Books, Molars, Standing, and Cheese

Jonah has been showing an interest in books for months now, but lately he is very interested in them. He will pull all the books off of his shelf, and sit amongst them, flipping through the pages rather quickly (I think he's a speed reader). Sometimes he sits with one book for a while, other times he goes through a number of books in a matter of seconds. Occasionally it seems like he is looking for a particular book and is content once he finds it. He will sit like this for 15 or 20 minutes (although I haven't actually timed it) without moving much or making a lot of noise. There have been a couple of occasions where it seems like he would rather be left alone during this time. He just wants to read in peace. He "reads" like this at least once a day, sometimes more often.

We had two nights last week when Jonah screamed in the middle of the night (one night for almost 3 hours and the other night for 1 hour and 45 minutes). He was getting his first set of upper molars. Apparently these hurt a lot, because he has never screamed like this. We tried everything and nothing (even Tylenol) seemed to help. Those molars had poked through by the time I spotted them on Wednesday evening. I can see the bottom molars just below the surface of his gums though, so hopefully we're not in for another round of this.

Last week Jonah started standing on his own for a second or two. I would get him standing, let go, and wait to catch him. The falling was his favorite part. On Saturday, something clicked in his brain and he figured out what he was supposed to be doing. It was like I watched the light come on as he began to have a particular stance for this game, spreading his arms out and bending his knees. He was instantly much more stable and can stand for 10 or more seconds on his own now. The best part is how proud he seems each and every time. Once he is standing he gets a big grin on his face and kind of chuckles. This makes me happy. Eventually he will lose his balance or I think sometimes he falls over on purpose, because he enjoys this part of the game. So do I.

I think Jonah is a little bit in love with cheese. He has been eating cheese for a month or two, but he seems especially excited about it lately. I'm pretty sure he is saying a version of cheese when I say it or when he spots the cheese and wants it. It sounds similar to "shish," which is his word for most things, but his "cheese" sounds more like "sheesh," so I think he knows what he is saying.

Today's Normal 2/27/11

I find it hard to describe Jonah's current noises. He has started two new noises in the past week or two. One is almost a whiny noise, which he does often; especially, it seems, when he wants something. The other appears to be a noise of excitement, and Peter has called it a "titter." It's a quick, repetitive "heh," that is really funny. He seems to do it most often when he is eating, as we present him with foods that he likes. I'm sure these noises won't last, but I'm definitely enjoying the "titter" one for now (I could do without the whining). He's also making some more sounds like "nanana" and other incoherent ones that are new for him just the same.

He still wakes up twice in the middle of the night to eat. He has almost completely transitioned to one nap a day, with some exceptions. As a result of the one nap situation, he goes to bed a little earlier, typically sleeping from 7:30 - 7:30 (minus eating twice during that time). The one nap thing still has some kinks though. Some days he only naps for 40-45 minutes. Occasionally it is a longer, almost two-hour nap. A couple of times he has slept on the way to/from stores in the morning/midday and then not at all when we are home. On both Thursday last week and today, he took two naps, which he had not down in weeks. He was running a slight fever both days, so I'm pretty sure that's why he took an extra nap. He surprised me today, when I went to pick him up from the church nursery and he was asleep on the floor (with the nursery worker laying next to him). She said he just seemed so tired, so he went to sleep amongst the toys.

We started trying cow's milk one week ago. He has had a cup of it most days. He wasn't sure what to think of it at first, but will drink it now. However, I am questioning if he might have some sort of lactose intolerance because it seems to be affecting his poop. I am still breastfeeding him the same amount, and just adding the cow's milk in with an afternoon snack (usually Cheerios), so that he can get used to it. I will keep experimenting to see how it affects him, and then check with the pediatrician if necessary, before we doom him to the label of "lactose intolerant."

He has long been captivated by the screen saver on our laptop (just a standard-issue, Windows screen saver). He still is. He is also a little bit obsessed with balloons. When we go to Harris Teeter, they have free helium balloons for kids, so I get one and tie it to the shopping cart, and it keeps him entertained for a while. Now he starts pointing and saying "eh eh" every time he sees one. I think I've created a monster.

Jonah still doesn't seem to have much interest in walking by himself (and I'm still okay with this). While his "vocabulary" is expanding slowly (his favorite word is "shish"), Peter is anxious for him to start speaking for real. I know this will come soon enough.

Today's Normal 2/17/11

We had Jonah's first birthday party on Saturday and it went well. I wasn't sure how Jonah would do with so many people in a small space, but he did a good job. We made him take a nap that morning before the party, which I'm sure helped a lot. (This meant that he didn't take an afternoon nap and was awake for nine hours straight before bed.) He got a lot of presents and seemed to enjoy everyone's company.

I think we may be getting closer to the end of the transition to one nap a day. I decided to take more of an active approach to this transition, rather than just letting Jonah figure it out naturally. So I am not letting him nap in the morning, even if he seems sleepy. And then putting him down for a nap in the early afternoon. We have had a couple of successes with this so far, in which he took a long (almost two hour) nap in the afternoon. It would be so nice if this becomes normal and I could begin to count on that two hour block to get stuff done in the afternoons. I'm sure that as soon as it becomes a nice routine, something will change again.

Jonah has started playing more and entertaining himself with his toys more. He seems to be showing more initiative in trying to do things that he couldn't do before (like climb onto his caterpillar and riding toy). He's growing up!

He's not too interested in trying to walk on his own yet, which is fine with me. He can cruise along holding onto furniture just fine, but if there is a small gap between furniture, he will get down and crawl to the next one. He does not seem to want to try to make it there on his feet (although he has occasionally leaned for the next thing if it's really close and doesn't involve moving his feet).

Jonah has another tooth coming in - his 8th one. It's been a while since he's had any new ones. His hair is getting a little crazy in the back, and it may soon be time for his first haircut (if you don't count the one he had in the hospital).

He has started "sympathy crying" when other babies are upset. It doesn't matter if Jonah was as happy as a clam, if another baby is nearby and starts crying/screaming, he gets upset and will start crying too. It's really kind of cute and funny, but hopefully this phase doesn't last too long, because it just results in him being upset for no reason.

Today's Normal 2/10/11

Yesterday was not normal. This little baby that I gave birth to a year ago, became a toddler. It was an emotional day for me, as I remembered everything we went through last year to get him here (http://unit34.blogspot.com/2010/02/jonah-clark-ohlms.html). This past year has gone by so fast. I understand the value of a year much more than I did before. Just over a year ago, Jonah did not have a life outside my womb. And now, here he is, a one-year-old, with a will of his own.

Besides the big deal that is Jonah's 1st birthday, here is a summary of our current "normal." He seems to have developed a fear of elevators. Since at least October, he has been a little unsure about them, but now he is definitely scared. He gets visibly upset when the doors start to close and can be crying by the time we get to the next floor. I'm not sure where this came from, as he has never had any bad experiences with elevators. He's not usually in a lot of closed spaces, so I don't know whether it's limited to elevators.

Jonah has started being able to entertain himself for a while. When left in his crib/play yard with toys, he will play for 10-20 minutes before being bothered by the fact that he is alone. He will also sit and looks at books for a similar length of time. This has been a very useful development, as it allows me to brush my teeth, etc. in the mornings without him being underfoot. He has started to enjoy rolling wheeled toys across the floor. Jonah seems to be more ticklish than before. I don't want to overdo it on the tickling, because some people don't enjoy being tickled, but they laugh anyway. So I don't want to risk torturing him, simply because I think it's cute when I tickle him. But, for now, he does seem to be enjoying it.

For a few weeks now, Jonah has started to let us know when he is unhappy or doesn't want to do something by throwing his head backwards. Depending on how we are holding him, this can result in him bonking us in the head (which hurts), or almost dropping him on the floor. He doesn't usually give a lot of notice. Hopefully soon he'll find another method to exert control over his situation.

My least favorite part of our current normal is the transition to one nap a day. He started this about a week ago, and it has made for a long week. For most of the past week, he has only taken one nap each day, sometimes in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon. I think that once he is done transitioning, I will be happy with the new schedule. Assuming he takes a long-ish afternoon nap, it will allow us to run errands, etc. in the morning, and then be home for him to nap in the afternoon, while I get stuff done here. However, this transition period has probably been one of the most exhausting parts of my parenting journey since those early days. Jonah acts sleepy in the mornings when he used to take a morning nap, so I try to put him down for a nap. Sometimes he will take a nap, but then he refuses to do so in the afternoon. Other days he will fight the morning nap, and we end up battling for an hour before I give up. If he doesn't nap in the morning, he will take an afternoon nap, but they have not been particularly long and he still sometimes fights them. One day, we went shopping and he slept in the car on the way to the stores and then in the car on the way home a couple of hours later. No nap at home. For a long time, he would go to sleep easily, and I appreciated it because we used to work hard to get him to sleep. Now we're back to putting forth much effort in order to get him to sleep and it's wearing on me a little bit, so I'm hoping that does not become his new normal.

I realize that he's transitioning to one nap a day, not just being difficult, so it's comforting to know that this will not last forever, but it's hard to know what to do in the meantime. One nap does not seem to be quite enough for him, since he's still acting really tired. But he's refusing to take two naps. I struggle with how to approach it: do I not let him nap in the morning, so that he'll take an afternoon nap, or do I still put him down in the morning and hope that maybe he'll also take an afternoon nap? I think I should probably keep him up in the morning, but it's difficult when he acts so sleepy.

For now, I will be grateful that the end result of our week in the hospital last year was a healthy boy. I have been blessed to be able to stay home with Jonah since he was born, and I wouldn't trade that time for anything. I have a lot of cherished memories from these past twelve months.

Today's Normal 2/2/11

Jonah will be one-year-old in a week. This seems like anything but normal! I don't want him to stop growing and changing, I just want it to slow down.

Jonah has started eating more finger foods at his meals than "baby food." This is a nice change because it means he can feed himself a little more at meals, and I can buy fewer jars of baby food (I had originally figured I would make a lot of his baby food, but that didn't happen). His current favorite food seems to be peas. They are just the right size for him to pick up and feed himself. He also really likes bread, ham, and cheese.

He is still napping twice a day (mostly), but hasn't taken a long nap for me in a while. He has been maxing out at 45 minutes. He is also still consistently eating twice in the middle of the night. I made a deal with him tonight before I put him to sleep that if he would sleep all night without eating, I would feed him first thing in the morning, even before I change his soaked diaper. I don't think he was listening.

Jonah still loves bath time. He crawls into the bathroom if we leave the door open and heads straight for the tub. He usually stops right before he gets there and looks back to make sure Mommy is chasing him. As soon as we put him in the bath, he starts splashing around. He's funny with his bath toys: he likes to put them behind himself. He'll reach for a toy, obviously wanting it, and immediately put it behind himself. When he's out of toys, he looks a little confused. We put them back in front of him, and he starts over. As much as he loves the bath, he doesn't seem to mind too much when we take him out at the end.

One thing that has only been going on for a couple of weeks is Jonah's fascination with the "booger snatcher" (the bulb syringe used to suck boogers out of a baby's nose). We haven't actually needed to use it that often, and when we first did, he hated it and fought it. And then a couple of weeks ago, something changed. We were using it on him, and then he became curious about it. Then he started seeming like he wanted us to use it on him. Now he almost seems to be fussing for it when he sees it in the bathroom. When I get it close to his nose, he often grabs it and tries to put it in his mouth (he has never succeeded in this). He usually lets me use it a couple of times, and then is still interested in it, but won't actually let me stick it up his nostrils any more.

Jonah can't talk yet, besides babbling and your typical "mamama" and "dadada." I have started "teaching" him animal sounds though and he tries to moo. It's really cute when we say "moo" and he immediately says "mmmm," and he smiles like he knows he's copying us. He likes the other animal sounds, but hasn't imitated any of them yet.

He likes books and will look through them for a while as long as Peter or I am sitting nearby. One book that he seems like (and I like) is "Snoozers" by Sandra Boynton (I like many of her books). This is a book of 7 short stories. He has obviously learned one of them enough to anticipate what is coming next, because he gets excited for when we will say "SNORE" loudly. He gets this smile on his face (even behind a pacifier) and them gets really excited the closer it gets to that part.

Speaking of books, since Jonah was a couple of weeks old, we have read "Goodnight Moon" to him every night before bed. This isn't something that either of us grew up with, and we didn't put a whole lot of thought into it (although we had read that it was good to have a consistent bedtime routine), we just started doing it. And now we have done it for almost a year. Both of us have had it memorized since pretty early on. I usually read him "Go to Bed, Fred" before his naps. He likes that one too.

Jonah is somewhat mobile, crawling all over the place, and "cruising" along while holding onto furniture. He can climb the stairs like a pro, and pulls himself up using whatever he can. He is not entirely stable though, and he hasn't figured out that some things are not good for supporting himself. This has led to something that I wish was not normal: bumps on the head. Luckily, he seems to have become a little more stable in the past week or two, so he hasn't fallen quite as often. I always try to catch him, but rarely succeed. Luckily, he gets over these things quickly. He has become a little more brave, starting to lean against furniture, instead of holding on, so that he still has use of his hands, or only holding on with one hand. Tonight, he was standing in his crib and he even let go for a second, and did not lose his balance.

Some of these "normal things" will remain the same until the next time I post, and some of them will not. I wish I knew which things were going to change so that I could better cherish them while they are still normal.

Napping

I couldn't tell you what was normal in the first few weeks/months of Jonah's life as far as naps go. I'm not sure there is such a thing as "normal" at that point. He slept a lot, he was awake sometimes. But eventually he started sleeping more at night and having distinct naps during the day, instead of simply falling in and out of sleep all day. For a long time, Jonah's typical nap was 45 minutes long. This wasn't very long, but it was enough time to be slightly productive, or take a quick nap of my own. The problem was getting him to sleep. He would fight it and we would often spend half an hour trying to get him to sleep. For a 45 minute nap. (We also had to fight him before "big sleep.") We would read and sing and rock until he finally fell asleep and then we'd put him in the crib asleep (and sometimes feed him to sleep). It was frustrating to work for 30 minutes only to have him sleep for 45 minutes. At some point his naps changed. To 30 minutes. We were then typically spending 30 minutes to put him down for a 30 minute nap. Not fun. For a long time he would take four 30 minute naps throughout the day. A lot can happen on a sitcom during 30 minutes, but not so much in the life of a new mom. I would finally get him to sleep and then have time to go to the bathroom, eat something, check my email, and start/switch a load of laundry. If I really needed it, I would lay down for a few minutes.

I remember thinking that something needed to change, and that maybe he was old enough to take two naps a day, and they could be longer. Jonah was nice enough to change it up and just take two naps, however he stuck to his 30 minutes (he would occasionally go 45 minutes). Very rarely (like once or twice a month) he would surprise me and take a longer nap (1-2 hours). These were nice, however they would have been more helpful if I had known ahead of time how long he would be sleeping. So on a normal day, he would wake up between 7:00 and 8:00 AM, be awake for around 3 hours, take a 30 minute nap, be awake 3 more hours, take another 30 minute nap, and then be awake 4-5 hours before going to bed around 8:00 PM. I started figuring out how to get more stuff down while he was awake, instead of trying to do it all in those short naps.

A couple of months ago, during his two 30 minute nap phase, we changed how we put him to sleep. We would read and sing to him and then put him down in the bed sleepy, but still awake, to let him fall asleep on his own. This is how the books say to do it, and indeed, it is much better! We spend a little bit of time reading and singing, and then Jonah does the rest of the work. He sleeps with his Taggies book, and sometimes he'll lay there awake for 5-10 minutes fondling it quietly (which is really cute, by the way). After this change, the 30 minute naps weren't quite as frustrating, because I didn't always have to fight with him to go to sleep. But 30 minutes is still not that much time.

All of that brings us to now. Jonah still takes two naps a day (although he has occasionally skipped his morning nap). He is, however, finally taking some longer naps. His morning nap is sometimes still 30 minutes, but more often it is 45 minutes to an hour. His afternoon naps are usually at least an hour and sometimes longer. I hesitate to say that his longer afternoon nap is "normal," because I don't want to jinx it, but in the past week or two, he has taken more long afternoon naps than short ones. The longest he typically naps is 1 hour and 40 minutes. It must have to do with his sleep cycle, because when he does sleep longer than 1 hour, it is almost always 1 hour and 40 minutes.

I know that eventually (and maybe sooner than later) he will drop his morning nap altogether and just take an afternoon nap. I'm kind of looking forward to this, because it will be easier to go out in the mornings and run errands if I don't have to work around his morning nap. My hope is that with the elimination of that nap, his afternoon nap gets longer (a mom can dream, right?). Before Jonah was born, there were days when I didn't have to go to work and I would be home by myself all day. I definitely took those free hours for granted. I can probably be more productive during one of Jonah's long naps than I was on those entire days by myself.

Old Normal

People often ask me how things are going with Jonah and what he is up to. My answer typically involves telling them about his latest tricks, cute things he's doing, or whatever is normal for him at the moment. I recently realized how much that answer has changed over the past eleven months. A baby's "normal" changes so quickly and, as a stay-at-home-mom, I barely notice, because it is also my normal. Sure, I keep track of the big changes: new teeth, new foods, crawling, etc. But it would be so difficult to keep track of the big picture on a calendar, so I haven't. I can't look back and tell you what a typical day or week was like when he was three or seven months old. I wish I could. Those non-momentous occasions are just as important as the first time he tried mangos or started rolling over. So I will start now. (I will try not to regret starting this when Jonah is eleven months old, instead of when he was a newborn.) This will not be a daily record, or things would be too much the same every time. At most it will be weekly, and more likely monthly.

This first post will be an effort to capture some of his previous "normals," to catch up to where we are now, at eleven months old. There are a lot of details that I don't remember from those early weeks and months (Thank you, lack of sleep). I remember commenting during the first couple of months, that I was surprised at how well I could function (or think I was functioning) on 3-4 hours of sleep. Jonah had trouble breastfeeding in the beginning, so just feeding him literally took about 8 hours a day. He was a reasonably good sleeper in the beginning though, and slept through the night fairly early on. Then he started screaming in the middle of the night and we'd put the pacifier back in his mouth. He'd sleep a little more and then scream again. This would continue until the morning. So we thought, "maybe he's hungry. But not hungry enough to wake all the way up." So I tried feeding him. Sure enough, he slept the rest of the night without screaming and even slept later than usual. Since July, he has been waking up around 4:00 or 5:00 most mornings, wanting to eat. The pediatrician says this is normal for a breastfed infant. So I feed him. Jonah had a cold in October and was waking up in the middle of the night with that. Nothing would console him, except eating. So I fed him. Since then, he also wakes up around midnight most nights, wanting to eat. The pediatrician says that he shouldn't need to eat then, and that we should get him to stop. We tried. We failed. So I feed him.

While I do miss getting more than a few hours of uninterrupted sleep, I don't mind that much. The times we have tried not to feed him around midnight, he either screams until we give in, or Peter goes in to comfort him, which makes Jonah scream even louder. I know that eventually he will sleep through the night again. So for now, I try not to be too bothered by it, and cherish that time with him. After he eats, I hold him for a few minutes and let him digest. He usually falls asleep eating, and it's a really sweet time with him. My hope is that once we start weaning him from breastfeeding, he will sleep through the night. Hopefully.

Another thing that used to be normal was cooing. When Jonah was five weeks old, he started cooing. He would look at us and say "oooo" and "ah-goo." Sometimes his eyes would get watery and I would tell myself that it was because he was filled with love for us. I absolutely loved the cooing. It was definitely one of my favorite parts of being a mom. Then it stopped. I don't know exactly when it stopped. I just realized one day that he didn't coo any more. And I missed it. He had moved on to other exciting tricks, like laughing. But he didn't coo. I am sad that I didn't realize how quickly it would stop.

Other changes: Jonah used to love ceiling fans. We noticed this at about seven weeks. He certainly stills likes them, but they don't mesmerize him in quite the same way. He started laughing around ten weeks old. I have been surprised by how much his laugh has changed over these months. He sounds so much more grown up now. Jonah started babbling between six and seven months. He has gotten more and more vocal and has expanded his "vocabulary."

It used to be normal for him to just breastfeed. Now he eats solid food too. While it's exciting for him to eat all of these new foods, it was certainly easier when he was just breastfeeding. Feeding him solids has been the area of parenting in which I feel least competent. I try to follow the guidelines that are out there about spacing out new foods so that you can see if he has an allergic reaction. We have slowly introduced finger foods. He's doing a great job and likes a wide variety of foods. I think if he were the only baby around, I would feel more confident. But I hear about other babies eating things he hasn't or starting finger foods younger, and it makes me feel like I'm doing it wrong, even if I'm following what the "experts" say. I don't know why this one aspect stresses me out, but I know that Jonah is eating plenty and I don't think it will affect his development if he eats table food later than other babies.

That's probably enough of Jonah's "old normal" for now. I'm sure I will remember more about how things used to be as I start to write about how he is now.