Social Media, a Sad Conclusion to the Sitter Saga, & Puffs How I Love Thee (7QT)

Linking up with the one and only Jen Fulwiler this morning.

1 - I finally created a Facebook page for the blog when I realized that they are actually a lot of fun. Last one to the party, I suppose.

Grace Patton, I would follow you to the moon and back. But probably not Facebook. Ok, yes to Facebook if it is my only means of entering your giveaway. (I have shame. I admit it.)

Facebook generally makes my blood pressure rise. But I started following the Facebook pages of a few choice blogs that I love and I realized that they are posting other stuff on there. It's like unlocking the secret song on your favorite band's album. More! More! We want more!

And I realize for some people it's generally easier to comment over on Facebook. And I love getting comments with unsolicited (and solicited) parenting advice. (I am not being tongue-in-cheek. Please gift me your wisdom.) So I'm joining in and I hope you'll participate. 

2 - Another shameless plea for Internet friends. I'm also trying to get into Twitter. It's a little bit harder for me to wade through the riff-raff. It seems the only accounts that follow me are like the "RETWEET/FOLLOW/FOLLOW BACK" spammy accounts (all CATHOLIC spam accounts, I might add), so I'm not sure how long I can hang on. But if Lauren and Amanda keep tweeting, I'll keep trying.  

3 - Ok. To conclude the sitter saga (parts 1 and 2), I had to call it quits with the sitter because every time she came over, Will became a raging lunatic. Loud screaming, lots of tears, vibrato cries. It was too much for my heart to bear. I felt horrible: (a) that Will was crying and (b) about leaving our sweet sitter to deal with it.

And this came as a huge shock to me. I really didn't even think Will liked me that much. At best, I imagined he was indifferent toward his mother creature. His life has always seemed preoccupied with one of two goals - putting his mouth on everything and/or putting everything in his mouth. So there's that silver lining that I guess he likes me after all!

I really upped my selfie game with this series of photos.

I know it's just a separation anxiety phase, so I fully intend to give it another go with the sitter in a few weeks. 

We will give those photos the honor of occupying takes 4-6 and get this show on the road.

7 - PUFFS. Puffs will get us through this phase. Will is finally old enough to gnaw on them, and they keep him perfectly content and occupied, so that I can bang out a blog post (hint hint) or empty the dishwasher. And I basically feel like it's feeding him air, so no worries that he will fill up on them and reject the boob. He likes doing that lately. We have a ton of road trips coming up and I am so excited to have a clean snack that I can give him when he gets tired of the car seat. Praaaaise be for puffs, ya'll!

Have the best of Fridays.

Sleep Trained

Will is TDY all week, which means I'll probably be seeking solace in blogging frequently over the course of the next few days. (TDY stands for Temporary Duty(?) Assignment---where the Y comes from still sort of confuses me---which basically just means Will is in Alabama again for more training.) So here I am, because, you know, instead of blathering to my husband directly, I get to do it through this here blog! That's in addition to my other TDY staples of not shaving my legs and eating the same thing for every meal to clear out the pantry/avoid going to the commissary. (Last time it was pancakes, this time it's pasta.)

Right now I need to give a huge shout out to Lauren for rescuing me today. Little Will is in this phase where he (a) loves to be entertained, (b) gets quite cranky if you're not energetically entertaining him, (c) is appeased only by being picked up and carried around, (d) squirms happily in all directions upon being picked up, and (e) oh yeah, weighs 20 pounds. And, NO, he will not be worn in a carrier. Fuggetaboudit. 

It is an exhausting thing. 

So as I was saying Lauren came over and held/fed/entertained said squirmy/spirited/fat baby while I threw together a dinner of pesto pasta (duh) and any and all vegetables found in the fridge and pantry. She's a real catch. 

Anyway, the title of this post is such a teaser, eh? Because guess who is sleep trained?!?!?!?!?!???!

Him? No, not him. 

Nope, still not him.

I'm referring to myself.

You see, baby Will did not need to be sleep trained. He just needed his CRAZY MOTHER to stop rushing in to rescue him at every peep so that he could actually get some shut-eye. If that broad would just allow him a minute to re-settle, he would keep sleeping. 

Once I decided to "sleep train," the longest he cried was 12 minutes. I did two checks total the first night and the next night he slept 11 hours straight without a peep. And naps are so much better. He had a 1.5 hour nap and a 2.5 hour nap today, so that I could bill some hours for my side gig. 

I mean, really, Theresa? Chalk it up, once again, to inexperience. 

"You really don't know what you're doing, do you?"

Fine, maybe I'm jinxing the whole situation and he will wake up tonight, but really, the fact that he's night weaned is pretty significant in and of itself. In the irrational fog of sleep deprivation, I thought the day would never come. I straight cackled when the pediatrician mentioned we try to (whilst baby Will passed all the gas his little pooper could muster). We are a veritable duo, we are.

Now if I could just figure out how to train myself to keep up with the 34 peekaboos, 38 itsy bitsy spiders, and 57 pat-a-cakes per diem William Hugh requires, then---I tell you---then we will really be in business. 

Laundry Day

Do you know what happens hours after hitting Publish on a post describing how easy-going and awesome your baby is and ermahgerd!!! this mom thing is so easy!? All hell breaks loose, that's what happens. The baby starts doing this thing where he wakes up whining and rolling around in his crib for hours on end (three nights in a row), you develop a horrible medieval-like boobie infection that you can't sleep off because your baby is whining and rolling around in his crib for hours on end, and you are hit with a new work project with a sliiiightly terrifying deadline. 

Maybe Will is just trying to protect me because sleeping is officially a hazardous activity. I woke up in the middle of the night three nights ago having slept on my boob the wrong way for, I don't know, a couple of hours, and ended up with an illness that took over my whole body. The irony! Sleep is supposed to be objectively good!

But you know what? The clouds breaketh and a wee little ray of sunshine wanders its way upon you in the form of 800mg Ibuprofen horse pills, a week's worth of antibiotics, and a wonderful husband who, no - he won't do the laundry, but yes - will McGyver said baby into some semi-appropriate sleepwear so you can get some extra rest. 

Football First; Nap Later; Laundry Never!!!! Works for me. (And how is that for prop styling, Kate?) 

I feel so much better today. Thank you, modern medicine. Don't get me wrong. If I ever go toe to toe with mastitis again (please no, please no, please no), I may try to avoid antibiotics with your Hermione-esque magical concoction of essential oils, sliced potatoes stuffed in my bra, and grapefruit seed extract, but for now, umm, pass the horse pills please. (The Internet tells you to do the craziest things.) I didn't think myself prone to this type of thing - going six months of relatively problem-free breastfeeding - but I know that when you get it once, you are more likely to get it again. Hence, I should probably fortify myself with a stash of natural remedies in the event of a repeat performance. (But really, potatoes?) 

Enough about my boobs, right? Right. Let's just draw your attention to this photo I took the other day for a little game we like to call Caption This! 

What is going on here? Daisy seems pretty upset and Will is clearly concerned about her well-being. What a sensitive soul. Or, someone just farted. 

Probably the latter. 

Definitely the latter. 

In fact, I could probably caption all photos of Will and/or the dogs with the caption, "Someone Just Farted."

My life.

6 Months

I'm back to amaze you with all the important baby things. Not just any baby things, but Baby Billy Brez things. Like how Will's back cracks a lot when I pick him up now. It never happened before! I'm not a doctor, but this has something to do with his growth and bones and such, I'm sure. Now at your next dinner party, you can offer information that baby's backs start to crack around five months old! You will be the life of the party. 

Will actually has had a lot of milestones this past month, which---fret not---I am going to discuss at length. Let's get rolling.

6 Month Well-Visit Stats:

• 19 lbs, 10 oz. (83rd percentile)
• 26.5 inches long (57th percentile)

Other Appointment Highlights: Blowing raspberries at the pedi, farting during important discussions about night-weaning, and not flinching during his first vaccination shot (though he briefly cried after the second shot). 

You see why he gets away with such behavior.

Eats: 

He is pretty much on a 3-hour schedule to a T during the day. His first feeding is at 6:30 or 7 in the morning and we just go from there for the next 12 hours. As such, I moved the BabyConnect app from my home screen and have not touched it since. It was a big day. He's also consistently nursing on both sides nowadays, which is both a blessing and a curse. It's so easy not to have to flip him, but it's also nice not being Lopsided Lolly all the time. 

We started solids and so far, Will is a phenomenal eater, as seen on the gram. Carrots, apples, bananas, and pears were a huge hit. He was pretty lukewarm about peas, which upsets me deeply. As evidence, consider this blog post from over a year ago where I discuss my strange love of peas. That said, I don't understand why I don't have a broader audience. The content on this blog is top notch. He's also had cantaloupe, watermelon, and bites of other random stuff here and there when we are out to eat (ice cream, French onion soup, black beans, etc.). I've been using our Beaba Babycooker to make him purees. Love that thing.

Right now, he gets a solid meal once a day, about 30 minutes to an hour after his 4 o'clock feeding, so it's straight from the high chair to the bath.  

I think it goes without saying, he doesn't miss any meals.

Sleeps: 

He's consistently taking three naps a day, sometimes four if he needs a late afternoon catnap thanks to an early wakeup time. He'll typically have one good nap a day that is around 1.5+ hours long. He's juuuust starting to consistently give me two hours of awake time between naps. He's able to go three or more hours between his last nap and bedtime for some reason. (Not that I don't try to get him to take one last nap.) 

His bedtime routine is much more relaxed than it was a few months ago. He gets his bath around 5:30pm when Will gets home from work and he gets cozy in his PJs and spends some time with dear old dad. Then around 6:30, I'll take him upstairs, draw the curtains, turn the sound machine on, feed him one last time, and walk around with him or rock him for a few minutes and he's out. Just like that.

I'm very back and forth about whether to night wean. Between 6:30pm-ish bedtime and 6:30-ish wakeup time, he'll typically wake up twice. On a good night, only once, on a bad night, three (or, like last night, he just doesn't go back to sleep for a loooong time after a feeding thanks to a 4am poop sesh). I always just feed him because he goes back to sleep easier, but I'm probably just creating a bad habit. Big Will has a work trip planned soon, and I'm toying with the idea of weaning/sleep training for the week that he's gone.  

That section was very boring and I apologize. Stay with me. I talk poop next. THE BEST PART.

Poops: 

Last month, I was all super shocked that he went a couple days without pooping. Well now, it's his regular! I was worried about cloth diapering and gross solid food poopys, but really when he's only pooping once every other day, it's a breeze. I'm only doing cloth diaper laundry once every two or three days now. He has to wear a disposable at night because he's a pretty heavy wetter, but it's really nice not to have to change him at all. 

Oh, and he officially needs privacy when he poops. It's fantastic. He will not poop while you're holding him anymore. He has to be in his walker, his Bumbo, his crib, or a stroller. It's hilarious when he's in his walker. He leans forward, grunts, and his forehead turns a little purple.  

Segue to more cute photos . . . 

Other Miscellaneous Milestones:

• He can use a restaurant high chair. 
• He grew out of his baby tub, so baths are in our normal bath tub. 
• He enjoys screeching at the top of his lungs, specifically in very echo-y cathedrals.
• He sits up unassisted (!!!!) . . .

     . . . though not perfectly, I'll admit.

     . . . we'll work on that whole posture thing somewhere down the line.

And it is with great sadness that I share the loss of our dear rat tail. 

Let's take a walk down memory lane . . . 

Snuck a peek at 2 months.

 
At 3 Months and 4 Months.

And hanging on for dear life at 5 Months.

We'll miss you, old friend.