bed time routine

We have a bed time routine for Elijah. He gets a bath, then he gets dried, then he gets a clean diaper and wrapped in a bear towel for a few moments (this bear towel picture is an old one - from the very first bath, way before it became an evening ritual), then he gets a clean outfit. After that he gets to eat, and then goes off to bed.
Recently Elijah has altered the routine a little bit. It all started with an occasional pee in the bath tub right after we put him in it. I guess the warm water relaxes him and makes him want to do that. Being the good parents that we are, we change the water in the bath tub right away. An occasional pee turned into a consistent one. Then he added a second pee once the water was changed, and did that pretty consistently as well. Yesterday we had another new development. The second pee turned into a pee and a poop! Delightful! Ryan had fun cleaning up the mess while I held the screaming child. Once the tub was cleaned and we put Elijah back in, he blessed us with yet a third pee! That's what happens when you get into clean warm water after being wet, naked and chilly in the air for a while. Today he repeated the same pattern: pee - clean water - pee & poop - clean water - final pee - more clean water.

I told Ryan it is time to think of a new bed time ritual.

hi

A few days ago after a bath Ryan leaned over Elijah on the bed and said "HI!"
"HI", said Elijah in response.
We both startled and looked at each other. Was that a first word? We decided it wasn't, but it was kind of cool anyway :-)
"HI", said Ryan again.
No response, just a baby laying there, looking at us with his big beautiful eyes, like nothing ever happened.

familiy visits

Grandma Shannon came to visit us for a few days last week. It was nice to have an extra pair of willing arms to hold Elijah :-) He got spoiled by being rocked to sleep almost every time he took a nap!

On the last morning of the visit, a few minutes before leaving for the airport, Elijah burped up some of his breakfast. I handed him over to Ryan, and Grandma volunteered to burp her grandson. In the middle of tranfer from Daddy to Grandma, Elijah burped up the rest of his breakfast (which was a whole lot!) right on Grandma. Fortunately, there were extra T-shirts floating around, so Grandma didn't have to wear Elijah's "gift" all the way home.

While Grandma was here, we went to visit Ryan's aunt and cousin who has two small kids: Jessica (3 yo) and Joshua (5mo). Elijah got a chance to try out a swing, which he liked (I think :-))

a smile

Here it is, the first smile we were able to capture on camera. The picture was taken on Feb. 11, the day he turned two months.

new schedule

So far we've been feeding Elijah as soon as he is up from his nap. He has never refused a meal until today. Today, all of a sudden, he wouldn't eat when he woke up. Instead, he wanted to just play, play, play. He finally took his bottle after about a half hour of smiling and laughing.

first cold, shots, etc.

Elijah got his first cold recently. On top of that he got four shots at his two month check up (we made sure there was no mercury in those shots) which gave him a low grade fever. Needless to say, we had an unhappy baby on our hands for the last couple of days. He is getting much better now, although his nose is still a little stuffed.

The visit to the doctor also revealed that our baby weighs over 13 lbs, which puts him in the 90th percentile. That means he gained almost three pounds in the last month. He also grew 2 inches, so he is now 24 inches long, which puts him in the 50th percentile.

more responsive

In the last couple of days Elijah has become noticably more responsive. One of our baby books said that around two months of age he should be able to turn his head in response to a voice, particularly mother's voice. He did that today! He is also smiling when I lean over him in his bouncy chair. He just started doing that yesterday. These are the first smiles that I am sure are intended for me, and are not just because he is full or becuase he is passing gas :-) One of these days we'll capture his smile on camera for all to see! So far they are too fleeting to catch, but they are priceless.

how much do babies eat?

We were told and also read in a couple of places that babies will usually take 2.5 - 3 oz per feeding. Ryan gave Elijah a bottle today (while I was at work) that contained over 5 oz of milk. We assumed he wouldn't finish it and we'd save what was left over. Not so! He ate the whole thing! And he kept it all down.

breakfast

Every once in a while Elijah doesn't keep down his breakfast. He eats so eagerly, even greedily, and then seconds after he comes off the breast the whole thing shoots out of his mouth like a fountain. Sometimes he throws up only half his breakfast, but today it was the whole thing. We are still trying to figure out what causes it and how to prevent it. Does he gulp it down too fast? One thought would then be to force him to take it in slowly by taking him off after a little bit, but that would mean taking him off after one or two mintues, as he finishes the whole meal in about 5 minutes. Perhaps he is just allergic to something I ate the day before. In this case it would be spaghetti or mac & cheese. I sure hope he is not allergic to our homemade mac & cheese, that would be tragic :-)