12/13 month update

yikes! it's been waaaay too long since i've updated, and now ryan is almost 14 months. i guess i will just have to do the highlights.

had a fabulous one year party. at his one year checkup, got his shots. he was still underweight so the dr. got a urine and blood sample. that was not fun. he was 28.5" and 18 lbs 2 oz. Did not gain much weight from 9 month, so dr. wanted to check if everything was ok. test results came out fine, so he's just a skinny boy now and a super picky eater.

a little before 12 months i gave him a little bit of whole milk to get him used to the transition and started weaning. luckily weaning wasn't too bad and took about a week. he was on a feeding strike which i thought was because of teething, but now looking back i think it might have been because of weaning. he refused to eat any solid food and he would wake up 2 times at night, the first time i would nurse him, second time i would rock him. after a few nights i decided to just try rocking him with no nursing, which he was ok with. eventually he stopped waking, so i think he was hoping i would nurse him, but since i wouldn't, he didn't cry anymore.

now that he is weaned, he's eating solids again, but is very picky. he loves fruit, bananas applesauce pears grapes blueberries and he love snacks, crackers and of course anything sweet. since we are trying to get him to gain weight, i'm still making baby food for him because he pretty much refuses most table foods. whenever we go out to eat, everything ends up on the floor! it's kind of embarrassing so we don't really go out to eat much anymore, so sad.

around 13 months, ryan took a few steps by himself from the couch to the coffee table. he could only take a few steps between things and most times he would lunge! a few weeks later he's taking many more steps, but is still a little unsteady on his feet and falls a lot. he can't stand up from a sitting position yet, he still needs to pull up on something. So if he can't get himself back up, he'll just crawl to wherever he wants to go.

Right now he likes to push buttons, especially ones that will turn on music. Once music stops, he'll push the button again to turn it on. He likes to carry things (toys, books, milk cartons, etc) and put them on tables, sofas, his slide, on the top of his play house. He will also throw toys and then crawl after them. He especially likes the fireplace tile and throw lots of toys around on there, I guess because it makes a sound? He can clap on command, dance (sometimes) and give kisses. Still no waving or pointing. or saying any words.

We're taking a music class called Music Together where we sing, dance, and play instruments. I am not sure if he really likes it yet, but it takes a few sessions for them to get into it. We'll also be starting a Together Time preschool class soon, we'll see how that goes.

10/11 months

I think I will have to combine my 10 and 11 month entries because it is too hard differentiate when things happened again.

So after a while of finally being able to hang out on his tummy, we decided he really should get to crawling. So we would put things just out of his reach to try to tempt him to move. He would stretch out his hand as far as he could, and then when he couldn't reach it, he would get very mad and cry. This went on for a few weeks, it was very frustrating because he just couldn't figure out how to move!! Finally, one day he figured out how to get around! He uses his feet to push off the ground and moves on his elbows (an army crawl). The very first time he did it, he cried the whole time, haha. Poor baby. It's really funny to watch now, he doesn't crawl for reals, but at least he get around now!!

The last 2-3 weeks he's been able to pull himself up and is cruising everywhere. He's using everything to walk around. It's fun to watch, he'll only move his feet as long as he is stable. So it might be a while before he takes the plunge to walk without holding onto something! His balance just standing up is not very good at all. He hasn't figured out yet how to sit down from a standing position. In the last week, he can now sit up from a laying down position. He rolls onto his stomach, gets on his knees (like in a crawling position) and then sits up. He can not sit up like when you do a sit-up. So he can now get into the crawling position, and he sometimes will crawl properly for a little bit, but then he plops back down and does his funny army crawl.

Some things I forgot to mention in previous entries:
His eczema at 6 months finally all disappeared (thank goodness!!) and his skin is now nice and soft. Before it had this weird bumpy texture, but I'm so glad it's gone. We used to have to put on all kinds of lotions and jellies to keep his skin hydrate. I think it used to be really itchy also because he would scratch like mad. We had to file his nails really short, otherwise he would make himself bleed =(

When his top teeth were coming in, he would grind them against his bottom teeth and it drove me insane!!! Thankfully he has outgrown that...every time I heard it I wanted to pull my hair out. And for the most part his biting has stopped. He'll do it once in a while usually when he is tired.

Ryan eats all kinds of things now, he'll eat whatever we put in front of him. He loves to feed himself, so we've been giving him bread, bananas, string cheese, blueberries, cereal...lots of stuff. He's not that really into baby food, but I still make some for him. Most times he will get upset in the middle of the feedings, I have no idea why. I don't know, I guess he just doesn't really like it.

Ryan has also been sleeping pretty well, he goes to bed at 6:30-7pm and wakes up at 6am. I wish he would wake up later, but even when we put him down to sleep later, he still wakes up at the same time. He naps twice a day usually around 9am and 1pm. Most times he'll complain when we put him in the crib, but once we leave the room, he's quiet and eventually falls asleep. We bought a video monitor recently so now we can see what he does in there! Before when he couldn't move, there wasn't really any point in having the monitor, but now it's fun to see what the heck he is doing in there. He rolls around, crawls around, plays with his toys, and then eventually falls asleep. And he moves around a lot during the night, I really wonder if he's sleeping ok!!

Ok, I think that is all the updates I have for now, one more month until Ryan is ONE YEAR old!! yikes!!!

9 month update

about two weeks after ryan's top teeth came in, two more popped up on the bottom! since there were 2 months between ryan's 1st 2 teeth and 2nd 2 teeth, i totally wasn't expecting it. i should have known because he was being very whiny and clingy, but i thought it was just a "phase". and his bad sleeping at night i thought was just due to our coming back from hawaii. after those popped up though, he was much better.

at ryan's 9 month checkup he weighed 18lbs 5oz (15th percentile) and is 27 inches tall (12th percentile). he's become a small baby, oh no! the doctor said we should try giving him more solids so we'll see how that goes.

he still isn't crawling yet, but at least he can roll from his back to his tummy now! well, i think he could always do it because he's done it a few times before, but he just never CHOSE to do it because he didn't like being on his tummy. sometimes when we go get him from his naps or in the morning, he's hanging out on his tummy, so cute. he actually really hates being on his back now, he cries during diaper changes unless you distract him, and he always cries when we put him down to sleep. he stops crying after we leave the room, what a crazy baby!

during the day, he sits on his playmat and plays with his many many toys. it seems like he doesn't really like any that much. he'll play with one for a minute or two, throw it away, and then play with another. when he gets bored with that, we'll practice standing at his activity table. then he'll play in his jumper or his exersaucer. we'll do tummy time also, if he's in a good mood he'll stay on there for 10-15 minutes without crying. after that, he'll start crying. it's funny he used to just flip over onto his back, but now that he doesn't like being on his back, he'll cry. so silly.

8 month update

ok, i guess time passes waaay too quickly because somehow it's been over two months since i have updated! hopefully i still remember what happened when he turned 8 months.

let's see, i think a week or two before he turned 8 months, one of his top tooth popped out. usually his teeth comes in pairs, so a few days later the other one came out also, so he has 2 bottom teeth and 2 top teeth. when ryan is teething he wakes up every 3-4 hours at night, but the good thing is that i can nurse him and he'll go back to sleep. so it isn't *too* bad. although during the day he is a lot more whiny, clingy, and unhappy during the day. some days (especially when i need to do something for work) it drives me craaazzyyy. when ryan isn't teething, his sleep isn't too bad. i usually put him down to bed around 7pm, he'll wake up sometime between 4-5am and i'll nurse him, and then he'll go back to sleep and wake up around 6:30-7am.

he still is not crawling yet and i don't really think he ever will! he hates being on his tummy and will usually just flip back over onto his back. he likes to stand so maybe he will skip the crawling phase, we'll see.

7 months

7 months...Ryan is doing very well. He loooves eating puffs and is starting to get really good at feeding them to himself. When we first started them, he couldn't really grab them, but now he can pick them up and get them into his mouth about 75% of the time. He also loves veggies but doesn't like fruit for some reason. We've only tried bananas and apples so far though. He likes squash, carrots, peas, and seems to really love sweet potatoes. His sleeping was doing very well, he would go 7pm-ish to 5am, I would nurse him, and then he would sleep for another 2 hours and wake up at 7am. I think he is teething now because he's been really fussy and has been waking up every 3 hours. So tired....

Ryan can sit up now, but still can not rollover from his back onto his stomach. I don't think he ever will...He likes to stand up and will sometimes jump in your lap while you are holding him! He might walk and just skip the crawling stage! heh. He smiles a lot, but doesn't really "talk". I've been trying to do some sign language but haven't been too consistent. I've been doing eat, sleep, more, bye. I read somewhere they probably won't start doing the signs themselves until 9-10 months, so I guess I just have to keep on doing them and eventually he'll pick it up. I'm also trying to teach him to clap but so far nothing yet.

6 months

At Ryan's 6 month appt he weighed 17lbs 8.5oz, so he gained less than a pound since his last appt 2 months ago. He's now in the 52nd percentile for weight. I totally thought he would be closer to 20 lbs but I guess not. His height is 25.5 inches, around 20 percentile. I guess the nurse measured him wrong last time because his last appt 2 months ago his measurement was 25.75inches?!! He got more shots but after these he doesn't have any more shots until 1 yr old. His next check up will be at 9 months.

Ryan now has two little teeth starting to grow on his bottom gums and he started rolling over the day before his 6 month appt! J was worried that he was behind, so I had to do a lot of training to get him to do it (totally like a dog haha). Most babies do it on their own, but I guess Ryan just needed motivation (lots and lots of praise!). He can only do tummy to back for now but at his 6 month checkup we were able to check off the box that he could roll over, haha. I think it might be a while for him to go back to tummy. I've tried some training but not really too hardcore.

One side effect is that when he's sleeping (we put him on his stomach), when he wakes up after a few hours he'll flip over and end up on his back. He sleeps really poorly on his back so he'll wake up often and cry. Now he has to learn to sleep on his back, so we've been doing cry it out. The first night was the worst, he would sleep for 1-2 hours, and then cry for another hour. It was really bad...but the next night he sleep for 10 hours straight!! But the following night he woke up a few times, but each time he was able to put himself back to sleep. The problem is that his crying wakes me up and it takes forever for me to fall back asleep. argh. I still end up nursing him once at night. So he sleeps at 7:30pm, nurses around 4am, and then wakes up at 7:30am. I *think* he should be able to drop that feeding, but I've been doing it recently just so I can nurse him back to sleep and then I can put him down on his stomach. So I at least have a 3 hour stretch of sleep without interruptions! I know, so selfish, but it's for my own sanity. I really hope we're getting closer to him sleeping through the whole night. I don't know why sometimes he can sleep 10 hours straight while other nights he wakes up every 2-3 hours. It's frustrating. Also his naps are very poor now because he sleeps on his back so they only last about 30-45 minutes and he's perpetually in a bad mood. Ughhh. Even though I'm happy Ryan is doing new things, they cause such disruptions!! I'm hoping he gets used to sleeping on his back, either that or he learns to roll back onto his stomach!

We've also started solid foods. I bought this baby food maker called the Beaba Babycook and I really like it so far! It steams and purees the food all in one little machine. It's very cute. We started with zucchini squash and we're supposed to introduce a new food every 5-7 days. I've been giving it to him twice a day, usually 3 tablespoons of veggie and mix it with 1-2 tablespoons of rice cereal. Next we'll be doing carrots and then peas. When we first tried rice cereal, he didn't seem to really like it, but now he's pretty good. He'll actually open his mouth now...before I would have to shove the spoon into his mouth. It was not fun heh.

Ok, very long entry, but here's a cute video of Ryan rolling over! This is only his 2nd time rolling over ever, so that's why it takes a while for him to do it. Now he does it pretty quickly once he's on his tummy. I guess he doesn't really like tummy time! =P

ryan's first tooth

his first tooth popped out yesterday! a few days ago he woke up from his nap screaming and unhappy so i looked in his mouth and saw two lighter colored areas on his lower gums. i told j and my mom he was teething but i don't think either of them believed me! i told them to look in his mouth but his tongue always got in the way so they couldn't get a good look. my mom said "no...it's too early..." she has this weird chinese rhyme that says "seven month - sit up, eight month crawl, nine month first tooth".

well looks like i'm not crazy after all! yesterday he woke up screaming from his nap AGAIN so i felt his lower gum and now i can feel the ridges! looks like a tooth has broken through and is starting to come in!! this morning j confirmed feeling the tooth also haha. so yay, his first tooth a few days before he turns 6 months. his 6wk appt is on tues so i'll update with his stats. i think he is almost 20 lbs! i know i know, i haven't update the photos page in AGES, so hopefully i'll get on it and they'll be updated to his most recent pics. we're debating whether or not to get professional pics taken for 6 months. hmmm. we got a sears giftcard from a relative when ryan was born, so since we don't shop there, maybe we'll use it for photos!

5 months

when ryan turned 5 months, we were in LA for a wedding! it was his first time on a airplane and he did great, but the flight is only one hour =). we were only there for a weekend so i had one outfit for myself and everything else was for the baby! he needed so much stuff and we had to bring his carseat and stroller. southwest doesn't let families board first anymore unless you are in the A group. family boarding is now in between the A and B groups, i wonder why they changed it.

so, ryan is doing well. we are on a semi-regular schedule now, yay! it took a lot of work but he's finally *almost* there. the most regular thing right now are his first 2 naps, both lasting around 2 hours. his bedtime is between 7-8pm but his wake-up time in the morning is still very irregular, sometimes it's 6am other times it's 8am! and he's still waking up at least 2 times at night, if i'm unlucky 3 times. He's only woken up once at night 2 times this whole month. i think the problem is that during the day, he gets reallly distracted when eating. the only times he eats really well is at night =/. when he was getting distracted during the day time, i thought i should feed him more often, but that doesn't seem to be working. So now i'm going to only feed him every 3-4 hours as opposed to every 2 hours and see if when he's hungrier he'll eat more. I think now that we are on a pretty good schedule, I can now put him down awake and he'll fall sleep (but usually with a little fussing. now it's usually less than 5 minutes - when it first started it was around 15 minutes or so)! OMG! it's such a breakthrough. we were still rocking him and putting him down totally asleep up until 3/4 months and i never thought i would see the day I could do this! i also didn't think i would be able to handle doing cry it out, but it's actually not too bad. i usually don't let him cry longer than 15 minutes. and i can usually tell by his cry if he'll be able to fall sleep/go back to sleep.

oh, and ryan is sleeping in his own crib and in his own room now! it was bittersweet moving him to his own room at 4 months, but when we moved his bedtime earlier, when we went to bed a few hours later, it would disturb him and he would wake up. It took a few days for him to get adjusted to his crib and room, but now he's fine in there. He's growing up!

So I am back to work now, it's great that Ryan sleeps about 4 hours during the day time because it gives me time to work. While he's awake he's pretty content in his jumper or playing on his playmat, so it hasn't been too bad. I think my next door neighbor has found a nanny that we'll be sharing starting in March. We haven't really worked out the details yet though.

Ryan still has not rolled over and I think it's going to be a looong while before he ever does. He doesn't twist his body at all, he kicks his feet, that's about it. He's really into his hands and stares at them a lot. He can hold stuff now, but isn't really that interested in grabbing things that you put in front of him. He'll look at it and kind of give you this look like "Cool, there's this thing in front of me" but won't try to grab it. However, if you put something next to his hand, he'll grab it. He's weird. He alo likes to put anything that is near the vicinity of his mouth into his mouth. So he'll put toys, your hand, his hand, your shoulder, etc into his mouth. He smiles alot, and giggles and "talks" more often than before.

Oh yeah, we also started trying to feed him rice cereal. We've only done it a few times so far. I don't think he really likes it that much, most of it ends up on his bib because his tongue still pushes everything out. We are just going to keep on trying every few days until he "gets" it or likes it. then we can move onto oatmeal. Once he is 6 months we can start baby food and I think I'm going to attempt making it myself =O

So for next month, we need to buy a high chair and I think he's ready for a real stroller. We also need to get a new car seat. Ahhh...my little baby is growing up!!

shedding hair

OMG it's nuts...i find my hair EVERYWHERE. when you are pregnant your body retains your hair and it grows nice and thick, but post-pregnancy it sheds it all! it's really disturbing, but it's hair that you supposedly would have lost anyways. months of hair is all falling out now, ick!

4 months

yikes, i am quite behind in updating with the 4 month update! it's almost 5 months soon. my excuse is the holidays and going back to work, sniff. so on 12/23/08 the baby had his 4 month checkup and shots. he weighed 16lbs 11.5oz (85 percentile), 25.75 inches (81 percentile), and head circumference is 17 inches (77 percentile). So at least everything is proportional, everything is big...hehe. this time it didn't seem like he had any adverse reactions to the shots so that was good because the next day we drove down to LA to visit grandma and grandpa! he handled the drive pretty well...he slept or was quiet in his car seat. we stopped once to change and feed him. when we got into LA, the last half hour he started getting fussy and there was a looot of traffic, but we got there eventually. we just had to keep on trying to distract him from his crying. we stayed in LA for a week but every day we were always out doing something, so ry didn't get to nap much and he was a pretty unhappy baby the whole trip. he wasn't sleeping well at night either so i was not very happy either...i was definitely missing home the last few days. the trip was good though, he met his grand-aunt and another baby that is 3 weeks older. it was fun talking to the mommy and commiserating about similar issues. on the drive back home he was pretty good as well. so far he still hasn't really been doing anything new?? he laughs and smiles a lot more. he is kind of grabbing stuff but only if you put it in his hand. if you hold stuff in front of him, he doesn't seem to know to use his hands to grab it?? it's kind of weird.

the few weeks prior to going to LA, the baby's sleep became really HORRIBLE. he would only nap 30-45 minutes at a time and when we put him down at night he would wake up after 30-45 minutes and we would have to try to get him back to sleep which sometimes could take several tries. needless to say, it SUCKED. it was driving me nuts and i couldn't really figure out how to make him sleep longer! i researched online and i found out that babies sleep cycles go from deep to light every 30-45 minutes, so i figured he was being woken up during his light sleep cycle. it seemed like there wasn't much i could do other than hope that he would eventually learn to stay asleep during the light sleep cycle. we even tried a white noise machine, but that didn't help keep him asleep either. the bad part was that he would wake up, his eyes would be wide open, but he was still tired and wouldn't go back to sleep. so he would cry, be unhappy, not really want to do anything, and finally after about an hour later, i could try putting him down to sleep again. it was soo frustrating and after dealing with that for a few weeks i was soo happy when j started his 3 week vacation and i wouldn't have to deal with him alone! i literally dreaded every day and would count down the hours j would get home so i could hand him off. ry was always in a good mood in the mornings because he was rested, but once the afternoon came along, he became cranky baby. i felt like such a bad mama and was worried that all this crying/unhappiness/not sleeping would affect him in the long run somehow either developmentally or physically. ugh. it was a really rough period but since coming back from LA the sleeping has improved a lot, thank goodness. i'll have to update in the 5 month post since technically that is when his improvements occurred, but i am actually enjoying spending time with him again hehe. just in time because j will be heading back to work soon and i'll be alone with him again =)