adventures with baby

Thomas is almost four months old, and every day he amazes me with something that  he can do.  I just put him to bed, and he was grabbing at a pull toy that is attached to his crib.  It plays a lullaby, and I’ve pulled it a few times before.  He never paid any attention.  Tonight, he was very interested in it.  So, I gave him a little stuffed animal and he held onto it and tried to put it in his mouth.  It was so cute!  I know he’s not supposed to sleep with anything in his crib yet, so I’ll take it away after he falls asleep.  Hopefully, it will distract him a bit.  He also was grabbing at my magazine as I read it earlier.  He was pulling at the pages, and they were ripping.  So then I sat with a board book and tried to put his hand on each page as I turned it.  He can’t rip those pages!  He has made huge growth with napping.  I am able to put him down and he’ll fall asleep after fussing for a few minutes.  I suppose  part of it is that I am learning what works for him.  He will only take a bottle is it is really warm.  And I mean HOT.  No leukwarm bottle for this baby.  I learned that the hard way.  Now he’ll take a bottle the first time I give it to him, as long as it’s the right temperature.    Tomorrow, I have an all day workshop. It’s Daddy’s first day solo with the baby.  I’ve prepped him as well as I could.  Hopefully, I’ll have a good report tomorrow night.  Wish him luck!

I am so proud of my little guy.  He has been sleeping through the night without waking up to eat.  He will be four months old next week.  I have read that you should help your baby learn to go all night without eating.  If he were to wake up, I was supposed to rock him back to sleep without feeding him.  Well, he’s doing it all by himself!  I also have read that babies “should” sleep 12 hours- 7pm to 7am.  We’re not there yet, but he is making great progress.   When we got back from California, he was up until midnight several nights.  Somehow, he got back on Eastern time.  He has been falling asleep earlier and earlier.  Last night, I didn’t even get him into his pajamas.  I thought he would just take a catnap, but he was asleep for the night around 7:30.  He is waking up in the morning at a pretty decent hour.  This morning, he was up around 5:30.  He slept 10 hours straight!  I slept 7.  I know- I need to go to sleep earlier.  I have only one week left of maternity leave. I’m sure that when I’m back at work, I’ll be falling asleep plenty early.  

After visiting the daycare centers, I wasn’t sure which way to go.  For now, we’re going to use an in-home babysitter.  That would be in her home.  Today, I took Thomas to meet her.  She is a mom from the school where I work.  She also watches another baby who just turned one.  I first met with her when I was still pregnant. I got a good feeling from her, and I liked how she interacted with the other baby.   One big concern is that he will ride in the car with her.  I am not crazy about that, but I couldn’t find a single babysitter who wasn’t going to have to go in the car with him. Another concern is the tax benefit.  There is a decent child-care tax credit.  However, my work offers a pre-tax dependent care flexible spending account (as I posted yesterday).  I signed up for it today, and learned more about it.  There is a maximum of $5,000 and I signed up for the max.  I learned that I am able to pay a babysitter, and it doesn’t have to be a licensed childcare facility.  When I turn in my claim form each time, she will have to sign it.  That means she would have to declare the income from babysitting.  I told her about that today, and she said she’ll talk to her husband about it.  I guess we’ll have to see what he says.  We had a nice talk today, and I tried to explain what he likes and what works for him.  As I’ve posted before, he is not a good napper.  He does nap, it’s just not on a routine.  Once I start back at work, I will be on a regular schedule, and that might help him too.  Maybe with her experience, she’ll be better at “getting” the baby to nap.   So, next Thursday is the big day.  My husband and I will go over to her house one evening to bring the Pack N Play for his naps and he’ll get to meet the babysitter.  I already told my boss that I’ll be crying on Thursday.  I just hope Thomas does all right without me. 

OK, the title of this video clip is “Sneezing Panda.”  I guess that must be what is happening here.  When I first saw it, I thought the mama was telling her baby to stay put.  

Well, I’m going back to work next week.  I’m very sad to leave my baby.  He’ll be four months old in a week.  I had hoped to stay home until he was six months old, but that didn’t work out.  I have a babysitter for him, who will watch him in her house.  However, money is really tight and I need to find ways to make it stretch.  My work offers a pre-tax flexible spending account for dependent care.  I don’t think I’m able to pay a babysitter with that money.  I could do the regular tax deduction, but I will save a lot more money doing the pre-tax FSA.  So, the plan is to use a babysitter for the rest of 2008.  Then we’ll start Thomas in childcare in January.  So, this week I’m taking tours at local childcare centers.  I called around to get pricing.  There is a difference of about $100 among all of them.  They don’t all take infants.  The only one that offered a tour on the phone was also the most expensive.  So, that’s where I started yesterday.  When I first walked in the room, I almost started to cry.  I just got so sad thinking about my baby being in there without me.  Then I looked at the little babies (this was the infant room) and they were all so happy.  The ratio is 4:1 and all the babies were being cared for.  Some were being fed in a cute table with cut-out seats.  Another was being fed a bottle in a rocking chair.  One was sleeping in a swing.  Others were playing in exersaucers and jumperoos.  Only one was crying, and they said she was up next to eat.  It was so organized and they showed me how they clean all the toys after each baby plays with something.  I felt a lot better after visiting.  I still cannot imagine someone else caring for my baby, but it helps to know that he will be OK.  Tomorrow I’ll visit another center, and hopefully get a good feeling there, too.

Thomas is really loving sleeping on his tummy!  I know he is able to push himself up on his arms, but he still has trouble rolling from his tummy to his back.  I had heard that crib bumpers can cause suffocation, especially in babies who can’t roll over well.  So we picked up this mesh crib bumper.   It comes in pink, green, or white.  We chose the white one.  It was very easy to install.  There are sturdy velcro strips to keep it in place.  It will collapse if a baby tries to climb on it as a means of escape.  It is thicker, and more cushiony than I thought it would be.  I feel so much better knowing Thomas will not get his limbs stuck in the slats, and that he won’t suffocate in his crib bumper.  I think it looks quite nice.  It was a bit more expensive than I thought it would be, but it wasn’t outrageous- $27.99.  I give this product  (5 smilies out of 5).  I am impressed.

 I have been waiting to get this exersaucer for about a month.  
Thomas does not like lying down.  He likes to sit up, or 
better yet, stand.  He is happiest when someone holds 
him so he is ”standing.”  He will sit in the bounce seat, 
but doesn’t seem to enjoy playing with the toys on the bar.  
He received a Combi 3-in-1 walker as a gift, but I thought it looked boring.  
While visiting a friend, we checked out the Graco Baby Einstein 
Discover & Play Activity Center.
I thought this looked like a lot of fun.  There were so many different activities.
 Well, I was away in California the last two weekends, so we finally made the
30 minute trek to Babies R Us this weekend.  The took back the Combi without
a receipt (or any hassle) and gave us store credit.  We found the correct  one and put it together at home.  Thomas really seems to like it.  He was able to swivel a bit.  His feet just graze the bottom, and it’s on the shortest setting.  He smiled the whole time, and when Daddy played with the toys to make noise, Thomas looked intently in that direction.  I am sure that we will get a lot of use out of this exersaucer.  I gave it  (5 smilies out of 5).  It is bright, attractive, creative, and sturdy.  I am excited to watch Thomas learn to make all the pieces work.

Since my baby was born, he usually has something in his mouth.  He will suck on any (or all) of his fingers.  He might suck on his arm.  If he’s near my arm, he’ll suck on it.  If he’s in the Baby Bjorn, he’ll suck on the top, so I put a bib on him to suck on.  Lately, he has been grabbing my thumb and sticking it in his mouth.  Well, today he started sucking on his thumb.  Just his thumb, with no other fingers.  It is SO cute!!  His thumb is just so tiny.  It’s hard to believe he can find it and manage to suck on it.  He refuses to take a pacifier (spits them out) so I’m glad he’s found something to help soothe him to sleep.  Today, I was able to put him down twice  while he was not quite asleep.  Both times, he fell asleep on his own.  Here’s a photo from this morning.  

I am part of a Bunko group that meets once a month.  If you don’t know, it’s a dice game.  It’s really easy to learn, and you can play even if you’re plastered.  Each member hosts one night a year, but when it’s your turn it’s a lot of work!  I hosted in March, when I was about 7 months pregnant.  I thought that was tough.  It took me two days to get ready this time!  I had to stop every few hours to feed Thomas, then spend time trying to get him to nap.  If he was fussy, I had to hold him.  He was actually really good today.  He hung out in his bouncy seat for up to an hour at a time, which is unheard of for him.  By the time my husband came home, almost everything was done.  I had him take the baby for a half hour while I ran around like crazy.  Then I fed Thomas and I still had another half an hour.  But one girl came 20 minutes early!  I hadn’t even changed clothes yet.  It all worked out, and she helped me do some last minute preparations.  My husband was awesome tonight.  He kept the baby the whole evening, except for when it was time to feed him.  I am so proud of him!  He took him for a walk and a car ride, and got him to sleep both times.  That made 4 naps today.  Of course, he didn’t get to sleep until midnight.  Maybe he’ll sleep in?  Anyway, I got through my Bunko and I think it went well.  It is really difficult to throw a party when you are caring for a baby all day!

I arrived back home really late on Sunday night.  We were playing with the baby on our bed, and it seemed like he was trying to roll over.  Before I went on my trip, he had been rolling onto his back from “tummy time” position, but it wasn’t really on purpose.  Now he was rolling from his back to his tummy!  So, the last few nights I have put him in his bed while he was still awake.  I placed him on his back, but he immediately started to roll over.  He did not want to be on his back at all.  A few times, he was crying and I found him with his leg stuck in the slats of the crib.  I need to get him a bumper, but in the meantime we just wove a towel through the slats to  keep him from getting stuck again.  It turns out, he is a tummy sleeper! Every time I rolled him onto his back, he kept rolling onto his tummy.  He would play a little and suck on his fingers, and eventually fall asleep.  I am so excited about this new development!  I was a little worried about him sleeping on his tummy, but I kept sneaking in to check on him and waited to hear him breathing.  He gets a little frustrated when he can’t roll from his tummy to his back, and that’s when I pick him up.  He is also doing a lot of tummy “scooting” in his crib.  I found him all the way at the end of the crib this morning.