Rebellion

How does a 3-month old rebel, you ask? Well, in Nicholas' case by deciding he doesn't like bottles anymore and so instead of eating them just yelling and screaming and fussing. We made the mistake of not giving him any bottles on our trip and he decided he liked only having Mommy feed him. And so since we got back he has resisted eating from a bottle at all and will only sometimes consent if I give them to him. Needless to say, this makes it difficult for me to get work done. The answer is probably for me to just go away for a day or two and eventually he'll get hungry enough that he'll eat. But I don't know if any of us can tolerate that.

Updates

Life is chugging along here. We've all started to adapt to our new schoolyear schedule, which now includes a block of worktime after Nicholas goes to bed. Thankfully he has recently been going to bed around 9. Joe and I are still trying to figure out which division of childcare time works best for us, but in the meantime work is getting done and commitments are being met. There is no real theme to this post, but here are some random updates into our lives:

• Our recent outings to the fair and Ft. McHenry have convinced us that we need to take Nicholas out more often, as long as it is to places where noise is okay. He tends to spend the first part looking around at everything in wonderment. Then, when he wears himself out from trying to take everything in, he gets fussy and then if we snuggle him in or close him up in the carseat/stroller and give him a pacifier, he falls into a deep, well-earned sleep. He gets to see new things and we get out of the house. Win-win. And both of those outings were with other people, so we also got a chance to catch up with other adults. So, if anyone has a kid-friendly outing they want to go on, let us know.
• Church is difficult. Nicholas has been trying really hard, but the deck is stacked against him. An hour of being still and quiet is really too much to ask. Yesterday he did pretty well for the first half hour, enjoying looking at the older boys behind us and the stained glass windows. He was talking a lot, but I let him go until his sounds started to get shrill. They were still happy noises rather than crying, but I figured it wasn't fair to everyone else. Then he went to fussy and crying and we spent some time up in the cry room, but by the end of mass he was hanging by a thread and I could feel him about to go from crying to full-scale meltdown, so we left before the closing song. And he then fell asleep as soon as we got in the car and slept for 2 hours. I can't decide whether or not to start taking him to the nursery this winter. He is allowed to go beginning at 6 months (so around Thanksgiving), and it would be great to be able to focus on mass (esp once Joe is back over with the choir), but I am really scared of the germs this winter.
• Many of you have asked how I'm feeling these days. Pretty good. I have been hesitant to post because I don't dare think this is the way it will stay, and always expect it to come back with force. But for the past month or so I've been alternating between feeling perfect and feeling pretty good. I'll have a week or so where I feel perfect, as though nothing was ever wrong, and then a few days or a week where I just feel a little off in the mornings and not really up for food. So even these "bad" days are dramatically better than my good days used to be, and completely a level I can live with. They are just enough to remind me that I'm not completely 100% healed. But for now I've indefinitely postponed the next rounds of tests the doctor had proposed. There were just too many negatives involved in them to be worth it if I'm feeling good enough to function.
• Now that Nicholas is a little older (and has discovered his thumb), he has recently begun to put himself to sleep or back to sleep from crying. This has allowed us to begin implementing two of our sleep-related goals: naps in the crib and no pacifiers in bed. These aren't hard and fast rules yet, but they have been introduced and our hope is that over the next few weeks they can become the norm. Our next sleep-related goal is to get him out of the habit of nursing himself to sleep at night. He often wakes up when I put him down and gets himself back to sleep, but the goal is to have him learn to do the whole sleep process on his own. My hesitancy on this one is that if he doesn't nurse right before bed, he'll wake up hungry sooner, which means I have to get up sooner.

So in general, life is chugging along. And Nicholas seems to finally be stirring after 12 hours of nighttime sleep (well, he was up twice, but still), so I should go get him.

Historic Visit to Historic Site

From Nicholas - Month 4

Nicholas visited his first historic site today--Ft. McHenry. For those of you not well-versed in your Baltimore/War of 1812 history, Ft. McHenry was where the Battle of Baltimore was fought (i.e. the British bombed the fort like crazy but couldn't make landfall) in September 1814 while Francis Scott Key watched on and was inspired to write the poem that later became the national anthem.

Anyway, we toured the fort today with Grandma Kathleen and Grandpa Dan, and Nicholas was remarkably content through most of the tour, as long as we didn't stand in the sun too long.

From Nicholas - Month 4

For the most part he was more interested in chewing on his hands or the Baby Bjorn than anything else, but he did spend a lot of time looking around taking things in and was fascinated by both the video and the LCD light presentation of the battle. I think it was the lights and colors more than the historical content, but there's time for that later.

And, as always, there are more pictures in the gallery .

Found his thumb!

Nicholas found his thumb a couple days ago, and has started to using it to great effect. He hasn't figured out yet how to curl his other fingers down to avoid scratching his forehead and poking himself in the eyes, and he still mixes in a bunch of fist chewing, but when he needs it, he can get just the thumb.

And the really exciting news is that he is using this new skill to put himself to sleep! Yesterday I set him down on the floor half asleep to get a cake out of the oven, figuring he'd scream and I'd need to feed him more before putting him down for a nap. (Remember, this is the child who usually only naps during the day with the help of a pacifier and constant motion.) And I came back to find this:

From Nicholas - Month 4

He was content, so I left him alone. After about half an hour of alternating sucking his thumb and some very quiet fussing, I looked over and saw that he had his arm over his eyes, trying to go to sleep.

From Nicholas - Month 4

And a few minutes later:

From Nicholas - Month 4

He then alternated between being asleep and half awake sucking his thumb for about 2 hours. And one time when he woke up last night he had stopped screaming by the time I got to his room and I could hear sucking coming from inside the door. I went back to bed, figuring I'd let him go for the few minutes until he started screaming again and the next thing I knew Joe's alarm was going off at 6:30. I'm so proud of the little boy!

The First Hundred Days

As of today, Nicholas is 100 days old! Go, Nicholas! As such, it's time for his Report Card for the First 100 Days.

Vital Signs: A+
Nicholas is growing fast and furious. He came out of the gate as a long, lean fighting machine, and after a few days getting used to the idea of eating on his own, has been practically unstoppable in the growing department. At his check-ups, he's been well into the 90th percentile for both height and weight. He's big, but proportionate, like a linebacker (and unlike, say, his father).

Motor Skills: A-
He's learned how to kick and make his toys move. He's discovered his hands (and how tasty they are!) He can interact with his toys. If only he would consent to staying on his tummy and learn how to play that way, we'd have a real powerhouse on our hands.

Sleep: A-
Grade inflation, you say? I don't know. But truth be told, he's doing pretty well. Nighttime in our house lasts from about 9pm to 7am, and at this point he wakes up once or twice a night to eat. During the day? Well, he just doesn't want to miss anything, but he usually gets a good solid afternoon nap in.

Foreign Policy: B
Alright, I can't get my boy through this exercise with straight As. He just doesn't seem to do as well in groups of new people as he could. Our trip to Louisville proved that in abundance. He can be a charmer, when he wants to be, but that only usually lasts about 45 minutes. Then the meltdown happens, and he needs some quiet time (usually with mommy) to reset and regroup. And boy was he happy to be home, which I never would have thought of a 3-month-old even noticing.

The Home Front: A+
As far as handling his parents goes, he's got us right where he wants us. It's as if he's already learned how to ring a little bell. Or just how to wail until we guess what he's thinking.

Media Relations: A+
Seriously, how could you not love this face?

From Nicholas - Month 4

OVERALL: A
I think the jury is still out on the parents and their abilities (you may note that we chose not to write a post on the development of our parenting skills in the first hundred days, but Nicholas is doing just fine.

Next milestones: 100 weeks (April 26, 2011); 100 months (September 26, 2017).

And NOW it is a good morning

I was sort of cranky and tired this morning, but when I went in to get Nicholas, he greeted me with smiles and all sorts of happy babbling. Good morning to you too, my darling boy.

Looking Grown Up

Nicholas started the day in a t-shirt and overalls, but soon after I got home and Sarah left for a meeting, he indicated emphatically that he was done wearing the overalls (if I may put it so euphemistically). So he needed new pants. Because he was already in a t-shirt, I figure jeans were the way to go. I was planning to take him out to run a few errands, and with the weather suddenly becoming cool, I wanted to make sure he kept his socks on (he tends to kick them off within a few minutes if he's awake ... actually even if he's asleep). So I found his Gerber shoes that we'd gotten as a shower gift, and laced those up for him.

Sarah came home and thought he looked like a teenager. You know what that means! Photos!

From Nicholas - Month 4

As a side note, at what point do you think our hairlines will be even, then continue on in their separate directions like ships passing in the night?

From Nicholas - Month 4