Week 32 - Christmas!

Baby's First Christmas was a wonderful occasion for our family. Hayden was so amazing as he ripped into the presents (and then tried to eat the paper), looked at the gift inside, and thanked the person who gave it to him (ok, I'm exaggerating about that last part)! But still, much more than I expected a 7 month old baby would do. His attention span was remarkable and even though he had 3 days straight of shifted schedules and overstimulating parties, he was a trooper. Hardly ever was fussy and he even slept soundly in his Porta-Crib at my dad's house on Christmas Eve! He was thoroughly spoiled with lots of toys, books, supplies, and adorable clothes. We have such a generous and thoughtful family!

His outfit says "Best Christmas Ever" (Thank you Auntie Rachel... it was true!)

Christmas Morning with Daddy

It looks like he's super happy to be getting this bottle drying rack, but really that's his "I'm pooping" face! (However, I AM happy about the bottle drying rack!)

With his cousin Jude

This is the main gift from "Santa". It's an activity table all about food (his favorite topic!). He can actually stand for a couple seconds and play on it. We can also remove the legs so he can play with it on the floor until he is standing better.

Hayden with his Great Aunt Teri and his new Twilight Turtle (it projects the constellations onto the ceiling of his room. He LOVES it!)

Having a son now gives the Christmas Story so much more meaning. I am just in awe of how Mary must have felt to be the mother of Jesus, and how incredible it is that God sent his Son to Earth to live and be among us. I cringe sometimes when I hear the cliche: "remember the reason for the season" but this year at our Christmas Eve church service, the celebration of Jesus's birth really touched my heart.

I know Hayden won't remember this Christmas, but I will for the rest of my life. What an amazing gift he is! Phil and I are so blessed.

Week 31

Welcome to the family, Greyson James Lott! Phil's twin brother Adam and his wife Katie welcomed their 3rd boy into the family on December 20, 2007 at 8:44am. He is exactly 7 months younger than Hayden and 1/3 the weight! Wow!



It's so crazy to see such a tiny newborn and realize how fast time has flown by with Hayden. Greyson is adorable and in a few years, 7 months will be NOTHING! Those boys will be BFFs!

Hayden is getting pretty mobile. He rolls all over the place, and has gotten up on his knees in a crawling position a few times, only to be frustrated that it made him go backwards!

His top left tooth broke through the gums yesterday, so I guess Hayden had been singing, "All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth" and his wish is coming true! ;)

Despite the new tooth, he has been sleeping really well, go figure! He only wakes up once a night, around 3:30am. I feed him and he falls right back to sleep. He's taking 2 good naps a day (down from 3 shorter naps). From about 9:30-11:00am and from about 1:30pm-3:30pm. We haven't been swaddling him for a few weeks now and he has been doing fine. At night he sleeps in a Sleep Sack (a wearable blanket) and for naps I just tuck a blanket over him from the waist down. He sometimes doesn't even need the pacifier. He spits it out on his own and just cuddles with his Doggie as he drifts off to sleep.

But if it's not one thing, it's another! Nursing has become pretty challenging. I spoke with the Overlake Hospital Lactation nurse this week because Hayden has not been the good nurser that he used to be. I have to nurse him in absolute silence in a quiet, dark area or else he is too interested in his surroundings to nurse. This makes going out for errands and getting together with family more difficult! Also, he is becoming too impatient for the milk to let-down, which can take a minute or so, depending on how vigorously he is sucking during that time, so that is frustrating him too. And he's biting! OUCH!!!!!!! The lactation nurse advised me to go a little longer stretches between feedings (from 3 hours to almost 4) so that he is really hungry and motivated to nurse. She said to always nurse him BEFORE giving the solid foods and if he bites me, to stop the nursing session and try again later. If we give him a bottle (which is part of his bed-time routine with Daddy) it should not be given to him by me, but by someone else, so that he still always associates getting milk from me from the breast. She said it's very common for babies this age to be distracted easily while nursing and said I really need to try to get in the quietest, calmest place possible, even if that means a bathroom with the lights off and the fan on to drown out noise. Ugh! Sounds fun. The good thing is that Hayden is definitely not lacking in the weight department, so if he does back off on nursing a bit, that isn't going to hurt him.

I received good news this week regarding the lump in my thyroid. I had a biopsy on Monday (needles poked in my neck 6 times!) and the pathology lab concluded that the lump is a benign thyroid cyst. I will go back to the specialist in 6 months, where they will do a follow-up Ultrasound and the doctor thinks it will probably just gradually shrink and go away on its own.

Week 30

How did it get to be the middle of December already? Hayden has been awe-struck by the lighted tree in our living room. I'm really thankful he's not crawling yet. I still have to be careful not to turn my back for long, though, because he has become very proficient at rolling and pivoting his way around the floor.

My mom came out for a day (yes, a day!) this week to hand-deliver Christmas presents. She said shipping them from Ann Arbor, Michigan would have cost more, and since my step-dad is a pilot for Northwest Airlines and the flights were pretty open last Tuesday, it was relatively easy for her to just hop on a plane herself (albeit a LONG day for her!). Hayden got to open some of his Christmas presents early and boy did he enjoy that! Since I normally prevent him from ripping paper, he thoroughly enjoyed tearing open a few presents. We still had to prevent him from putting the paper in his mouth, but I was definitely surprised at how well he could unwrap a present! Grandma Judi got him some really neat presents and Hayden can barely decide what he likes most!



Notice that Hayden is sitting up all by himself now! He hasn't totally figured out how to get out of the sitting position gracefully, but his balance has been flawless. I can even sit him in the grocery carts and high chairs at restaurants now! We have really cool "germ covers" for those so it's been fun to try them out. Hayden really enjoys shopping with Mommy and getting that view from the cart. And we enjoyed a meal at Chan's Place with Phil's parents this week and Hayden did really well in the high chair. Grandma Doris even fed him his peas and they didn't end up on the people at the table next to us! :)

Hayden ate butternut squash this week. Surprisingly not a big hit. He made a really sour face and although he will still eat it, he doesn't give the big smiles and wide open mouth ready-for-more like he does with rice cereal and peas.

Earlier this week Hayden caught a cold. I read that a baby has about 8 colds in their first year of life, and this is his 2nd cold, so I think we're doing pretty well. Still, it's no fun seeing him sick. The stuffy nose cleared up in a couple days but he still has a bit of a congested cough. And unfortunately Phil and I caught the cold too, so we were all miserable for a couple days. I'm almost feeling 100% better. Which is a good thing, because my sister-in-law Katie is scheduled to have her baby (Boy #3) in 2 days!! I can't wait to meet him! They have decided on the name Greyson Lott. It is going to be so cool that Hayden's cousin will be only 7 months younger. With all these boys in the family, I wonder if any Lott will ever have a girl?!

Week 29

Hayden continues to enjoy the eating experience, and I am enjoying feeding him and getting to see other people enjoy feeding him too! This week he had peas for the first time. Once again, he loves food!



Due to all the heavy lifting I've been doing, my wrist is really starting to bother me. It used to just be lifting Hayden or carrying him in is car seat, but now squeezing containers and gripping & turrning (like doorknobs and opening jars) all have become painful in my right wrist. I think I need to start wearing a brace and a mommy friend of mine with similar issues has some P.T. exercises I can try. I guess my wrist just wasn't ready to handle a 20 lb baby so soon! No one told me to lift weights to prepare for a baby!

Phil and I are planning a trip to San Diego January 12–19th! Phil has a conference at the convention center there on the 13-15 so we decided to tag along and extend Phil's business trip as a vacation! My Grandpa Doug and Grandma Ruth live in San Jacinto, which is about 80 miles away. They are going to drive into San Diego on Tuesday and go with us to the Zoo and Sea World, and then on Wednesday night we are going with them back to their home for the remainder of our trip. They live in Washington during the summers and in California in the winters, so I was sad when they left this Fall that the next time they were going to see Hayden he would be a year old! He is changing so fast, I am so glad we get this opportunity to go see them sooner! And hopefully the weather will be nice and Hayden will get to be outdoors more. Since the weather has been so cold and rainy here, we haven't been outside much. I'm so excited for our trip, but also feeling a bit overwhelmed thinking about what I need to bring, the plane ride, and whether Hayden will sleep ok while we're away from home.

We had Hayden's Santa photos taken this week. Growing up, we looked forward to getting Santa pictures every year and my mom would put out the whole chronology of Santa Pictures every year. It's so fun to look back over 18+ Santa pictures (we continued to do them as we got older since my little sister is 12 years younger). I want to do the same thing with Hayden as part of our Christmas Traditions. Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed with this Santa and the picture. The Santa had a real beard at least, but he wasn't wearing the Big Red Suit. Instead, he had on a patterned Christmas button-up, red suspenders holding up his red pants, goofy striped socks, and no Santa hat. What's a Santa without a Santa hat?! :) Plus, they had Hayden standing on Santa's knee for some reason, and I would prefer him sitting. And Hayden has his tongue sticking out, like he usually does, but it looks like he just has huge Sock Monkey lips! If it were just that, I might not re-do them, because afterall, that's Hayden for ya, and it's kind of cute to remember that part about him, but I really want a REAL Santa in the photo. Call me crazy, I know. I think we're going to re-do them somewhere else this week. I don't want to look back on this first Santa Picture every year with disappointment and regret.

Week 28

Look Hayden, Snow!!


We got a little dusting of Snow on Saturday and Hayden enjoyed watching the snowflakes fall but it melted before we got him outside. We are looking forward to letting him touch snow for the first time... but first we have to get him a winter coat!

Hayden continues to LOVE solid foods. We introduced oatmeal this week and he loves it just as much as rice cereal. We plan on introducing peas pretty soon, followed by avocado, squash, sweet potato, then banana. Our pediatrician recommended starting with the less sweet foods like vegetables so he doesn't develop a sweet tooth, but I have a feeling he is going to like everything.

He still isn't sleeping that great and this past week even his morning nap has been difficult. Usually he naps from at least 9am - 10am, but lately he fusses for a while and then only takes a 45 minute nap or less. It's kind of frustrating because that is when I usually try to get a shower in and get myself ready for the day. One day last week he fought the morning nap for over an hour so I just gave up, and then he took a 2 hour afternoon nap, but that was it.

Night-time sleep is also still unpredictable. Sometimes wakes up 4-5 times a night and sometimes only once. He seems to do best when we find that magic bedtime where he's not yet overtired but is ready to fall asleep. When he gets way overtired, that seems to be when he wakes up most during the night. If he only takes 2 naps a day we put him to bed around 6:30pm, but if he gets a 3rd nap in, his bedtime can be closer to 7:30pm, which is nice because then Phil gets more time to spend with him.

Week 27

Hayden LOVES eating... Are we surprised?!


If the above video doesn't work for you, click here.



He ate the whole serving of rice cereal and was smiling and leaning in for more the whole time. Gobble! Gobble! I am planning on making my own baby food and have been reading up in a book called Super Baby Food and purchased a kit called So Easy Baby Food that comes with ice cube trays for making perfect frozen serving sizes you just pop in the microwave to defrost. Today we bought him a Space Saver High Chair so don't worry, the Bumbo seat was just temporary. Hayden sat in his new seat at the dinner table with us this evening and practiced drinking out of a sippy cup, banging a spoon and enjoying his new view. Pretty soon, he'll be eating dinner with us too (for now, he just has one solid food meal a day, around noon)! Let the fun begin!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Phil's family and then with my dad and his family & friends. I have SO MUCH to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, I don't even know where to start: A healthy, adorable, incredible baby. My amazing, supportive husband who continues to impress me with his ability to make up songs and speak in a voice higher than I thought possible for a male. ;) And for still thinking I am still his sexy wife! I am thankful for my PEPS group and all the other mommy friends I know who have been so helpful in sharing parenting stories, frustrations, rejoices, advice, and empathy. I am so blessed to have such a network of friends and family to help me on this journey. Above all, I thank God for providing for our needs in so many ways and demonstrating His love for us through Jesus. I have to admit, my spiritual life has taken a bit of a back seat while I am consumed by my new role as Mommy, but every time I turn to God, he is always there for me with open arms. When I look at Hayden, I feel like I can now more closely understand God's abundant love for His creation.



It was a little difficult to do a dairy-free Thanksgiving, but I managed. I substituted soy yogurt, soy milk, and imitation cream cheese in an awesome carrot cake recipe from my step-mom, and no one could even tell the difference! I made steamed sweet potatoes with brown sugar sprinkled on top, steamed green beans, and my sister-in-law used soy milk in the mashed potatoes for me. And she made an incredible 20 lb. turkey:



I didn't partake of my annual Black Friday Door Buster shopping since Phil had to work and I wasn't about to drag Hayden around with me through all that madness! Oh well. I wasn't all that impressed with the sales this year anyway, and now that we're really budget-conscious, shopping just isn't as fun anymore, even if there are good deals.

We also installed Hayden's new car seat this weekend. It's quite big, but definitely fits Hayden better than the infant carrier. So glad to be done with that thing!

Hayden is sitting up by himself really well now. Only if he gets really distracted will he fall over. I think this will help the little bald spot on the back of his head that was getting a little flat from all the laying down. Speaking of bald, Hayden's hair seems to be coming in more noticeably now. It looks like a dark reddish blonde. Still hard to tell!

I think his upper teeth might be close to popping through. He has been a little fussy, wanting to chew on anything that gets near his mouth, and not sleeping well the past couple nights. I thought solid foods were supposed to help a baby sleep better!! :) Actually, funny thing is, he slept GREAT the night BEFORE he started the rice cereal. He slept from 8pm to 6am with only one brief call for the pacifier/"shhh" routine at about midnight. Not too bad!

6 Months Old!

Here are the stats from his 6 month check-up yesterday:

Weight - 20 lbs, 10 oz (95 percentile)
Height - 29 inches (Above 97 percentile)
Head Circ. - 18 inches (95 percentile)

So he weighs less than Phil and I expected - I guess all that jumping in the Jumparoo has been good exercise! But still, he's certainly a BIG boy! And totally healthy. The Dr. was very impressed by his health and development.

Week 26

Can you believe Hayden will be 6 months old on Tuesday?! Time is FLYING by. We have Hayden's 6-month Well Baby doctor visit on Monday so I will report his stats next week. I think he'll be close to 22 lbs. and 29 inches tall. Time to upgrade to our new car seat! We bought the Safety 1st Alpha Omega Elite from Costco about a month ago. I had hoped Hayden would be able to sit up on his own before we started using it, since it's pretty convenient how the infant seat we have can be carried in and out of the car. But I think he's just too big for that seat. It's not safe if he's too big, plus, it's actually hurting my wrist to carry him in it anyway. Since he rarely falls asleep in the car anymore, it's not a big deal to take him in and out of the seat. He can sit up for about 30 seconds on his own, but if he gets distracted he'll topple over. So when I go grocery shopping I'll have to put him in the Moby until he can sit up better.

He's not quite crawling yet, but does a really cute froggy kick that looks like he's swimming the breaststroke. He can slowly move around the floor by a combination of rolling, scooting, and pivoting if he's motivated enough, but usually he just starts fussing and Mommy will give in and hand him the toy he wants or pick him up... what can I say? I'm a softie.

Sleep continues to be an experiment. Sometimes he wakes up 3-4 times and other times it's only once to feed around 3am. He has yet to sleep a complete 7pm - 7am stretch. Usually when he wakes up, all it takes is popping in his pacifier, a little "shhhh" and pat on the chest and he's back to sleep in less than a minute. I only nurse him once a night now. One time around midnight, we tried to not go to him to do the pacifier routine and he got so worked up and cried for 40 minutes I just couldn't take it anymore. I don't know how to break this night waking habit without letting him cry. And since he still has a bit of a lingering cough and stuffy nose from his cold last week, I hate to let him cry at all.

If we get the green light from the pediatrician, we are planning on giving Hayden his first taste of rice cereal on Thanksgiving Day. We thought it would be fitting for him to get his first solid foods on the Day of Eating. I'm sure we'll have some photos of cereal all over his face coming shortly!

In the meantime, here are some other adorable photos that I took to submit to the Costco Baby Model casting call:

Week 25

Poor little guy. Hayden's had a yucky cold all week. It has been hard for him to eat with such a stuffy nose and hard to sleep since his cough would wake him up and expel his pacifier. We've been taking it easy, doing the saline nose drops, bulb syringe thing (which he HATES!) and a humidifier in his room. He seems to be a bit better today so I think the worst is over.

We even got to the park a few days ago to see if the fresh air would help. Hayden really loves the swing!


And here is another cute photo where you can really see his 2 bottom teeth!


On Friday and Saturday my mom, Step-Dad, and little sister were in town from Michigan for a quick visit. My step-dad had never met Hayden, my mom hadn't seen him since the day after he was born, and my little sister came out in June, so Hayden has certainly changed a lot since then! Despite still being a little under the weather, Hayden was an adorable little angel and my mom kept commenting on what a good baby he is. While we would be eating, Hayden would just sit quietly in his infant seat (which he has almost outgrown!). He was soaking up all the attention and especially loved all the activity and stimulation at Red Robin! Everyone enjoyed taking turns holding him. Well, my mom wasn't so good at sharing—every time Hayden would make a little noise, she would say "Hayden just said he wanted his Grandma Judi." :)

Grandma Judi

Aunt Ali

Grandpa Mark

My freelance design jobs are really picking up. I have 3 big projects going on right now so I am trying to wrap up a couple. First, I was worried about not having enough work. Now, it's too much! It's so hard to balance! The extra income is definitely coming at a good time, though, with the holidays coming up, so I can't complain.

My dad babysat Hayden on Thursday night so we could go to my older sister's "Happy Hour" birthday celebration. It was the first time we had someone other than us put Hayden to bed at night. I wrote out detailed, bullet point instructions for Hayden's bedtime routine, and my dad said Hayden was super easy. We were home by 8pm and Hayden was already asleep in his crib. Yay! This means Phil and I can actually enjoy a date once in a while! I'm so glad Hayden did well for my dad. My dad is so good with babies and kids, though, I am not surprised. And I think he really enjoyed the bonding time with his grandson.

Week 24

Hayden was a Supercute Superbaby for Halloween! We had fun surprising Grandpa Doug and Grandma Augusta for a "Trick or Treat" and also made the rounds over to Phil's parent's house. Daddy ate Hayden's candy for him, wasn't that nice of him?! Though no Butterfinger for me :( -- No milk chocolate candy of any kind! This non-dairy diet is brutal! I guess on the bright side, because I haven't been able to eat ice cream, brownies, cookies, cake, and milk chocolate, I'm down to my pre-pregnancy weight. I guess I have nursing a chunkasaurus to thank for that too. ;)

Even though our PEPS group officially "ended" on the 24th, we decided to continue meeting, and also get together for more Mommy's Night Outs and other fun events (that sometimes will also include the Daddies). I never could have imagined how wonderful it is to have this group to share the joys and challenges of parenting with, who are going through often EXACTLY the same things. They are incredible women and we have all bonded so well. We are also figuring out the possibility of a babysitting co-op so I'm looking forward to that too! Phil and I are continuing to host a couples' "Newlyparents Group" at our home every-other Saturday so with that, along with the moms I keep in touch with from my "You and Your New Baby" class, the moms from our KinderMusik class, and in our own family, I am surrounded by a support-network of other parents!

I never thought I'd say this, but I have insomnia. Before Hayden, my head would hit the pillow and I'd be asleep almost instantly. Now, I lay in bed for 1-2 hours every night trying to fall asleep. It seems like just when I finally start to drift off, Phil will start snoring, or Hayden will wake up, or a thought of something I need to remember to do will pop into my head and I'm wide awake all over again. The hardest part is that Hayden is actually sleeping pretty well now, so he's not even to blame! He'll go to sleep around 7:30pm, wake up at 2:30am or so for a feeding and fall right back to sleep, and then wake up at 6:30am. Then I bring him in bed with me and we snooze together until about 7:45am. The problem is, I go to bed around 10:30pm, it takes me until about midnight to actually fall asleep, so that 2:30 feeding wakes me up again, I'm awake until around 3:30 and it never feels like I got any sleep. I've recently received some good suggestions from friends and even my doctor, so we'll see if I can snap out of this insomnia!

Another challenge I am facing is this career as a Part-Time Freelance Designer. I thought the freelance opportunities would be plentiful and I could pick and choose what I'd want to take on. Turns out, it's been harder than I thought to have a steady flow of work, and then it seems a bunch come in all at once and I feel overwhelmed. I feel like being a full-time mom AND a part-time designer means I never get a break. Plus, I barely ever see Phil. When he gets home from work, I make dinner while he plays with Hayden a bit, then we eat dinner, do Hayden's bath and then I head down to my office to work the rest of the evening while Phil finishes Hayden's bedtime routine and then does his own thing. I need to figure out a way to schedule when I will work and when I will not. When you work from home, it's always there. Always something to do (even when I didn't have freelance work, I was finishing my online portfolio and resume). I've heard from other Work-at-Home moms that you have to schedule the time to work and schedule the "Family Time" so I will try that... I have to figure something out!

Week 23

What a fun week!

Earlier this week, we had some great sunny weather so Hayden and I went to the park with some of our PEPS friends and Hayden took his first ride in the baby swing. He loved it! I have video of him giggling.


Then Hayden began celebrating his first Halloween at a costume party with our PEPS group. Hayden wore a dinosaur/dragon costume. When he was tiny, he had a little onesie that said, "Gigglesaurus" on it, and ever since then, we call him everything from "Sleepysaurus" to "Stinkysaurus" to "Grouchasaurus"... and he has the high-pitched dinosaur shreik to go with it!



We also attended the neighborhood "Green Halloween" festival and met up with our friends Annie and her 9-month old Lucy!


Then Phil and I went to the Pumpkin Patch and got some fun photos and picked out a pumpkin for Hayden.



I finished off the week last night with a much-needed Mommies Night Out. Eight out of the 11 PEPS moms could make it and we had a fabulous time at Coho Cafe for 3 hours, eating a peaceful meal out, drinking wine, chatting about life and, of course, our babies. :)


P.S. I'm adding some cute photos of Hayden reading to my post from last week.

Week 22

Here is a photo of Hayden's two bottom teeth!


He is now 20 lbs. Can you believe it!?! He just turned 5 months old! Some of the 9-month old babies in our music class weigh 20 lbs. My nephew Jude weighed 20 lbs when he was 1.

In addition to being a big boy, he is developing really well. He is starting to sit with just light assistance. Sometimes I can even let go and he'll balance for a few seconds before toppling over. When he's on his tummy, he is already doing some crawling motions with his knees and can sometimes get his back end off the ground, but doesn't quite have the coordination yet to push himself up with his arms at the same time. He is getting really frustrated on his tummy because for some reason he forgot how to roll over from tummy to back. He squeals and grunts and snorts until mommy decides to rescue him!

Since he's been loving his Jumparoo, he is getting really strong legs. He can support his own weight for a few minutes while standing, and his balance standing is getting better too.

We love, love, love reading books! Hayden likes to even hold the book and "help" mommy turn the page. He looks at where I point on the page and almost never tires of looking at each page. His favorite books so far are: "Oh My, Oh My, Oh Dinosaurs" By Sandra Boynton, "Hop on Pop" by Dr. Seuss, and "Everywhere Babies" by Susan Meyers. He smiles when he sees the covers!




In honor of Phil's 30th Birthday that was on the 16th last week, here are some recent photos of Hayden and his Daddy:

Week 21

One of the most exciting things about Hayden's development is the way he gazes at me with his eyes in a way that makes me think he truly understands that I am his Mommy. It's as if he is saying "I love you, Mommy" with his eyes, especially when I am nursing him or go get him when he wakes up from his naps. So precious.

As I am now packing away his 3-6 month sizes and have to move him into the 6-12 month sized clothes, my heart is breaking at how quickly time is passing. As much as I am loving this new stage he is in, his "newborn" stage is officially history. Especially the days when he napped on my chest on the couch or in his car seat or stroller when we were out and about. He is only napping in his dark, quiet room in his own crib. Thankfully, his naps are getting longer and more regular, so that is helping, and he is only waking up once or twice to nurse at night lately. (Knock on wood! Now that I said that, he'll probably wake up 6 times tonight!)

Hayden continues to love his toes. How cute is this?


He is also constantly sucking his hands and fingers and occasionally gets just his thumb and realizes that's a pretty good one to suck! I'm torn with whether or not that's a good thing. In a way, it's good because he can pacify himself, but a thumbsucking habit can be harder than a pacifier to break...

I've also been giving him little sips of plain cold water out of a glass. He likes the feeling of the cold glass on his mouth more than anything. He is really good at grabbing and wanting to hold the glass!


Today we went to my nephew Jude's 5th birthday party. My sister-in-law pulled out Jude's old Halloween costume from when he was 1 and it fit Hayden!



We also started a Kindermusic class this week. It meets every Thursday for 15 weeks at a place in downtown Issaquah called The Musik Nest. Hayden absolutely LOVED it! The instructor is super enthusiastic and cognizant of infant learning and brain development. She explains why things are stimulating and how brain synapses are being connected by these motions and sounds. It’s not just about singing silly songs! We started out with some basic infant massage (which stimulates their circulation and digestive system), then learned some songs, playing with bells, drums, balls, and dancing. Hayden was REALLY mesmerized by the whole experience, especially the drums – he loved putting a hand on the drum to feel the vibration while I beat it to the music. And he’s JUST on the verge of clapping! He puts his fists together when everyone else was clapping. So smart! There are about 12 infants in the class. Some are as old as 9 months so it’s fun to see what we have to look forward to!

Week 20

TWO TEETH!

Hayden's 2 front bottom teeth have popped through the gums! Boy are they SHARP! I can't let him chew on my fingers anymore. After over a week of the most sleepless nights we've EVER experienced, I'm hoping that was the cause. I read that the teething pain is most intense just before the teeth break through. Unfortunately, other than Friday night (when he slept from 7:30pm to 7:30am and only woke up at 3:30am to feed!) he is still waking up 4-5 times at night. Funny thing is, his naps are getting better. Maybe it's because he's not getting good sleep at night, but all the books say that good naps yield good sleep and vice versa... So I don't know what's going on!

Hayden is hilarious in his Jumparoo. We put him in it in the kitchen while we're eating dinner and he'll jump around and entertain us during our entire meal. He loves music and dancing, clapping and motion songs like "If You're Happy and You Know It" and "The Wheels on the Bus". He even sometimes will try to clap his hands too (closed-fisted, usually!).



I am having so much fun with him. He has a great personality and is rarely fussy. His giggle is the most adorable sound I've ever heard. It's so fun to discover new things that make him laugh. Phil and I make complete fools of ourselves getting him to laugh, but it's totally worth it!

The dairy-free diet seems to be working. No bloody diapers for 2 weeks. I'm surviving without ice cream, cheese, and milk. Cheese has actually been the hardest to give up (I thought it would be ice cream!). Another thing that's changed is that he used to have 4-5 poopy diapers a day, but now is down to 1-2. We started giving him a "Poly-vi-sol with Iron" vitamin supplement (our pediatrician recommends all 4 month-olds start taking iron and vitamin D supplements) so I wonder if the iron is causing things to slow down. Unfortunately, with fewer poops, comes bigger blowouts! My washing machine is getting a good workout!

Week 19

We have a pterodactyl in our house (yes, I did have to look up the spelling). Hayden has discovered his voice. And it's in the form of high-pitched dinosaur-sounding squeals. It's cute now... sometimes. Luckily, he was quiet as a mouse during Tony & Michelle's wedding this weekend.

Hayden has also discovered his toes. Especially how good they taste. I am surprised that he can even get into that position - especially with those chunky thighs! Yoga masters would be envious!

Phil took this week off work to hang out with us and relax before he gets into the crazy Holiday season at work. It was so nice to have him home all week - I even got to sleep in a few mornings while Phil played with Hayden downstairs! The week has gone too quickly, though.

It feels like we took a giant leap backward with regard to night sleeping. There was one day where his late afternoon nap went so long it interfered with his bedtime and then since Phil was out at Tony's bachelor party, Hayden didn't get his usual bedtime routine with Daddy. So after he was up EVERY 45 MINUTES from 8pm on, I decided to bring him into bed with me around 1:30am and then he slept a little better, but I didn't. His lower right front tooth did pop through the other day, so I'm hoping that was the cause and maybe he'll go back to sleeping better soon.

We had Hayden's portraits taken a couple weeks ago. We purchased a "1 -year Baby Plan" at the studio so he'll get portraits taken every 3 months, all with one sitting fee. Other than him peeing on their drop cloth (that's what you get for wanting naked baby photos!) everything went really well! I was surprised how great he did since ususally when I point a camera at him, he gets a serious, worried look on his face. Even the flash didn't seem to bother him. He loved showing off his dimples for the photographer. We tried getting cute close-ups of his hands and feet, but those didn't turn out so great. I think we'll try again at his next session.

You can view the whole sitting here: http://www.linnea.photoreflect.com You may have to search for "Jacquelyn Lott" on "09/13/07" Password: LottJ
But do not order from that site. If you want to order prints, call me.

Here are some of the photos: