was in the 2nd percentile for weight. Argh.
- Lily has a super loose tooth. We discovered it almost two weeks ago and it's now hanging on for dear life. It's on the bottom amidst three other not-as-loose loose teeth. She's afraid to just pull it out bc it's the first one and she's not sure what will happen, but I don't see it staying put thru tomorrow. I'm so excited for her! Better get my Tooth Fairy pennies ready...
- Elliot sat unassisted for about 10 seconds today.
- Jacob is restless and frustrated. I'm wondering how to better boost his morale and encourage him more. And how to ultimately stop.the.WHINING. Sometimes I think he's just bored, but when I give him things to do I think he'll like, he just complains or quits or finds an excuse to get mad about it. I'm not sure what to do with him...
- Elliot rolled over from belly to back at three weeks, from back to belly at 4 1/2 months, and started rocking on his hands and knees two weeks ago (at six months). I finally caught it on video yesterday. He's so desperate to get moving and get into everything! I'm not looking forward to having to use the baby gates all over again, having to remember to keep the basement door closed, keeping all the little Barbie shoes and hair ties and broken crayons and everything else out of harms way, etc.

More Elliot Stats

Note Mid-January: I started this stats page a while ago and didn't publish it until now, because I was missing a few stats in there. I am STILL missing a couple weigh-ins, but better late than never!


Elliot's 6-Week Stats
10 lb, 3.5 oz - 44th%
22.5" long - 69th%
39cm head circumference - 53rd %

Elliot's 11 1/2-Week Stats
10 lb, 15 oz - 18th%
23" long - 33rd%
41cm head circumference - 60th%
(12% overall for combined weight and height)

Doctor Craig was a little concerned that Elliot wasn't gaining enough weight (something like 1/2 ounce per day being the bare minimum?) so she's having him come back at three months - one week from now - to see if we need to start supplementing him. Not so crazy about the idea of having to get out the breast pump... I was going to say I think this is the earliest I've ever had my milk supply run so low, but then I remembered going through a phase with Jacob where he was down to the 5th percentile for weight (after being born at the top of the chart at 9lb 5oz). I'll have to go back and see how little he was when that happened and see what I did about it. It's strange going from super chubby baby Samantha to barely-gaining-weight Elliot.

But you know what's funny? This is number four, and I'm not concerned at all. Little buddy is generally very happy (after a SUPER fussy first month of life - praise the Lord that passed!) and content. He spits up like nobody's business (perhaps acid reflux?), but generally never acts like he needs more to eat as a result. And after looking at his overall weight/height curve since birth, Dr. Craig said she felt a little better that he's on his own little curve and perhaps he will just be a smaller person...so not well over 6' like his daddy.

And like his brother seems like he will be ;)

We shall see!

Elliot's 3 Month Stats - 10-30-2012
 9oz - 12th%
DTAP, IPV, Roto

Elliot 12-07-2012
12lb, 10oz - 6th%
25.5" long - 63rd%
This was the visit that really bothered Dr. Dana b/c he had dropped to the 6th%...  So I went home with the resolve that I would  nurse him on both sides whenever it was convenient, continue nursing him throughout the night whenever he woke up (which was ALL THE TIME...arghhh), and to continue trying to get him to take a bottle. No such luck. He haaaaates it.

Elliot 12-17-2012
??? Have to find that little piece of paper.
He had maintained his 6th% weight (1/2 once per day) since his visit on the 7th, so Dr. Dana was happy. She had me schedule his next weight check 3 weeks from now, when he'd be 5 months 1 week.

Elliot's 5 Month Stats - 12-31-2012
13lb, 4.5oz - 4th%
Brought Elliot in for a sick visit. He had a hacking cough, super junky chest, and runny nose. He was having trouble nursing/sleeping/taking a pacifier b/c his nose was so stuffed up. I wanted to be really sure he wasn't wheezing (no RSV, no asthma). Fortunately, he did not follow in his brother's footsteps and no nebulizer treatment was needed. We had him weighed while he was there, and he had pretty much maintained his weight, so Dr. Craig said instead of coming back the following week for his previously-scheduled weight check, to push it out one more week (so 5 months 2 weeks).

Elliot's 5 1/2 Month Stats - 01- 14-2012
13lb, 9oz - 3rd%
DTAP, Polio
Dr. Dana wasn't too concerned that his percentage went down a little since the last time she saw him (mid-December).

One day last week when Elliot was in a nice and happy mood, I figured, what the heck, let's start you on solids and see if that will help with the weight gain - I waited the full 6 months with the previous three kids - which turned into two days of TORTURING him with rice cereal. How DARE I put anything so foreign on his tongue? The gagging! The awful faces! The crazy extrusion reflex! Oh, my...this boy really does not want ANYTHING to do with ANYTHING other than nursing.

So today I thought we'd throw caution to the wind and give banana a try - which I've never given any of the kids until after they've had rice cereal, oatmeal cereal, barley cereal, green veggies, and orange veggies (yes, I'm a little hyper-vigilant about the order of their first foods). Guess what? He GAGGED. I'm sorry, buddy, but seriously? Who doesn't want a whole lotta sugar goodness? And I'm especially eager for him to start solids because then he'll stop spitting up. 

 And really? I'm ready for 5 1/2 months of being puked on all day to be over.

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The Happy Birthday Hands

When the kids wash their hands, they sing the Happy Birthday song a couple times to make sure they've scrubbed long enough.

Which means we've heard nothing but "Happy Birthday, dear Elliot" many, many times a day for the last four months. Apparently, he's the gift that keeps on giving.

Elliot & His Little Buddies

Elliot (left - 3 weeks) propped up on his brand new friend Molly (right - a few days old)

Elliot and Molly, today (almost three months later)

Elliot and Molly, having dinner undercover at a fancy banquet with their Mamas - shhh!

Naptime for Elliot (left - 1 month) and his very new friend Naomi (right - a few days old)

 

Their adoring fans look on...
(Fun fact: Daniel & Sam are also 1 month apart!)

 

Elliot (2 months) goes head-to-head with his friend Boaz (just a little younger)

Elliot (right - 3 1/2  months) about to drool on his friend Isabella (left - 3 months)

 

Elliot (left - 3 1/2 months) takin' it easy with his brand new cousin Clara (right - 2 weeks)

Sir Elliot

NOTE: Originally written 1 month ago, nearing the end of October

Our baby boy will be three months old in just a few days. THREE MONTHS. That's just nuts.

After a difficult and super fussy first month, Elliot has grown into such a wonderful baby. He's sweet and happy. He still prefers being carted around by yours truly while awake, but when he's ready to nap, we just snap him into his bouncer, swing, or carseat with his pacifier and he's golden. (There's no bed downstairs...we're working on it.)

Same thing at night time: swaddle him, put him in his co-sleeper with his pacifier, and you can almost see the relief come over him. "Yes! My bed! Now let me turn my head to the side and stare at nothing while rapidly sucking my pacifier and nuzzling my face into the corner."

How long he actually sleeps is different every night. He was actually doing better and now is waking up a lot more :( Nooooot happy to be going backwards. Maybe it has to do with him gaining weight more slowly? All I know is once you've tasted a good nights sleep, it's really hard to be satisfied with anything else!

But he wakes up happy and smiling. And that's really all a Mama can ask for.

Happiness Is...

...Watching your little baby falling asleep in your lap.