We Have Teeth

     We have teeth and everything must be food! This little boy will chew on anything, and since he's getting around so easily, we are constantlly on floor patrol. Even with this constant attention, we've had to take a dime out of his mouth, and a lot of carpet fuzz. We've tried limiting his movements to just being on a blanket, but he is having none of that. He is far too curious!

      We are having a problem with teaching him where he can and can't go. We have an entertainment center and a none closed section for video tapes and DVD's and we can't keep David away. Sometimes when we say no, he'll listen and back off, other times he just ignores our commands. Then I put him in baby jail ( his playpen ) for a minute or two. I don't know if it's effective or not, I just know that while he's in baby jail he can't touch them.

Are All Babies Smart?

     I don't know about you but I laught at parents who think their baby is exceptional. Of course we all want to brag about the baby in our family but sometimes it's just ridiculous. For example, this couple I know started their baby girl on baby food. The mom than came and bragged about how smart her daughter was because the baby made faces according to foods she liked and those she didn't. So her baby was smarter than most because she could make an icky face when fed peas. Another bragged that her daughter danced when music was put on. I'm not sure that qualifies as intelligent either since I'm sure that the baby has seen people in her home dance quite often to the music.

     I also don't know if the fact that a baby does something much earlier than they normally do is a sign of intelligence or not. Having said that I want to tell you that our David just started to crawl forward a couple weeks ago. At about the six month age. He'd been crawling backwards before that but we didn't consider it official till he went forward the right way, Now I don't think that's advanced at all, maybe even a little late. What gets me though is that he started to stand himself up a couple days later and is trying to walk.

     I told my daughter that crawling is important for a baby, but this kid won't stay down. He just turned seven months and is walking slowly by standing himself up and hanging on to things. I just thought there would be more crawling than just a couple days. He's also got a word for food or wanting food, it's egay or engay and he's been saying it since he was about two or three months.

     This morning he was standing up holding the edge of his toy box. I noticed him go down and come back up, so I jokingly said he was doing squats and I started to count for him. I said two and he went down again, I said up and he came up.I verbally told him to make it to twenty and sure enough he did. He wanted to stop at seventeen but I just told him to come on he can do three more, and he did.

     Is he more advanced than those other babies, I don't know, but it's more impressive to me than an icky face.Of course I am Grandma after all.

Third Round of Shots

     Well David had his exam and third round of shots. He only cried after the last shot for about one or two minutes. What a good boy. He was rewarded with a small Elmo doll from the hospital gift shop. His height is up to about 26 inches and he weights just over 17 pounds. The doctor told my daughter she was doing a wonderful job with him mentally and physically and was pleased to know that I took care of him while she worked instead of a public day care. Not everyone is able to do this, we are lucky.

     David is going to be good company for me , as my birthday is tomarrow and Easter next week, and I am reminded that both with be firsts without my parents. I miss them terribly, but I've no doubt that that bright smiley little face will help see me through.

How To Get Baby to Sleep?

         My daughter is getting terribly stressed out trying to manage a job and the baby and all the side housework that goes with it. Baby David, I believe, has mastered the art of maternal manipulation by crying and screaming when put to bed. My daughter cannot seem to tolerate the noise, thinking that something may be dreadfully wrong with him to scream so much. I've walked her through all the possible reasons he's ever cried like a dirty diaper, being hungry, gas pains, teething, etc., and after checking out and taking care of these things, and providing a bedtime ritual of reading, bathing , and holding him, that he has to be put to bed screaming or not. I've told her that if he is not tired or is fighting sleep, then it's up to him to learn how to entertain himself till he does fall asleep. 

      Last night it was too cute as he complained in baby talk a mile a minute to his little stuffed Mickey Mouse who is his constant companion. David was up on his stomach telling Mickey all his troubles I think. My husband and son are also so easily upset when he cries they immediately want to do whatever it takes to stop him. I'v told her after he cries hard for a minute or two to go in and tell him she loves him and that it's time to be quiet and go to sleep, cover him and give him access to his Mickey and pacifier. The second time I've told her if he's screaming again to do the same thing without talking to him, and after the third time to just walk in and let him see her. After that sometimes he's sleeping and sometimes he's not and then I start feeling kind of lost as to how to get him to sleep. Also what happens when he walks up like that at three in the morning, do we give him a bottle to get him back to sleep? or go through the nightime ritual all over again? My daughter's not getting too much sleep which is greatly adding to the stress she's feeling.

      Aso he's getting impossible to burp after a bottle no matter what method or position we use. After that he spits up all over me and everything else. Any suggestions?

More in Love Every Day

     Our David is over five months now and is responding more and more every day. We've started him on rice cereal with pears and sweet potatoes and I've forgotten what a mess baby can make. We tried the cereal before but he really hates the taste and from the smell of it, I can't say I disagree.

     This baby has been a godsend since the death of my parents. He's keeping me busy as "Nana" during the day while my daughter works, and those smiles take me back to when my own were that age. I really have fallen in love with this angel.

     Sometimes when I watch him I take a nap with him on the bed. I fell asleep a couple times feeling slime on my hand. It turns out he's got teeth coming in and decided that my fingers are better to chew on than his own! Cute, but yuk!

Let Baby Cry?

     Our little David is four months old and he has taken to sudden outbursts of crying. No, not just crying, screaming actually. I may have mentioned this before but the nurse that works for the WIC program had told my daughter that you should not let a baby cry like that till after they're six months old. So her and my son freak out when little David starts these tantrums. They insist we do whatever it takes to get him to stop.

     Now while I'm not in favor of letting him scream at that level for long, I'm more in favor of laying him down if holding him and calmly stroking and talking to him doesn't work, and of course that's after I know he's been fed and needs no diaper change and has burped. It seems to me that he is very tired but is fighting sleep. I say that because when we give in and give him another bottle he stops on a dime. This happens sometimes only two hours after his last bottle. The doctor says we're feeding him too much, so another bottle should not be an option, but like I said anything to stop that crying. For awhile I was getting away with laying him on his side and calmly talking to him and stroking his forehead and cheek, that is no longer working.

     I try to explain that babies do sometimes cry and should be allowed to do so up to a point, however I'm not a nurse so I must be wrong. Anyone have any thoughts on the subject?   Photo by Brandon Baunach

Four Months Old Today!

     Our baby David has come a long way in these four months. He makes eye contact, smiles, giggles, and engages us in baby talk. I notice him saying " egay " when he's complaining about food.

     He's up to over 13 pounds now and is sucking up those bottles like crazy. We have been having a problem with him spitting up and not burping. Sometimes even with a good burp he is still spitting up. We got him some baby GasX which seems to be helping his discomfort from the gassyness, but we think we're going to try to change his formula to one he can more easily digest.

     By the way, more often than not he thinks it's funny when he gets to spit up on Grandma. Also we've been feeling some upper teeth in his gums. Yeah! We've been trying to start him on cereal but he hates it. We put a time bit of sweet  potato in it but he still won't really eat it. He mainly makes faces and cries.