Hellobee

Charlie turned 7 months old today!

It’s easier to play with Charlie lately because he’s a lot more independent now that he can crawl. I don’t have to constantly engage him because he’s happy to explore just about everything around him. That’s why I’m thinking about making a big baby jail in our kitchen/dining room. Then Charlie will have a ton of space to play safely while I cook, do the dishes, or eat, and I won’t have to watch him so closely all the time. It’s an eyesore, but it wouldn’t be permanent and the precious time it would buy me each day would be invaluable.

Charlie’s hair looks dark in these pics because of the lighting, but it’s a lot lighter in person.

Charlie wakes up at 5am every day these days, and he won’t go back to sleep no matter what I do. Early wake ups are one of the hardest baby sleep problems to solve, and I’ve tried everything. An earlier bedtime, a later bedtime, less naps in the day, leaving him in his crib (he’ll roll around for over an hour without falling back asleep), blackout shades, white noise machine, feeding him and putting him back in his crib, a warmer room, a cooler room… but the boy is wide awake and ready to play.

He’s sleeping less at night, so he takes more naps in the day to make up the deficit. We actually have to wake him up from his naps every day to keep him on schedule, because he can take some looooong naps lately. On the plus side of his early morning waking, his naps are fantastic. I can’t remember the last time he missed a nap, and he goes down easily for his 3 daily naps. Overall I can’t complain because he’s sleeping 10 straight hours at night and takes 4 hours of naps in the daytime. But 5am is the buttcrack of dawn and I’m a total night owl. I know he can wake up later and sleep up to 12 hours straight because he has in the past. I think the 5am wake up is a habit that he hopefully outgrows.

One funny thing is Charlie sleeps in on the weekends. His first nap is always an hour and a half during the week, but the past three weekends in a row he’s slept over 2 hours during his first nap (2 hrs and 45 minutes this morning… I actually woke him up when I woke up or he would have slept longer!). It’s like he knows I need a little extra sleep to make it through the weekend.

Daily Schedule

This is Charlie’s general schedule lately:

5:00am – Wake up, 6 oz bottle
7:00am – Nap #1 (1 1/2 hours)
8:30am – Wake up, 5 1/2 oz bottle
11:00am – Nap #2 (2 hrs+)
1:30pm – Wake up, Solids + 5 1/2 oz bottle
4:00pm – Nap #3 (1 hr)
5:00pm – Wake up, 5 1/2 oz bottle
7:00pm – Bath, 6 oz bottle
7:30pm – Bedtime

He’s awake 2 hours before Nap #1, and 2 1/2 hours before Nap #2, Nap #3 and bedtime. Like most babies, Charlie could only stay awake for 2 hours until he was 6 months old. That extra half hour Charlie can stay awake now makes a big difference with our flexibility in going out. I don’t think he’ll be extending his awake interval again for a little while now, and it doesn’t seem like he’s going to drop a nap anytime soon either.

Solids

I had been planning on increasing Charlie’s solids to 2 times a day when he turned 7 months old, but he doesn’t seem hungry for it. Right now he’s only eating one solid meal a day which consists of 1 tb of rice or oatmeal cereal and 2 oz of fruit or vegetable. He’s never been a piggy with his bottles either (considering how chubby he is).  I want him to eat more solids so he’ll consume less breast milk. I’m pumping 5 times a day right now because my supply started declining. THAT IS COMMITMENT MAN. It’s hours of my day, every day. It’s lost sleep when I already don’t get enough sleep. It’s so many freaking dishes. But I just can’t bring myself to give Charlie formula. I will continue until Charlie is 1 because I’m too guilt ridden to stop. I can’t wait to have my body and those precious hours back!

We’ve been introducing a new food every 3 days, and Charlie has tried enough foods to mix and match now. Here’s what he’s had so far: rice cereal, butternut squash, peas, carrots, avocado, oatmeal cereal, pear, yams, green beans, and acorn squash.

Burping and Pooping

Charlie was the burpiest baby ever and let out huge adult sized belches as a newborn. We had to make sure he was completely burped before putting him in his crib or he’d wake up crying. But as his digestive system has developed, his burps aren’t as massive anymore, and he can often burp himself now.

Since Charlie started solids, his poop has also completely changed. Instead of runny baby poop, it’s totally solid like an adult’s poop! Amazing how he only has one small meal of solids everyday, and it’s totally changed his poop. The past couple of days, Charlie has been straining like he’s in a lot of pain when he’s pooping. His face turns red and it takes him quite some time to push out his big fat poop. I don’t think he’s constipated because he’s pooping regularly. Maybe he’s not used to the feeling of pushing out a solid poo? We gave him some prune juice today just in case to soften those big ol poos up a bit.

Slow Flow – When Charlie started sleeping through the night at 4 1/2 months, he wouldn’t consume more in the day to make up the calories he lost from his dropped night feedings. At the time we were using Playtex drop in bottles w/ a slow flow nipple, and it took him 25 minutes to finish a 4 oz bottle. We needed a faster flow to encourage him to eat more, but the Playtex medium flow nipple was way too fast for him. So we switched to Born Free bottles with the slow flow nipple, and that’s what we’ve stuck to since. According to Born Free he should be using a fast flow nipple at his age. But it takes him 15 minutes to finish a 5 1/2 oz bottle now, and he doesn’t seem to want or need a faster flow.

Thumb Sucker – Since Charlie’s two lower teeth popped through, he’s been sucking his thumb. I think he likes to touch his teeth?

Diaper Changes …have become a struggle because Charlie flips over onto his stomach the minute we put him on his changing pad. He is such a wiggly little worm that sometimes I just have to put his diaper on him while he’s on his tummy. I can’t imagine how much wigglier he’s going to become as he gets older!

Stranger Danger – Charlie crawls towards the instruments in the middle of room in his music class and has fun in that group setting. I can’t tell if he’s shy because he’s fine around people when me, Mr. Bee or our nanny is holding him. Our baby nurse stopped by last week though and he cried when she held him. This stranger anxiety has been going on for a couple of months. Is he shy? Is this a phase? Does he just hate when strangers touch him?

Body Update

I weighed myself this past weekend for the first time in about 5 months because the battery in our scale died. And to my complete surprise, I lost all the baby weight without any diet or exercise with just breastfeeding. My prepregnancy clothes all fit, but my body is definitely different. I already had a pot belly before getting pregnant thanks to my champion beer drinking skills, but it’s a bigger, more defined belly now thanks to my c section scar. I can’t expect my stomach not to be stretched out after holding an 8 1/2 pound baby in there though. My linea negra has faded a lot, but it’s still there. And my 6 inch c section scar is pretty ugly.

I hardly lost any hair throughout my pregnancy and up until Charlie was 4 months old. Now I’m making up for lost time and am shedding as much as my cats. If I were to design a shower, I would create a place to put all my hair that falls out so I don’t have to stick it to the shower wall.

Charlie is 7 months old, and thank goodness I still have no period. It’s the least women deserve for breastfeeding! But on the downside, I think my boobs shrunk. Having babies can destroy your boobs. I’m totally getting a lift if they sag down to my belly after kid #2!

Pumping up the Volume… Again

I’ve experienced a pretty big decline in milk production recently. Charlie ate less once he started sleeping through the night and started consuming more milk once he started solids, but my supply had already declined because I’d go up to 11 hours between pumping at night and when Charlie goes down for his first nap. I’ve started taking More Milk Plus again and will need to pump more frequently (I was doing it 4x a day). I just can’t get up in the middle of the night anymore like I used to though. The adrenaline that kept me going has long subsided since I’m used to Charlie sleeping through the night. But I must sacrifice for my Charlie Bee!

I think Charlie is a pretty average baby. He’s not difficult. He’s not easy (I believe there are easy babies). He’s doing pretty well with hitting his milestones. He’s healthy and happy. I feel extremely lucky because he is pretty… wonderful.  I think the first 6 months of Charlie’s life were really difficult and stressful because I was so worried about everything. Now that I’m more used to motherhood and Charlie is becoming more independent, it’s definitely gotten a lot easier and a lot more fun. It keeps getting better and better!