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Hanging out on the couch in Hawaii.  Maddox is quite the sitter these days!

My birthday snuck up on me this year. A last minute style Monday Birthday Lunch was organized. Coincidentally our friend Angel and her baby son flew in to visit on the same day! It all worked out really well and I had a lovely birthday. We ate at Nettie’s Crab Shack (I had a yummy Lobster Roll). Then we feasted on Chocolate Velvet Cupcakes from Kara’s. Yum!

                                            

The boys showing off their Tummy Time skillz…

Sage is a pro!  He is trying to roll over, but Maddox is in the way.

Well it’s official. His first tooth is in! The top tooth bump is still just sitting there thinking of doing something. Meanwhile, his bottom (center right) tooth cut right through his gums and is growing like a weed! It is very very cute, and I am so proud of it! There was much drooling, and there continues to be. He enjoys chewing on everything that will fit in his mouth.

Current teething favorites: small cardboard books, tags on anything, his thumb, his fist, bottle, wooden car, Mr. Smiley (wooden toy from Keiko), cloth bug (from Kenric), nylon strap that holds the cloth bug onto his car seat, and a Dr. Seuss plush book.

Maddox has discovered that books have many uses. I try to read this book to him, but he is much more interested in chewing on it. 

“They” say the first teeth to come in are usually the center bottom two, then the top two, then the two on either sides of the top two.

There is a tiny white bump pushing through his gums to the side of where his front top two teeth would be. He definitely is using this little nub of a tooth when he gnaws on things (thumb, finger, whole hand, book corners, straps, blanket, etc). So far this tooth is making a graceful entrance. I’m really hoping it stays that way. 

Maddox will be 5 months old on Sunday!

Maddox and I recently took a trip down to LA to visit our dear friend Keiko who will be leaving us for Japan, forever. We will miss her terribly! I wanted to make sure we had some quality time together and with the babies before she left.

It was the first time Maddox flew on an airplane, and being the brave person I am, I did it alone. It actually went pretty well. There was a bit of crying in both directions, but it didn’t last long, and I kept my cool. He was a perfect little baby through the airports, check-in, security etc. He was even a little angel during our 3 hour delay on the way home! I just know I’m going to get payback when he becomes a toddler. No kid can be this good!

Since somehow this turned into how great my kid is, I may has well tell you all how well he has been sleeping recently. Only one night in the last 4 nights has he not slept at least 8 hours in the first stretch. He was a pretty awesome sleeper before LA too, but I don’t remember the details. Somehow details fade quickly. But all in all his sleep patterns have been starting to regulate and actually have a pattern. The biggest trouble spot is his afternoon nap. The timing is pretty unpredictable, and once he is asleep he can’t be moved without waking. So if he falls asleep nursing, he is on my lap for his nap. If he falls asleep in the carrier, I’m stuck walking around with a heavy sleeping baby. If he falls asleep in the car, he is good until we pull into the garage and turn off the car. 

[Blue Dinosaur hoodie from the Weils. We love it! Thank you!]

Things around here have been pretty great recently. Every day Maddox is more aware of the world around him. Our routine is constantly being refined. Morning nap is a given now, sometime between 10:30 am and 11:30 am. I use this time to fart around, tidy up the house, or just catch up on email and Facebook. This nap only lasts about 20 minutes, so its not a lot of time. Just enough to get things in order before he wakes up and I have no hands free. Then Maddox is generally happy until his next nap (which may or may not occur) at about 2 pm. And then the pre-evening grumpies set in. The last couple days I’ve taken to singing and dancing with him to get him through. Our current favorites are “Don’t Stop Belivin'” by Journey, and “Do-Re-Mi” from The Sound of Music. My theory on Do-Re-Mi is that he enjoys hearing the children sing. He picked out this song in particular when I played the whole soundtrack for him. He giggles and gets wide-eyed and I swoop and dance him around the living room. Its a pretty good work out for me!

Although he is happy, he requires almost constant attention these days. We read we play, we eat, we go for walks, sing, dance, talk, tummy time, mirror play etc. I think it will be fun when he can sit up on his own.
For now his big talent is reaching and grabbing. Its pretty cute. I love watching his chubby little hands. He also loves kisses all over his body. It makes him hysterical with laughter and cooing. I keep trying to video it, but everytime the camera comes out he freezes and just stares at the lens. Someday!

As I lay here in my cozy bed, I feel so much love for my dear little baby Maddox. It’s in these moments when the house is quiet and the world slows down that my love for him wells up inside of me and brings tears to my eyes. I could lay here for hours just listening to him breathe.

I am excited to watch him grow up into a little boy, then a teenager, and eventually a man. I can hardly wait! But at the same time I want it all to slow down so I can savour him and hold on to every moment. I love you Maddox!

In the middle of the night when I’m up nursing I sometimes browse the Apple iPhone App Store. A couple nights ago I bought Photo Brush. It has a pre-teen vibe to it (which I love). It comes with “stamps” – hearts, paw prints, snowflakes, stars etc. that can be manipulated. Its about all my brain can handle at 4am. Well, that, and Solebon Solitare. 😎

The vaccinations went better than can be expected with a baby awake during nap time and a mom on pins and needles. They sucked, don’t get me wrong, but last time I don’t think I had really heard him cry like that. This time around I knew a little about what to expect. Also, I must say the nurse was good. She was accurate and swift. Bam, bam, bam and we were all done. The third bandaid application took about 2 or 3 seconds longer than I was hoping due to a defective paper backing, but I survived, and so did Maddox.

Pretty much as soon as we hit the car, the baby was dead asleep. He was a bit off all afternoon, but nothing too serious. Mostly Hot and Cold. He would laugh super hard and get the giggles, then the he would be complainy and fidgety.

[Brunch today at Foreign Cinema]

Later in the early evening things started to go downhill, and fast. He was totally miserable. He cried really hard for long stretches. His face was red, tears pooled in his eyes and streamed down his face, he gasped for air. We assume it was from the vaccines. It was so difficult for me, and obviously for my little baby Maddox. I just walked around with him and tried to soothe him every way I knew how. All the gasping for air eventually led to gas build up, which didn’t help matters any.

After some debate and hesitation (on my part), we eventually gave him baby Tylonol at 7:15p. Within 10 min he was totally quiet and calm. He fell asleep shortly after in my arms. For fear of waking him, I just held him for a couple hours while we caught up on some television (24). Then shifted him to his bed. There was some face rubbing, but he slowly relaxed and drifted off to sleep.

I’m happy to report the next morning he woke gracefully and with a smile – back to his normal self. I love you baby!

[Brunch today at Foreign Cinema]

I was anxious about today’s visit since the weekend. I feel so badly when they have to poke and prod my baby. Maddox was already a little cranky today because the appointment was smack dab in the middle of his morning nap time. Back when we made the appointment he wasn’t on any sort of schedule yet. Now we know better, and his 6 month check-up is before his nap time. He was a trooper today, none the less.

This time, I remembered to write out a list of all the things I wanted to ask the pediatrician.

Freezing, thawing breast milk
Face scratching
Teething & when to use Tylonol
Solid Foods
Boogie extraction

I have several bottles worth of breast milk frozen. Last week or so I decided to pull the oldest one out and thaw it to see how the baby liked it. I thawed it slowly in cool water. It ended up smelling fishy. We have nothing fishy in the freezer, so something happened during the freezing or thawing process. I thought that maybe it was just old, so I thawed the most recent bag. It too was fishy smelling. They didn’t smell sour or rancid like bad milk, but they did have some sort of funk going on. We figured it was probably not bad, but instead of chancing it, I just tossed both. Today the pediatrician said that it was most likely not bad, and if the baby takes it, then its fine. She said the baby won’t drink bad milk. That is kind of what we figured, but I’ve only got one baby and lots of milk. Better be safe than sick.

Face Scratching – part of life. Deal with it and try to minimize it.

Teething & Tylenol – she advises against Tylonol until the discomfort becomes fairly bad. Start with cold teethers for numbing. Oragel #1 doesn’t work.

Solid Foods – wait until 6 months. or 5 1/2 mo. with total head control. Rice cereal with breast milk.

Boogie Extraction – she squirted saline water up each of his nostrils until he blew it out. The GIANT sticky boogie flew out and stuck to his porcupine onsie. It looked uncomfortable, but very effective. She sent us home with a couple more saline sticks for future baby torture.

Stats:
Weight 18lb 14.3 oz (100 %)
Height 25 3/8 in (75 %)
Head Cir 16 in (41 1/2 cm) (25 %)

We knew we had a big baby, but holy cow! His weight was off the charts! When pressed to give me a percentile number she said 100. Crazy.

Did I mention he was 100th Percentile for Weight???! OMG.