Turtle Monkey

Note to self: I need to start taking some photos of Elias sleeping.

This week, we’ve started putting Elias to bed awake-but-groggy. Prior to this, I would lay down in bed with him stroking his hair, arms and tummy until he drifted off to sleep. When we first started this night-time routine around 3 months, this process could take up to an hour. Since then, it’s become gradually shorter and now usually only takes a couple of minutes. The other night, I put him in bed and he immediately closed his eyes and fell asleep. A couple days later, Mark put him to bed and had to go to the bathroom before he was fully asleep, so he left while Elias was calm and relaxed, though his eyes were still open. He fell asleep on his own that night and didn’t make a peep for hours. Last night I put him down and stroked his hair a few times until I saw his eyes were getting heavy, then left.

The boy clearly likes and appreciates sleep. I hope we can maintain good nap and nighttime routines when we’re in Texas. He’ll have his blanket and his stuffed Yertle the Turtle, so I hope that’s enough to make his sleeping space feel like home.

I am grateful that my son takes teething in stride. He takes everything in stride, really. Even when he’s sick, you can tell his spirits are up and he’s eager to play. Elias’ teeth started breaking through at five months. Now that we have 7 confirmed and 9 suspected teeth in the collection, I realize there are definite signs and clues that he is actively teething.

Since five months, every few weeks his teeth start growing again. I find the way they break through and grow in so interesting! When he’s teething, Elias drools in ridiculous amounts. It will come from absolutely nowhere. His mouth will be dry, then he’ll smile and a deluge of water descends upon his chin and chest. Naturally, he’s more interested in putting things in his mouth and gnawing on them when he’s teething. He’ll bite down on something and it’ll hurt, so he’ll cry for a second and then get over it. He’s more whiny in general, probably because his mouth is constantly aching. He doesn’t whine or cry very much period and it’s usually only mildly different when teething. If he’s constantly uncomfortable, I’ll give him some Tylenol which almost always helps.

Other than that, he’s himself while teething. Thankfully, his sleep isn’t usually disrupted. (This boy loves his sleep. I’m very interested to see how naps and nighttime will go down while we’re in Texas. The last time we were there, he refused sleep toward the end of our trip. His sleep routine is so much better now though.)

He started with two breaking through at once in the middle, on bottom. Then two on top in positions on either side of where the top two would be. Before long, the top two started breaking through. The final confirmed tooth is the one on the right side of the bottom two. We’ve also suspected that his bottom molars are making their way up. He focuses a lot on that area and his past couple teething spurts have been crankier than usual. His room teacher at daycare brought up to us separately that she thinks those teeth have started breaking through as well. Mark hasn’t been able to feel them and it’s hard to get a good look back there to see what may be just under the gums.

Dental health is very important to us, so we’re trying to be diligent about brushing his teeth. It’s really easy to get distracted and forget. At night he starts to melt down very quickly. He’ll be active and playing one minute and the next minute it is clear that he needs to be put to bed ASAP! He doesn’t mind having his teeth brushed and gums massaged, but he has other ideas for our fingers when the little finger brush is in his mouth. He prefers to bite down and gnaw just as hard as he possibly can. The little finger brush offers a bit of protection against his sharp little teeth.

Elias has definitely perfected his pincer grasp to pick up bits of food and put them in his mouth. He knows exactly what his teeth are for. Every morning I see him place Cheerios very deliberately into his mouth so he can bite them in half. I find it funny that most guidelines for finger feeding site both crawling and the pincer grasp as milestones needed before this should be accomplished. I don’t know what mobility has to do with eating. I really don’t think he’s anywhere near starting to crawl.

He still can’t stand being on his tummy. He refuses to roll himself over, though he is perfectly capable. He has started rolling onto his belly to sleep. If he wakes up even a little bit, he’ll get angry about being in that position and I’ll need to roll him over. Usually, he’ll sleep on his side. Unless it was a dream, I am almost positive I woke up this morning to find him flipped around entirely, with his feet pointing at the head of the bed. I have no idea what was up with that. We’re still cosleeping and hoping to get a crib as soon as we get the study cleared out so there’s room for it. We just got a bed rail to fit our king sized bed which we love because it gives us all a lot of extra room in the bed. Before, we were using a pillow between him and the edge of the bed, plus pillows on the floor. He didn’t move around much in his sleep and this was never even remotely a problem. Now he’s starting to move around more in his sleep, so I’m thankful for the bedrail. It really is time for him to move into a crib, though. He likes sleep a LOT and I know he’ll appreciate a space to sleep all of his own.

But I think he’s just about the cutest kid on the planet! He cracks us up constantly.

More photos up on flickr, starting here.

Elias’ “real” hair is finally starting to come in. Every week, my mom comments that it’s looking lighter and lighter, but I don’t see where the color has changed. His hair is more or less the color mine is now. It is light brown with red highlights when he’s in the sun. It does seem to be getting a little wavier, though no full blown curls yet.

He’s been clapping for a while now, but he does it solely for his own amusement and not in response to anything. He will also wave at people if we start the waving action with his arm, but he doesn’t wave at people on his own yet. He’s still sitting up like a pro and he’s starting to contort his body into different positions while sitting (usually when he tries to reach for something), but he’s still not showing signs of crawling or scooting. I’m not in a huge rush for him to be mobile, so I can’t complain.

Elias enjoys playing peek-a-boo and anticipation/tickle games (though he is not really ticklish). He’ll grab for any object remotely near him. Mark and I are also a little amazed by his strength. I’ve started referring to him as Bam-Bam. For example, we have a little toybox for him stuffed full of tiny toys. If I lift it with one hand, it feels a bit heavy. Elias has no problems picking the whole thing up and dumping the toys out. He doesn’t seem very interested in putting toys back, but he does enjoy dumping them out.

We cannot wait for our trip to Texas in a few weeks! I still need to make lists of what to pack and where to pack it. I hope that getting out of our routine will not cause a problem for Elias, especially sleep-wise. He’s such an excellent sleeper and you can tell he appreciates sleep as much as I appreciate him sleeping.

To make a little bit of sense out of my last post, we are trying to follow recommended guidelines to introduce foods that cause allergies or digestive problems, which is why we delayed solids all together until Elias was 6 months old. Additionally, both Mark and I are overweight and I’ve read a lot that what you are offered as a baby can have a significant impact over your eating habits as an adult. This is why I don’t want him getting rice cereal at every “meal” - it has no nutritional value and isn’t good for much more than practice as a solid food.

Dairy: There are a lot of different recommendations here, but all of them are pretty consistent about no whole milk as a drink until after 1 year. As they are really different beasts, dairy products like yogurt and cheese are okay before then. We are going to start introducing yogurts and cheeses at around 9 months.

Meat: The guideline I’ve read most often about meat is that it’s okay to start introducing around 7 months. We just haven’t introduced it yet, but when we do, I want to restrict it to at-home for a little while. I don’t think Elias’ daycare offers meat to infants anyway.

Eggs: Egg whites are allergens that shouldn’t be introduced before 1 year. Egg yolks are okay and most of the guidelines I’ve read say that’s okay around 9-10 months.

Additionally, most fruits and vegetables are okay, but not acidic foods like oranges or tomatoes until 1 year. There’s a list of other baby no-no foods such as honey, peanut butter, wheat, strawberries and shellfish due to allergies.

So far, Elias has had: bananas, apples, pears, peaches, raspberries, peas, squash, sweet potato, carrot, potato and cheerios. There may be some more in there that I forgot.

Elias now has 6 teeth growing in - 4 on top and 2 on bottom. It’s interesting to see how he uses them when he eats.