boogers

Well, I think it is official that Eddie has a cold. Yesterday he woke up with a ton of boogers that I needed to use the aspirator several times to clear his nasal passages. And he still coughs every now and then. It's been around for a week now...so I'm hoping that it's on its way out. But it doesn't seem to bother him much at all - he is playing well, eating well and sleeping well at night. The naps are another story - but as mentioned earlier, the cause of the nap struggle seems to be his propensity to be active and vigor to learn to crawl

a struggle

Naps this week have been a struggle, in particular the morning nap. Once again there seem to be multiple factors at play that could be affecting his ability to fall asleep: he started showing signs of teething again early this week, but it is so hard to see if he is really getting another tooth because his mouth is already so full of teeth; then the slight runny nose and cough started up again on Wednesday so maybe he has a cold; but the most likely cause, or so I've rationalized, is that he is really trying to figure out how to crawl. I have read that when babies are trying to learn some of the master skills they have more difficulty sleeping. This week whenever placed on the floor he really started to show off his strength, doing push ups and pulling himself into crawling position and rolling all around. He has figured out how to go backwards in a scooting manuever. And he can pivot very well. So it could be soon when he starts to really crawl.

When placed in his crib in the morning he basically plays for an hour. Then we go to him - because sometimes he needs to have his diaper changed - and he is all smiley and energetic and wanting to play hard core. But it is really just a front because we know he is exhausted. Then if we do try to put him down again after a quick soothing he starts to throw a fit. I walk around with him, and the minute I enter his room or pull the blinds shut or sit down in the glider as if to initiate nursing, he starts to cry and writhe and tries to squirm away. It is really quite funny...but also annoying because you know he is tired and just fighting it. On Friday we had to skip Music Class, which I hate doing because we have already done it too much on account of his inconsistent sleep schedule. Class starts at 11:45 a.m. and we were all dressed and ready to go, but Eddie skipped his morning nap and I was trying to gage his mood which was tough because he was really playful. Ultimately I made the right call by not going because he crashed at noon. Today he did the same thing but this time Dad was on duty as I went to the grocery store and Dad put him back down at 11 a.m. and he fell asleep in like 2 minutes.

The morning nap is so critical because it really determines his mood and nap schedule for the rest of the day, and when he doesn't get it, I feel like a slave to getting him to go to sleep successfully which also means that whatever we have planned for the day goes out the window. It's tough because I am trying to get him out more - we went out to lunch on Tuesday with some friends and he sat in the restaurant high chair very well - but the stress associated with making appointments and then struggling to actually make the appointment, wipes me out.

a foodie victory

While watching "60 Minutes" the last several weeks I couldn't help but smile. Two weeks ago featured local food movement icon Alice Waters and this past Sunday included a White House tour with President Obama in which he referenced the vegetable garden that his wife is planting. As most of the blog followers know, other than being a culinary school graduate and proclaimed foodie, I am also pretty involved in the local food movement as a supporter of sustainablly grown/raised foods, most directly through regularly shopping at the farmers market and most recently through working for the non profit organization Organic School Project. And of course all of this influences the food I choose to serve little Eddie.

Eddie started on solid foods when he was 5 1/2 months, at the beginning of February - clearly not the greatest time of year for food. Not much is in season right now in our hemisphere, let alone the Midwest. I planned his menu, or more so the scheduled introduction of foods, partially based on suggestions in a book called "Super Baby Food" given to me by my sister's friend Mary whom is a pediatric nurse, but also based on what was in season and available locally. Luckily a lot of the first foods that should be introduced to babies are root vegetables (sweet potatoes, carrots) or storage vegetables like winter squash, which are readily available now. Some of the grains, including oats and barley, can also be found locally - we recently bought some whole rolled oats from a farm located outside of Kankakee, IL called Three Sisters Farm and they were fabulous. Unfortunately some foods will never be available within a 500-mile radius of Chicago: organic bananas come from Columbia and avocados currently come from Mexico.

We went to the farmers market this past weekend and got some great meats and cheeses, but sadly the only vegetables available were potatoes...and some greenhouse sprouts. But winter is surely on its way out and before we know it the beginning of spring will be marked with the first asparagus...I can't wait. I want Eddie's first taste of asparagus to be of a crisp, tangy and sweet tiny bud from Mick Klug's farm and not of the woody stalks from some South American country. I want this for two main reasons: taste and politics. Yes, you can buy asparagus right now at the grocery store, but you will sacrifice taste for the convenience of having them now. Asparagus' lifespan as an edible botanical is very short-lived: the minute it is cut, it begins to decompose quickly. So imagine what a several hour airplane ride to simply transport it from the southern hemisphere to our grocery stores does to the tasty veggie? And then think about all the fossil fuels used to transport it. On top of that, think about the underpaid laborers in that South American land whom harvest those stalks. This is why I'd rather wait all year for asparagus and buy them from farmers, from the people who actually tended the soil and harvested the plant.

I am ready for spring. I am ready for spring not only for the farmers market's bounty but also because I have vowed to convert some of our backyard into an herb and vegetable garden partially for my own selfish desire to have the freshest product possible for meals, but also for little Eddie to grow up with recognition of and an appreciation for fresh food...along with all the forms of life from ant to butterfly that ocompany the garden. And I really want a compost heap - we produce way too much waste that ends up in the black garbage bins in our alley (and god knows where those end up) that could be put back into the land and help fertilize our garden.

And so it is in this light that I feel a tremendous sense of hope for the future - the last vegetable garden, a.k.a. Victory Garden, at the White House was planted by Eleanor Roosevelt to symbolically reduce pressure on the public food supply. Michelle Obama (with urging from Alice Waters, by the way) decided to plant an organic vegetable garden in a similar symbolic fashion, acknowledging the importance of healthy, locally grown food and the use of the garden as a classroom, an educational tool for youth - a concept which was at the heart of the mission of the Organic School Project. Our founder, Greg Christian, firmly believed that the only way to get kids to even try new foods was to grow them, and so we worked to get gardens into Chicago Public Schools. Now my life is in a way simpler...I am no longer fighting a big system to use the school garden's parsley in the school meals or trying to raise money to feed inner city kids organic food, but I am still deeply connected to those ideals in the ways I am raising Eddie. I may not be changing the lives of many for the better, but I am devoting myself to the well-being of one...and that feels pretty good too.

rockin' and rollin'

One thing I forgot to mention in the 7 month update is now proficient Eddie has gotten at rolling over both ways. When he first started rolling over it seemed like he would only do it in his crib - I don't blame him since he has this ultra soft organic mattress. And since he only sleeps on his tummy, whenever he seemed like he couldn't fall asleep and was being quite loud about it, we would go into his room and find him on his back waving his arms about, smiling like he wanted to play. So we would flip him over and sometimes he would start to cry or whine briefly and then shortly after he would fall asleep. We really didn't mind intervening in this way since it seemed to ensure that he would go to sleep. Now it is apparent that he is skilled at rolling over both ways and he does it all the time while playing on the floor. So gone are the days of going in to flip him over. And with that has come a whole 'nother chapter of sleep situations. It is apparent that when it comes to sleep, the saga continues.

Infant sleep, something that is perceived to be regulated and ritualized, just keeps constantly changing. Just when you think you have your kid figured out and you know his/her schedule, things change. For the last few weeks Eddie was teething and seemed to want to nap more, but every nap would only last 45 minutes to an hour. And 90% of the time he would fall asleep on the boob while I was nursing him before his nap...ah, such a pleasant way to drift off into sleep, for both him and for me since it signifies that, yes, I have timed the whole thing right, and yes, he is in fact sleeping and I can now go do laundry or make baby food or even go nap myself.

But for the last several days or so he has baffled me in the sleep department. In the morning he gets sleepy after being awake for only an hour or so, but then I do his nap routine and put him in his crib and he plays around in there for an hour or so. Since we are no longer going in his room solely to flip him over because we know he is capable of flipping himself over, I debate over whether I should intervene or let him figure it out and find his own way to sleep. Of course most of the time I go in to intervene and sometimes take him out of the crib to slip him some more boob to see if it will send him off to la-la land, but instead he often refuses it and just wants to coo and grab at things and play. Intervention failed; instead of helping him to sleep I probably recharged his batteries and made him hyper. At night it seems different though because often a brief intervention and some boob is all it takes to get him to fall asleep...or so it has seemed for the last month. The last few nights have been different and his crazy antics continue. The other day as I was putting him down he grabbed hold of my shirt and would not let go. And so I tried to distract him by offering him Blue, his stuffed pony, and instead he just laughed at me! Today also marks day three of him taking a longer afternoon nap - somewhere between 2-3 hours - which then means that he doesn't take a third nap but that he seems to get tired earlier in the evening and wants to go to bed around 5:30 or 6 p.m. But then, just like during the day, instead of falling asleep within thirty minutes or so, he stays up for another hour...or more. A few nights ago he didn't fall asleep until 8 p.m. Last night he was rockin' around in his crib for about 45 minutes before I was like, "Eddie, should I go to him?" and my husband responded, "well, it always seems to work," denoting that usually all it takes is a little boob and he drifts off to la-la land. And so I walked into his room and smelled the smell of his poop. Sure enough, he had a poop in there...no wonder he couldn't go to sleep! So after a diaper change and more boob and some singing, he was on his way.

7 months and 7 teeth

Eddie IV turned 7 months today...and has 7 teeth...crazy! It is going by too fast. I find myself wanting to spend every single second of every single day with him because watching him grow and develop is just so much fun. He is really active now and we have to always keep an eye on him for he is constantly grabbing things and moving about. While on the floor, he rolls around both ways and pivots in all directions to move himself towards toys or to touch different textures, like the edge of the blanket or the rug. He loves nylon straps, like those on the changing table and on his high chair harness. He grabs these straps and sucks on them with such fervor. I have also realized that I cannot wear zip-up hoodies or sweatshirts because he loves to grab the zipper and the drawstring cords and will not let go without a serious fight. He still plays with such intensity and focus. He really doesn't seem to have any favorite toys, but is starting to really like balls and his wooden blocks. He sleeps with a doudou style stuffed pony, called Mr. Blue Pony, or simply Blue, and a small blankie that was a gift from Daddy's friend Scotty J. We read books throughout the day often right before he goes down for a nap. Sometimes I read with him in my lap with him facing the book but he tends to want to eat the book - many of his board books have teeth marks in them - or rip the book if possible. So for the bigger books with paper pages I read those to him while he is playing on the floor and he seems to like listening to me read. He loves "Green Eggs and Ham," smiling when I start to read "I Am Sam...Sam I Am..." and we have also been reading the Beatrix Potter books.

Eating is going well. He now eats three times a day and often eats a couple different foods in one sitting. He has most recently eaten acorn squash and peas - he loves the peas! We also tried yogurt but he didn't seem to like it - it was the first time he actually made a sour-puss face while eating. And then I started to get paranoid about his skin and allergies because he got a red patch by his mouth so I stopped the yogurt after two days and will reintroduce it later. His favorite foods seem to be in this order: sweet potatoes, bananas and avocado - these three foods he never turns down and he opens his mouth wide for them. He spends a lot of time in his high chair - his dad calls it "his desk." Mostly because I spend a lot of time in the kitchen and it is the best place for him to observe and play without being on the floor. Likewise, it keeps him away from Mara and her licky-licks. Mara and him rarely interact, probably because for the first couple of weeks with her here I was always telling her "No." But in the morning when Eddie first sees her he smiles, and sometimes when they are on the floor together he will try to grab her or Mara will come over to him and lick him.

Sleeping has been pretty consistent with 3 naps a day, lasting about 45 minutes each. Every now and then he has a long 2-3 hour nap, but it is rare. He wakes up twice a night for a feeding, sometimes only once. We still give him a bath every evening before bed and he likes to play with his boats, rubber duckie and squirter cars.

As the weather gets warmer we will go for more walks and get involved in more activities (just signed up for story time at the library), although I have truly enjoyed these months cozying up together at home. I truly am a home body...and Eddie IV might be too. He talks more (he is razzing now and says 'a-goo' a lot), is more active and is in general happier at home than he seems to be in other places. It is like he is a totally different baby outside of our abode. He still behaves very well in public, but he seems to be in a sort of daze, starring at everything, and rarely smiles. Shopping seems to lull him to sleep...typical boy. He does seem to like to go for car rides now, mostly because he loves to play with his car seat toy, Morgan the Jittery Bug. Thankfully the days of crying in the car are long gone. So much growth and so many changes...he is becoming a little boy, a wild little boy.

Videos of the Week

Some new major developments have occurred this week that I wanted to share via film:

SITTING UP UNASSISTED


MORE TEETH
Also check out his hand eye coordination and the interesting thing he does with his wrist, flexing it when he is holding the ball:

it's raining teeth

We had several days of rain, making everyone prone to naps - Eddie, Marty and me - which is good because we are all still getting over the cold we got. It was not the worst cold by far since it really only manifested itself in the throat, but it has lingered on for over a week. Little Eddie's cough has dissipated but I still find that every now and again his breathing becomes raspy and he has to cough to clear his lungs. Along with the rain and the cold, Eddie has been teething again. He is getting his two front top teeth in and they seem to be more painful than the others so far. Oh, forgot to mention that he got another bottom tooth in - the lateral incisor on his left-hand side. The top central incisor on the left has already broken through. It happened on Monday. After being put to bed Eddie woke up an hour later, which isn't too rare since if he skips a third nap he sometimes awakens after going down for bed, as if he thinks it's a nap. But he was really crying hard for like 15 minutes and I couldn't bare it so I went to him and nothing would soothe him. I walked around with him throughout the upstairs and every time we would re-enter his room, he would start crying, as if to indicate that he did not want to go back to bed. We would sit in his glider chair and I would attempt to nurse, and he would refuse and start to throw a fit. It was quite strange. So I brought him downstairs and although he seemed exhausted by his comatose look, he was awake and playing. We gave him some of his homeopathic teething medicine and put him back to bed. He cried for another 10 minutes and then fell asleep. In the morning, the tooth was partially out. And for the past couple days it has been coming out more and the other front top tooth is about to emerge too. So he goes through these crazy rants where he goes from object to object to find something that feels good and nothing seems to please him and he makes this sort of "roar" noise which is quite cute. Today the same refusal to go to bed happened for his second nap. But luckily when I put him down in the midst of his rage, he fell asleep within 3 minutes.

Our bedtime/naptime ritual is really quite simple - during the day it's simply reading some books then nurse, and lately 75% of the time he falls asleep on the boob and I lay him down. At night it is bath then boob. I truly love nursing and as soothing as it must be for him, it is also very relaxing for me too. I often dose off while nursing him or at least get so relaxed that I think I might fall asleep right there in the chair. It is so precious to watch him fall asleep there. The challenge is sometime he never de-latches and so there he remains, suckling away for his entire 45 minute nap and then he awakens with bright eyes and a smile. Sleeping on me for the whole nap rarely happens, but for some reason it has happened twice this week. I told Daddy Eddie last night though that I think it is time we get him back involved in the putting to bed ritual because I don't want the baby to solely be able to go to asleep with assistance from the nipple. But at least for now while he is teething bad I don't see the harm in a little extra TLC.

soft serve

If I would have written this blog entry an hour ago the titled would have been "since Thursday," referring to how long its been since Eddie last pooped. I was all prepared to share with the blog followers how perplexed we've been for the last two days because Eddie is usually pretty regular with one bowel movement a day. He has only skipped a day here and there. I know from my readings that breastfed babies don't always have a bowel movement every day and some only have a couple a week. But you would think with the introduction of solid foods he would be producing more waste, not less. The last couple days we have fed him 3 meals a day, an increase from the 2 a day he has been on since hitting the 6 month mark. His meals are basically 1 ounce servings of food. Over the past three days he has eaten barley (the new food I introduced on Thursday), banana, avocado, sweet potatoes, pears and brown rice. So the only thing I could attribute the supposed constipation to was the barley...which is strange because whole grains, as water soluable fiber, are supposed to be good for creating "bulk" in one's diet.

Anyway, so I had just put him down for a late afternoon nap and he was having difficulty falling asleep, or so it seemed. I could tell by the noises he was making that he was on his back, which he cannot fall asleep on. So I went upstairs to flip him over. When I opened the door and walked in, I smelled poop. But it could have been coming from the diaper pail...no, I knew it wasn't because we just emptied it Friday and he hasn't made a poop since then. Then I check his butt and yes, it smelled like poop. Now I must explain that so far Eddie's poops have not really smelled much - this is typically the case of exclusively breastfed babies' stools. But of course with the introduction of solid foods, we knew that the smell would start to change and resemble...well, poop. So I took him over to the changing table and, alas, there was poop and it in no way resembled the poops he has created before, except for maybe the color (still mustard yellow). It was thick, like creamy peanut butter. And then as I was whipping it away from his tushie, I noticed more suddenly appear from his butt, coming out like soft serve. Yes, soft serve is the best analogy I can use to describe it.

on your mark, get set...

For the past couple of weeks Eddie has been getting into crawling position. It started in the evenings after bath time when we would put him down on the floor for his lotion application/massage and pajama dressing. Now he is doing it all the time. When he was having difficulty falling asleep this morning for his nap, I peaked in at him and saw him in the crawling position in his crib. It will probably be the venue for his first movements since it was also the platform in which he perfected his rolling. He is really getting to be a wiggle worm, or as his Dad says, a Wack-a-dew. On the changing table he arches his back to look at the light switch and god knows what else and it causes him to almost flip over. In his crib he is now grabbing onto his bumper to chew on it and playing with the railings with both his feet and hands. The other day during a nap I heard this sort of light banging on the monitor and I was scared that maybe he was banging his head - which I have read is supposedly totally normal for some kids as it helps them fall asleep - instead, luckily, it was his hands grabbing the railing from underneath the bumper and he must have been moving his hand to hit the railings.

He is still not completely sitting up unassisted - he can do it for small spans of time, like 5-10 minutes but eventually he grabs for something to his side and topples over. Could he crawl before he sits up unsupported? Probably not, but he seems to want to move more than he wants to sit on his own.

sick?

Eddie has been out of sorts for the past two days. It could just be from teething, since it is certain that he has more teeth coming in as we can feel and see them and he is drooling a lot. But he is more crabby than usual. Yesterday he practically threw a fit at the Verizon store. And has been doing his cranky moan which we recall from his days of colic. He has less focus when playing with his toys, going from object to object in disdain, as if to say that nothing feels good. There are still spurts of good moods, smiles, laughter and bouncing about but in general he is out of sorts. Yesterday I woke up with a tad of a sore throat so maybe he has it too. He coughs occasionally, but that could be from the excessive drool going down the back of the throat - the books actually refer to it as a teething cough. And a couple days ago after our walk he had a runny nose, but my nose always runs after we come in from being out in the cold too. He has been sleeping a lot also. Last night he went to bed at 5:30 p.m. and didn't wake up until 1 a.m. for his first feeding - he usually wakes up sometime between 9 - 10 p.m. so that was strange. Maybe it is the addition of solid foods making him sleep more. It really frazzled me though since I cannot sleep well until after his first nighttime feeding and so I was half-awake until 1 a.m. when he finally woke up.

I am also now suspecting allergies, although some research shows that true allergies don't develop until kids are 2 years or older. But his eyes have been puffy with reddish, purple bags under his eyes. He has gotten them in the past, but usually only when really tired, and yesterday he woke up from a 2 hour nap with the bad bags...weird. Maybe he is allergic to Marty...I have had various periods in my life when I have been allergic to the dogs, having to take Claritin to stop the symptoms of itchy eyes, congestion, etc. And I still get a minor rash when Marty licks me. Today I noticed that after Marty licked Eddie's ear and side of face he had this same spotty rash too. Eddie's skin is very sensitive though. The doctor said there's a medical term for it: Dermatographism. It means literally that you can write on the skin. When pressure is applied to the skin, it leaves a red mark for a few minutes or several hours. I have it too. It takes days sometimes for the rings around my ankles left by socks to go away.

And then there is the additional variable of new foods. The past two days Eddie has been eating pears - I steamed them and then pureed them. Most food allergies manifest themselves with a digestive symptom, I think. And he hasn't had any weird poops. So I dunno. We will just have to continue to observe and soothe him. I tend to just use my instincts when he seems of sorts and think about what I would want if I was not well: lots of affection and sleep. So we hold him more, give him massages and put him down in his crib every two hours or so. Today he woke up at 6 a.m., went back to sleep from 7 - 8:30 a.m. and went down again at 10:30 a.m. is now still asleep over an hour later. Time for me to drink some tea and eat some chicken soup.

dog days

We have a dog. My parents' dog, Mara (a.k.a. Marty), came to live with us a week ago. Although it is something we've wanted for awhile, the move was sort of spur of the moment when my parents brought her down for Eddie's Baptism and she ended up staying. She has acclimated very well and is truly a great dog - very loyal, protective and moves throughout the house "like a ghost" as my husband says. She never steals or begs for food. She only barks when someone approaches to door or walks by the house. She loves to cuddle and curl up next to me wherever I am seated. She loves car rides. And she sleeps in our bed with us, right between us - funny that not too long ago little Eddie was sleeping there and now Marty is. She is my girl - my baby before my real baby. And she sticks to me like glue, so naturally she is around Eddie a lot too. Every blanket I put on the floor for Eddie she quickly claims by laying down on. So we have had to get used to dog hair on Eddie and all over our house...something I am still not completely used to and still constantly Swiffering and trying to prevent contact between Eddie's skin and Marty's hair. The same goes for her sloppy kisses and licky licky. I know it's only natural that the dog is going to lick the baby, but I still try to put a stop to it, especially because I caught Marty doing something pretty nasty today, something that she has done many times before: eating poop. Who knows if it was her poop or some other wild animal or that annoying stray cat that creeps through our yard daily. But she was full out eating it. So gross.

When I sit down with Eddie on my lap, Marty joins us. Eddie pulls at Marty's feathers - her leg hair that is kept long because she is a show dog. She also is a hunting dog and displays her innate traits as she sniffs throughout the yard and runs through the gardens, getting full of burrs and dead plant parts which she brings into the house, of course, entangled in her ears. Right now we only have two rugs in the house - one in our living room which we hardly spend time in, and one in Eddie's room. The only other part of the house that is carpeted is the basement. If Marty is not sitting on a piece of furniture and has to sit on the floor, she prefers a carpeted surface, so she is always on Eddie's rug and uses it to rub her ears and scratch herself, cleaning herself from all those plant parts. And so they are all over Eddie's room and I have already vacuumed three times this week, which is a lot for me.

The only other annoyance with having Marty is that she will not go outside alone. We bought a house with a yard, something that is hard to come by in the city of Chicago, in part for Marty - of course for little Eddie too. And we envisioned being able to just open the door and let her out. Not yet. She needs us to go out with her and stand on the grass for her to go. Not the coolest thing to do in the winter. I have taken her for a walk every day, except for today because my throat is feeling scratchy. And some evenings we all go for a walk as a family. I cannot wait for spring when the late afternoon walk can become another ritual in our day. It feels good to be a family with a dog, something both my husband and I have always wanted. I feel so lucky to have a good dog and a good baby...actually I should restate that as having two good babies, since Marty is, and always will be, my girl.