This past month, he's been changing a lot. His cries, when he wakes up, or wants something have turned into sort of a manly shriek, almost like a little puppy growl or something. It's really funny and kinda weird. I suppose my daughter did that too right about this time. Hers were more like regular shrieks, like a black crow, or a blue jay.

He can't sit up unasissted yet, but getting close. I can tell those stomach muscles are getting really strong. He's almost got a washboard. He leans forward a lot when he gets the chance to. He spends time sitting in his high chair, in the Bumbo, being propped into a sitting position with the Boppy, or bouncing in the Jumperoo. 

He still hates tummy time, but he can lift his head pretty well when he does it. He rolls over from tummy time every now and then. It's not consistent, and I think it depends on the surface that he's on, and how much energy he has at the time.

I told myself that I wouldn't start solid foods until he was 6 months old. But alas, I did. The pedi recommended it at his 4 month checkup to help him sleep better at night. I figured that was a myth, so although I did buy some rice cereal, I didn't want to give it to him right away. But he'd been eating and eating nonstop, it seemed. Every two hours or more frequently. So I figured he probably needed something a little heavier. Plus I was started to have pain during nursing because of the frequent feedings. 

He loved eating the rice cereal, which I mixed with breast milk. And he looks forward to eating solids, on a regular basis. He goes nuts when I put the spoon to his mouth. He shrieks and asks for more, pulling the spoon toward him with his hands. I gave him a little bit of pork loin, ground up and mixed with breast milk, too. He liked it as well.

Sleep has gone to pot. I don't know what happened. He was sleeping long stretches at night, waking up only once in the night. Slowly, it went downhill. It got so bad that he was waking up every 45 minutes. Now it is every 2-3 hours at night. I've tried changing the sleeping surface, swaddling, not swaddling, changing the lighting, the temperature, feeding him solid food at night. Nothing seems to work. I don't know if he is so hungry throughout the night that he has to wake up. Or if he just can't seem to put himself back to sleep. He is getting a lot more sensitive to sounds while he's sleeping during the day, too. He used to be able to sleep through almost any noise. Now he wakes up when the Amazon Fresh truck comes by...

As far as playing, he is entertained by his sister, he likes his dangly toys in the play gym, he likes to chew on his teether toys, especially Sophie, and little Sophie. I hate to say it, but he loves watching TV, too. And of course, likes one-on-one attention from a loving human being.

He's definitely keeping me a lot busier. He is awake more, and likes a lot of interaction. It's lots of fun watching him develop into his own person.

 I found this cute ensemble on Target's web site. I love this beige floral feminine tunic with the vintage wash skinny jeans and the cognac tall boots. The look is soft and gentle but relaxed. The boots add a touch of confidence.

I've got a couple of oven-safe Calphalon skillets, which I was just going to replace, since the are getting old. But I had an incident with one a few days ago. After searing the lamb chops on the skillet on the stove top, I put the skillet in the oven and let them bake at 400 degrees. When I took it out, I was careful to use oven mits, of course. But just seconds later, I grabbed the skillet handle with my bare hand and got quite a burn.

I ran my hand under cold water for what seemed like 5 minutes or so. When I looked at them, they were whitish, where the burns were. Across the middle of my hand, the base of my fingers as well as the tips. I had my husband (thank God he was home) puree an aloe vera leaf and put it in a plastic bag. I soaked my hand in that for a while. It felt really good. But after a couple hours or so, I went into urgent care because I dried it, tried to bandage it, and it was hurting!

By the time I got out of urgent care, it was stinging only a little bit. They said it was just a first degree burn and bandaged it up a bit. By the next morning, it felt a lot better. Still tender in the worst (most burnt) parts but much better. Today is the third day, and I'm almost back to normal. It still feels a little sensitive when I squeeze something really hard or carry something heavy but not bad.

I would have thought this would bother me for a couple of weeks and that I wouldn't be able to take care of my baby and toddler with this. But surprisingly it healed much more quickly than I thought it would. I wonder if it is because I soaked it in the pureed aloe vera leaf for 2 hours. 

I got some emu oil to put on it just to get the skin to go back to normal. The worst parts look a little like caluses. The dermatologist told me anyway that moisturized skin heals faster. So hopefully it works well.

Needless to say, I probably won't be doing any stove-to-oven cooking anymore... 

This is my last baby blog, and I thought I would list all the unexpected little surprises that I encountered in the first year of raising a baby. I will continue to add more of these as comments as I think of them.

I have also started a Toddler Blog to continue tracking baby's milestones and my ramblings about her. So you can read more about her there.

EASILY DISTRACTED
You can often distract a crying baby with a toy or talking to them to get them to stop crying. I always thought there wasn't much you can do about a crying baby other than feed them or rock them.

HATING DIAPER CHANGES
I didn't know they hated getting their diaper changed. The newborn and 1yo age seem to be especially so. I didn't realize that they wriggle so much during the change. I heard that newborns hate it because they get cold. But maybe the 1 yo hates it because they don't want to lie there.

LOVE MIRRORS
They are fascinated by seeing themselves and their loved ones in the mirror. This trick can be a great distraction from crying, too.

Turns out I didn't have time to make many posts here. I found myself involved in so many other activities such as entertaining the toddler, getting things ready for the new baby, doing Christmas shopping, etc. I was going to post lots of other pics of his 3D ultrasound and my growing belly. But alas, time flew by, and at 37 weeks, Baby J arrived, yes, 3 weeks early. But he is healthy and doing well. A little jaundice, but nothing that required the home installation of the blue lights.  

His birth story was goes like this:

It was about 10pm on a Wednesday night, and I had just put Bel down for the night. I got up and walked into the kitchen and got a really bad cramp. I walked into the bedroom to go down for bed myself and got a couple more breath-taking cramps. I could barely get onto the bed. When I finally did get on the bed, I started to feel fluid flowing out. My hubby called the doctor, and we went to the hospital, still leaking fluid.

The fluid was quite bloody, so they weren't sure if my water broke or if I was just bleeding. So they admitted me. Oh, and I was having contractions 2 minutes apart. At that time, I was still 36 weeks and a few days along. He would have been considered premature.

We spent that night at the hospital and waited the whole next day for something more to happen. My contractions had slowed to about 5 minutes apart, and they became less intense. But, the doctor didn't want to induce me until we were past the premature stage, which was just one more day away at that point.

So late that night, they induced me with pitocyn. That sped things along, and I got an epidural. They finally could feel that my bag of water had not yet broken, so they took care of that. That sped things up quite a bit (same as last time but even faster). In less than an hour, I was ready to push.

Pushing lasted about 2 contractions and he was out. It didn't take much, especially since his head was already visible by the time I started to push. Wow, what a difference from my first baby. It took at least an hour trying to get her past my pelvic bone, let alone crowning. But being more than 2 pounds lighter than his sister, he effortlessly slid right out. They plopped him on my belly and it was done.

It was love at first sight, of course. My sweet little boy. I love him so much. I am so happy to have him here. I can't imagine life without him. I feel so much more mommy-like having two children now. Sometimes I have one in each arm, and I don't feel myself anymore. I feel like somebody else. I feel more like a family. I feel like there is so much more love circulating around me.