Growth Spurt

We never really noticed when Elliot had a growth spurt until last week. He went from eating every three hours and sleeping through the night to eating every 1-1/2 to 3 hours, even at night. This lasted for a few days and now he’s back into longer stretches between feedings and sleeping through the night most of the time. Usually he sleeps 11-12 hours at night. I think he is getting a little taller. I’m not sure since I see him everyday, but he feels heavier and longer than he was just last week. But don’t worry, as you can see he is still as chunky cute as ever!

Elliot’s not the only one changing around here. Last week I morphed from a full-time mom into a working mom. Luckily for me, this means I work from a home office and that my desk is now a pile of files and papers, burp cloths and toys. Elliot now spends a lot of the daytime with his nanny, Juli. It’s working out very well. I can feed him and kiss on him whenever I get the urge, but I can also design brochures and listen in on conference calls and not have to worry about him. This is mainly because Juli is so great with him. We are lucky to have found her. She talks and plays with him, and he loves it. It’s funny to be working in my office and hear a babbling conversation going on in the living room. He babbles for a while and she says, “And then what happened?” and then he tells her. It’s very cute. She also helps us keep our house in order. It was getting scary there for a while looking like tornado alley. Juli is our hero, we love her.

This past weekend, our dear friends Bob and Renae Tuffy back in Massachusetts added a new little girl to their family. Ainsley joined her siblings Liam, Livi and Maeve. After a long pregnancy and weeks of bed rest, we were really happy to hear that she finally made her way into the world. We loved this snapshot of Renae with all four of her babies.

Finally, a few observations of Elliot since the last blog.

• Drew used to call Elliot The Binkie Boy because he liked to suck his pacifier when he was sleepy. That was back when he was a newbie. Just last week he decided he is too cool for his bink. Now he likes to suck on these little waffle weave blankies. So now we call him The Blankie Boy.
• He also likes to suck his fingers, thumbs or preferably his entire fist. Sometimes to the point of gagging himself!
  
• He hates tummy time, but we do it everyday anyway. His neck has gotten much stronger in the last few weeks. Juli really helps him with this.
• He loves the Baby Einstein DVDs. He sits in his Bumbo seat on the kitchen table with the laptop in front of him and is mesmerized. It's good entertainment while we eat our dinner.
• He likes to face out now in the Snugli carrier. I took him to Whole Foods this week and he liked all the colors and people. Much better than sleeping through all the excitement in his car seat. Although he does fall asleep in the Snugli too.
• Every single time he giggles, he gets the hiccups.

All Smiles

Here are a few photos we took this week. I know I'm biased because I gave birth to this little person, but what a cutie. I think he is going to take after his dad as a kid and love being dressed in costumes. Our friends Tricia and Mick gave him this little Winnie the Pooh set. I thought the mitts would bug him, but he seemd to like having something to grab.

A few observations of Elliot during the past week or so...

He sleeps through the night from 8:30pm until 7am. We still do the dream feed at 11, but we sure love getting all this sleep!

He drools. Not much but a little. And he blows bubbles.

He likes to stand when we hold him up, or even jump (with our help of course).

He grabs his toys on his play gym now instead of just batting them around.

He loves to smile. Especially at his parents, but also at strangers who smile and coo at him. Sometimes if he's in the mood he will giggle.

He follows our voices and looks at us when we walk around the room.

He can spend about 20 minutes alone on his play gym, or just looking at the ceiling fan. I leave him to this while I shower in the mornings. Just lately when I get out I hear him in the nursery talking to himself. It's funny. I wonder what he thinks he is saying to the giraffe, parrot and monkey swinging above his head.

He loves mirrors.

He likes to go for car rides and carriage rides. We lay him down in the jogging stroller and walk around the neighborhood and he looks at the green trees floating by above his head.

Lastly, we found a nanny/household helper. Her name is Juli and she is a 5th-year senior at U of Texas. She is an early education major and is the proud aunt of 1-year-old twin girls. Elliot seemed to like her and so did Drew and I. We have her for the summer only because she does her student teaching in the fall. We are kind of in a temporary situation anyway and hoping to be moved into a different house somewhere in South Austin this fall. But for now Juli is our gal.

12-Week Mark

Elliot will be 12 weeks old on Wednesday. It seems unreal to us that he can be nearly 3 months old already. This is a time of big changes for him. He is very willing to smile and talk, gurgling and even giggling sometimes. He has a lot to say in the mornings especially. He is definitely a serious little person though. He has his mom’s intense furrowed brow when he studies something. Physically, he has likely surpassed 14 pounds and is a little chunky buns. His little legs are pure chunk from hip to ankle, and he has cute little dimples in his elbows. Needless to say he is still a very good eater. He’s getting more control of his head as his neck gets stronger.

With our help, he is also making excellent progress in the world of sleep. At a friend’s recommendation I read a great book called “The Baby Whisperer”. (“Babywise” wasn’t working for us because, although we use the idea of parent-directed feeding, we just couldn’t let Elliot cry himself to sleep.) The Baby Whisperer says to put him to bed when he is still awake, but if he cries go in and comfort him until he settles, then leave the room. So that’s what we do now and it works much better for all of us. Elliot can usually slide into his bassinet just before he enters dreamland, sleep well and wake up happy. The other good piece of advice in the book is the idea of “dream feeding”. I lift him out of his bassinet and put him on the boob right before I go to bed. He eats a full meal and never wakes up, it’s amazing. Nobody else I know can eat in their sleep.

Elliot has been going to bed around 8:30p and sleeps through the night... for the most part. The last few nights he has been waking up at 4am. I hear him talking so I leave him be, but last night he started to fuss so I went in to make sure he hadn't pulled the blanket over his head (which he likes to do now). I peered down into his bassinet and these two dark pools stared up at me and then he gave me a big gummy grin. Well what can I do but get him out and give him a hug? So we rocked for a bit and then he went back to sleep. Hopefully I will be stronger tonight and let him put himself back to sleep, but I figure there are worse things. If only he weren't so darn cute. Also, as of June 1st Elliot is sleeping in his nursery now instead of next to our bed. So far so good. Our house is small so we hear any peep he makes anyway.

Meanwhile, I have only two weeks until I start back to work. The excellent news is that I work from home and can give Elliot all of his feedings so I don’t have to become a “super pumper” like most working moms. For this I am very grateful. The bad news is, I have to go back to work so will get to spend less time with Elliot. We are in the process of narrowing down our list of “nanny” candidates. We are probably going to hire a University of Texas student. We had some great applications from elementary education and nursing students with child care experience. With me here, I feel good about hiring someone who isn’t a professional. I have a feeling once I start working again and get into my groove, it will work out just fine.

By the way, several people ask us about the Fuzzi Bunz diapers. Are they working out? We can give you an absolute YES! They are super comfy on the bum… polar fleece feels better than paper I imagine. They are cool in summer, warm in winter. And best of all, they are easy to clean up. We just dump the bucket of “poop soup” into the washer, do a rinse cycle, do a wash cycle, and dry them on low. Easy peasy. So far for us they are really wonderful and we can highly recommend them.