Lists of firsts

You know those moms who can tell you the exact day, time and second their child first said a word or took a step or pooped in something other than a diaper? They can do this 50 years AFTER it happened and remember it so vividly that they can tell you how hot it was outside, what day of the week it was and what they had for dinner that night.

I AM NOT ONE OF THOSE MOTHERS.

I cannot remember what happened yesterday. This is why I blog. So I can LOOK IT UP.

So here you will find all of Julian's "firsts." We don't have much yet but it's a start. Some will include links to delightful little posts about said event. A link to this post will be permanently displayed on the right hand side under Julian Links and updated accordingly.

Julian's List of Firsts:

Smiled: In his sleep right from the get go, while alert from 1 month and 1 day old. August 12, 2005
Rolled Tummy to Back: 11 weeks and 3 days. September 29, 2005
Real Out Loud Giggle: Early November, 2005
Rolled Back to Tummy: Early November, 2005
Sat up Alone: 1 day shy of 4 months November 10, 2005
Crawled: Just under 7 months on 2/5/06 Super bowl sunday
Ate Solid Food: 1/11/06
First Tooth: 1/31/06
Bathed in big tub alone: 2/19/06
Stood Unassisted:
First Step:
Spoke word:
Slept through the night:
Dressed himself:
Potty time:
No more diaper during the day:
No more diapers at night:
Wrote Name:
Haircut:

You would think he just walked on the moon with how excited we are

Julian rolled over! Yeah! What's even more impressive is I CAUGHT IT ON VIDEO. His very first roll-over and I filmed it! Thank God for digital cameras with video that even a moron like me can use. We have the video out on this link. It takes a while for it to come up but it's so worth it. The video under 2 minutes long. My only request is you turn your volume OFF, I sound like the biggest arse on the video. I'll have to get Bryan to edit the sound but I wanted to get it out there because I know you are dying to watch it.

It was so cool though, I set him down for tummy time and before I could plop my big butt down he rolled over. I caught the very end of the first one then tried it again to make sure it wasn't an accident like his big noggin tipped him over. Sure enough he did it again and I got the entire thing, start to finish on camera. It ain't pretty but it's another check off on the ol' milestone list.

Our friend with a same-aged son just emailed us the other day to tell us her boy rolled over. I was afraid knowing her son did it first, Bryan would enroll Julian in roll-over boot camp. But no training needed, he did it all on his very own. That's our boy, the rolly-polly.

Wouldn't you love this face greeting you every morning?

I waited all summer to use this fleece pouch. So comfy.


This pic is funny because I was watching him and a friend's newborn while she finally got a bathroom break. The newborn started to cry and while Julian was latched on nursing and just about asleep I totally dumped him on the chair to tend to the baby. And my friend came out and asked where Julian was and we both look back at him and he's just laying there head all smashed, like "uhhh, mom?" Poor Julian, bad Mama!



Three hot women all in love with J. Our playdate at Kelli's house. Kelli's daughter, Gianna is Julian's "older" woman. Although it looks like they are having a lover's quarel in the picture.

Oh we rocked, and we romped

J went to his first Rock n' Romp and I must say he thoroughly enjoyed it. Well we assumed he did, hard to tell, but he sure wasn't complaining. I thought it was a great time although I was the one more focused on taking pictures of our son than watching the bands. I think it will be even more fun next year when he can romp around with all the other kids and be social, you know, unlike his socially anxious parents. I brought him over to the swingset and he was just fascinated watching the other kids run around. He's so curious these days, I love it!

We were only able to stay for the first 2 bands but I wish we could have stayed for them all. And the part of me that acts 60 years older than I am actually thought the first band had the volume up too high for the kidlings. Normally I'd think it was just me being an old lady but even Bryan thought so as he knows first hand the damage those amps can do. But as long as we stayed back it was ok and the 2nd band was perfect.
Now for some pictures (and you know the drill, click them to see more.)

More pics of J, because he's just so handsome.

It's funny, Bryan remembered how a friend of ours said to us when we first started dating that she thought we'd have ugly babies since we both have really strong features. I like to think we proved her wrong. And really that comment wasn't mean coming from her, you hafta know the kind of click we had and I don't think at that point any of us actually thought Bryan and I would be having a baby some day! Onto handsomeness, strong features and all...





I ran to the store while Bryan stayed with Julian and his parents and can you believe what they did to his ear? See if I ever leave him again!

This isn't the best pic, I just wanted to show you how skinny he is these days.

Julian met his Great Uncle David and his girlfriend Rita and her daughter Catherine (sorry if I am misspelling this!)

Today while Bryan was home sick, Julian and I went to Reel Moms and saw Just Like Heaven. We were going more for the event than the movie but I happen to like my cheesy chick flicks as well. I didn't know what to expect from him in a movie theater. He blew my mind. He sat on my lap watching the big screen for the first 45 minutes. I then nursed him, he fussed for about 30 seconds and after a good burp and another minute of nursing he fell asleep for the rest of the movie. I was even able to put him in my sling, walk through Old Navy, put him in his car seat and drive the whole way home without him waking up. What an amazing boy, if I'm allowed to brag. Oh yeah, my blog, I can brag away.

He has another new and exciting event coming up this Saturday too. It will be our first trip to the Baltimore Rock n Romp which is an outdoor "rock concert," if you will, for babies - toddlers. It's low-volume (but NOT kids music) and held in someone's back yard. You have to have kids to attend. It's really cool that this girl put it together and holds it every summer. This is the last one of the season. Too bad ol' Papa wasn't still rockin' out, maybe he could have headlined! We'll let you know what Julian thinks of it after Saturday!

Theory # 316

I obviously can't just take someones word for it despite their medical education. I am STILL not satisfied with J's diagnosis, or lack there of, of a protein-intolerance. I am sure that is a contributing factor since some of that stuff just isn't made for human consumption regardless of how good it tastes.

So I did more digging.

I was encouraged by yet another diaper yesterday with traces of blood. Come on, GIVE ME A BREAK! After all I've been eating, or not eating, at least show SOME signs of improvement. That is why I am now on to my new theory and this one seems to fit. It satisfies my gut feeling that it can not ONLY be a protein-thingy but also a breast milk oversupply. I was reading these possible symptoms of oversupply and they fit us. I have also read that in the case of oversupply the babies may also have consistently green, watery stools and gain more than the typical 1/2-1 ounce a day during the first 4 months. As we all know he's gained more than the average. And since this crap (no pun intended) began, his poop has been consistently green and explosive. It's very watery and it's constantly leaking out of his diapers. By golly, I think I'm on to something. That could also explain why he's been extra tough with the nursing.

I was concerned that my supply would deminish once I was on the mini-pill or from too much weight loss too quickly on my new not-allowed-to-eat-anything diet. Now I WISH it would dry up a bit. Maybe I'd be able to go out in public again without fear of looking like I'm attending a wet t-shirt contest. So in addition to watching what I eat, I'm now treating my self-diagnosis of oversupply by "block feeding." I've always only fed him from one breast already since he only nurses for about 5 minutes, kinda hard to break that up between two boobs (another sign he may not be getting enough hindmilk). So we'll see how this block feeding goes and hopefully we'll see some improvement. Now I just have to figure out how to enlighten his doctor so we can work together on these issues. Pediatricians just aren't that educated in the world of breast feeding. Too bad pediatricians aren't required to also become certified lactation consultants, all of this would be much easier.

It could always be worse

I thought Julian was colicky until I actually talked to mom's of colicky babies. Those babies cry and scream. Julian does not scream. I used that term prematurely to describe him I think. If he starts to get into an uproar we can calm him rather quickly. And now I think we have it pretty good. He's awesome during the day and the evening isn't half bad either. I realized when he was "fussy" it was if we were trying to be lazy and sit on the couch and watch TV. Obviously he wasn't too excited about that and he'd let us know. Once we realized he needed the attention and not the TV, life was so much easier. If we start to run out of tricks to keep him happy, we put on this awesome white noise CD we bought (a blessing in disguise I tell ya) and it helps out real quick. Even the few fussy daytime episodes are non-existant now. The white noise even helps in the car, although we're not completely out of the woods on that yet. But lately he's been darn good in the car. I didn't want to say that incase it's a fluke or the chance that I just jinxed it.

Putting him to bed is a piece of cake. We have yet to have to sit up with him in the wee hours (excluding his belly pain episodes) especially once we decided to co-sleep. Even putting him in his co-sleeper is easier. We just swaddle him up and put on the white noise.

Even today I took him for a walk in the stroller and he was happy. The trick, don't put him in the infant seat in his stroller. He wants to be facing out, not riding backwards enclosed. He's a big boy trapped in a baby body.

Don't get me wrong, he is a baby. He does have his moments and there are places we're still a little unsure of venturing with him and it does take some effort to keep him happy. But I think we're very lucky.

Point of this post? I love my boy. He rocks.

Chillin'

He looks so natural at this. Bryan sat him down and Julian threw his arm over the side all on his very own.

Why does he always look so scared??



Don't forget, his complete 1 - 2 months old slide show can be seen here.

*it has been brought to my attention some of you still do not know there is a link on the right hand side to more of his pictures, there are many more than what is posted on this site. You can even click the photos once in the Flickr site and then click "All sizes" to see a larger version. If you are going to be saving and/or printing them make sure you are saving the Large "1024 x 768" size.

He grew into this outfit nicely

First picture was taken on his first day home, 7.15.05 and the second was taken 9.12.05.


What a difference 2 months make in the fit of a onesie

The real reason why you shouldn't vaccinate*

Because it's heartbreaking to watch your baby lay there all content and watch his trusting expression quickly turn to "why would you let them hurt me?!" I'm not sure who hurt more. He actually handled it very well. He cried when he got them but settled rather quickly. He then took a nap when we got home, which is typical, and is his old self thus far. Full of smiles, thankfully, but I am still keeping a watchful eye. J does have an all-night nursing pass for going through it though. Not that I ever deprive him of nursing, I'm just sticking right by his side ready incase he needs it for comfort. Normally I would be doing other stuff and Papa trying other soothing techniques. But he's nursing blissfully as we speak on my lap on the trusty ol' boppy.

Other than that his 2 month well-baby went very well. He weighed 14 lb - 3 oz and is 24 3/4 inches tall, 95% range for both, which actually kinda sucks since his infant seat I was hoping would last until he can be front-facing only allows 26". Looks like we'll be needing a new car seat before he hits 6 months! The doctor said his head was kind of small for his height and weight. I was very surprised since it looks enormous to me. He said it wasn't a concern but how can he feel that was worth mentioning if it's not a concern. They'll just make sure it levels out but he seems to be developing just fine.

I brought Nana for support since Bryan couldn't make it and I was very glad she was there. She really liked his doctor which means a lot since she's seen the good and the bad when it comes to doctors. He's extremely thorough, never, ever, ever rushes us. Today's appointment was almost 1 hour and a half. He makes you feel like you're his only patient which is very important to me. I also gave him the update from the allergist and he was going to call to follow up with him and get more info. I was impressed he was voluntarily going out of his way to do that. I would have expected him to say "ok well you are working with a specialist so it is in his hands now."

Well there can't be a post these days without me mentioning my diet, huh? J woke up at 3am with great discomfort and continued throughout the rest of the night. I looked back through my notes and have noticed a pattern... a new culprit seems to be eggs. The foods I'm allowed to eat are dropping like flies! If it keeps happening, the next thing to go is the tuna. And I'll be left with lettuce and supplements. Alright, that's a bit of an exaggeration. I still have my rice milk over granola and plenty of other options. Well not plenty. Nana makes us this meal we like and this week she went out of her way to really read all the labels, change the recipe to make it 100% dairy/soy/etc free. Mashed potatoes made with chicken broth instead of milk and butter are pretty darn good!

Well that's all the news for now. A big, healthy boy what else can we ask for!

* please note this is sarcasm, we obviously choose to vaccinate but do not have opinions on those who do or do not do the same. This is no way an endorsement for one way or the other.

Getting to the bottom of things - no pun intended

After 3 diapers yesterday with small traces of blood, I decided it was worth the $30 copay to get Julian in to see a pediatric allergist. After calling a highly recommended doctor with an "earliest available appointment" of December 7th, I opted for a 2nd recommendation who got us in this morning.

We ruled out an full-fledged "allergy" but it does appear to be a Milk Soy Protein Intolerance (or food protein-induced colitis) causing the bleeding. He did a skin test for milk, soy, eggs, nuts and wheat and they all came back negative. So I'm happy to know it's not a real allergy (and happy no blood was drawn as I initially thought) but just a semi-common baby thing that he should outgrow by 6 months - 1 year.

The course of action is to modify my diet by eliminating dairy, soy and nuts and see if it improves (duh, good thing I paid $30 for that). I obviously have been doing that so I was a little discouraged since it hasn't improved. He gave me lists of ingredients to watch for and I'm 99% sure I haven't consumed any of the diary items but I do think there may be some soy or nut ingredients I wasn't looking for, like Vegetable broth for example, so I need to do better on that. I also don't want to eat out, or anywhere other than our house, for a couple weeks since I know that's where I slip up. Just for a few weeks to see if it helps.

The good news is that I can have soybean OIL, since it doesn't have the proteins which is what I was finding in almost every food item. That should give me a little more selection. I still need to watch for warnings saying "may contain traces" and "made on shared equipment." I'm also still missing out on a ton of my favorite foods but it's worth it and who knows it may only be for another 4 months. God do I hope so.

He did say to watch the diet for a few more weeks and if I'm 100% sure I didn't eat anything I shouldn't have and it's not better, then I can give him the pre-digested Nutramigen formula (or another kind called Neocate since the Nutramigen contains traces of milk which then wouldn't be any better than my milk) for a week while pumping to keep my supply. And if in a week it's better then put him back on breast milk and see if it returns. And if it does then well, guess we know it's officially something in my milk. Problem is, we couldn't afford to spend about $40/day for the Neocate.

I most likely won't do the formula thing. Right now Bryan and I are comfortable staying with the breastfeeding. I asked the doctor what if I see 1 bloody stool every 2 weeks while breast feeding, is that OK? He said he was fine with that. And I said what if I see one every week, and to that he replied we'll have to play it by ear. He KNOWS I don't want to stop nursing and he WANTS to work with me to keep it going. As long as he's not passing a lot of blood and still growing well then the benefits of breast feeding outweigh the tiny blood loss.

So for now I'm going to play it by ear...still. If it really doesn't seem to improve or happens to get worse then I MAY consider doing the formula trial just to see if J seems better. My thing is that I want J to be MOST COMFORTABLE. I don't want him to be in pain if he doesn't have to be. I know "breast is best" and that's my goal. I don't feel giving formula is a mortal sin but I rather him get the enzymes and antibodies from breast milk to help keep all the other illnesses away.

So anyway, that's where we're at. Which I think is the same place we were yesterday.

The best prize we've ever gotten in a cereal

Bryan did this, I would never think of doing such a thing to poor Julian. I only took the picture!

Julian Ridley: Month 2

Wow, you know this whole “growing up” thing you’ve been doing so much lately? How about you put that on pause just for a little bit. My goodness, I blink and you are a month older already! Next thing I know, you’ll be asking for the car keys!

You are such a perfect little man. So beautiful, so pure, so our dreams come true. I still don’t get any sleep but that’s more my fault than yours. When we do go to bed instead of sleeping I just lay awake staring at you, caressing your angelic little body and perfectly soft skin.

I can’t bear to close my eyes to sleep because that is time I’m not watching you. I never could have imagined love could grow so much stronger each day. What did we do without you?!

We’re slowly learning all of your characteristics; you are so full of personality. You watch the world with such intensity as if you are learning how to rule it someday. There is a sincere seriousness to you which you display by furrowing your brow.

We know that to catch some good smiles to wait for you to wake up in the morning or after a good nap. We’ve learned that the more you coo and talk that it will soon be followed by crying and tears as if you didn’t get your point across. We know we can always count on bath time to ease your mind. We’ve realized you need to be a part of the mix, seeing what us adults see, not down below in a stroller. You need your freedom and not to be restrained by car seats and carriers. One of your favorite places in the house is on top of the fridge.

We now know you like to have a long morning nap shortly after you wake up. You still hate pacifiers and riding in the car alone in the backseat. You also hate the hours of 6-10pm and you let us know loud and clear.

As much as we’ve learned the last month, you’ve far surpassed us with your learning. You smile daily and tell us stories in your little coo language. You hardly need us to provide head support for you but you have to be in the mood for tummy time. You love to study people when they speak. You bat at toys (favoring your left hand too, are you going to be a lefty like Papa?), , you grab onto things like my shirt and hair, you splash around in your bath water, you imitate our funny faces and you almost have the “ice cream handwhich” down that your father has been teaching you for self-soothing.

The past month we have overcome a few minor obstacles. We can finally say we nurse pain free (that’s a good one for me, I’m assuming it’s all the same to you). We no longer struggle with the sleeping arrangements, we don’t try to get you to sleep somewhere you don’t want, we’re happy to say you prefer sleeping right next to us. You even prefer to sleep on your side despite the many attempts to keep you on your back. You’ve managed to get over every blockade I’ve set up. We’ve also come upon some new hurdles such as your inability to properly digest dairy products and our inability to cure your temporary colic. We haven’t found a way to make every car trip pleasant but we’re working on that.

You are so big and mature and most of all handsome. You even surprise pediatricians when they learn your age, you just seem so much older. You make every day an adventure. We look forward to waking up with you in our lives and we can’t wait to see what the next month brings. Apparently, if we blink we can miss it.

to

Out with the old, in with the new

I used to have a cat that would get extremely upset if you put him in the car. So much he'd get all crazy and start frothing at the mouth.

Now we have a son that does that:

The best $200 we've ever spent

I uploaded all of our Julian pictures to shutterfly.com that we had taken from birth through the first month and a half of his life. It was 1000 pictures exactly. I went to add them to my cart to purchase prints and it kept crashing the site. So I went through all 1k and deleted some. That's a hard thing for a mother to do, how can I say he looks good in this picture and not in this one. He looks perfect in all of them! I did manage to delete 220 pictures and $200 later we now have 780 pictures of Julian Goodness. But many more months to keep taking photos!

More first impressions

We ventured on another semi-long distance trip with J-Bird yesterday to meet more relatives. He did amazing on the car ride up which we thought he would since it was right when he takes his morning naps. We didn't expect him to last the whole ride but he did! And the way home was almost as smooth. He loves to have the windows down for the sound and wind but Bryan rolled them down enough for him to see out of and I could see his little eyes trying to follow the trees as they were flying by. He was looking so intently. Once he started to clearly indicate he was tired of the car, we were fortunately ready with a bottle and he sucked it down and drifted off to sleep...for 15 minutes and woke up with a bang. After several soothing attempts, finally a finger to suck and the jiggling of the car seat was enough to mellow him out a bit until that lost it's appeal. By that time we were fortunately close to home and he never got to his full-fledged scream attack either. If only we could pay someone to ride in the back with him we'll be good to go.

We did buy a White Noise CD for the car which seemed to do the trick today but he's fooled us before thinking we had him figured out. He likes to keep us on our toes, as he should! He's such an awesome baby. In fact he was just in an uproar now and seemed inconsolible for Papa until he busted out the White Noise CD again and it was like an off switch. He's wide awake chilling on his own IN HIS CAR SEAT EVEN just listening away to the white noise. Let's hope this trick is a keeper! We're going to burn a copy for the bedroom and hopefully get an extra hour or two of sleep out of him.

It's funny, we hung out with his same-aged friend Max on Friday and his mom and I realized that all the little things our babies do we thought were unique, other babies do them too. I said "Julian's blowing spit bubbles like crazy" and on cue Max showed off his bubble blowing skills too.
"Max has been smiling a lot lately!" "So is Julian!"
"It looks like Julian is trying to crawl" "Same with Max!"
"Max is starting to bat at toys" "Julian too!"
But Max is laughing already and sleeping for 4 hour stretches in his own crib so they get points for that....but Julian is still better! :) Oh right, this isn't a competition.

Julian had a lot of fun meeting his Papa's side of the family, here are the pictures to prove it, check out the grin for Great Grandma Garlitz. Also below he's meeting Great Uncle/Aunt Mark & Trish, Great Grandma Schrock and Great Aunt Kathy. He was the perfect gentleman all day yesterday. We're always proud to show him off any chance we get! (click on the photos below to see more)








Hmmmm, you think the drool is a sign the fool-proof colic hold Great Aunt Kathy did relaxed him?