Birthday gathering

I think last night was one of the best night of sleep we got in a long while. Nicolas only fussed slightly twice and went back to sleep as soon as he got his pacifier. It was great! He also suprised me this morning by rolling from his back to his front all on his own - a first!Today we had the entire family over to celebrate my birthday. I figured it was a good excuse for everyone to visit with Nicolas :-) Both sets of grandparents were able to come visit, as well as Uncle Bryan and Auntie Rebecca, and Auntie Tina and cousin Bella. Nicolas gets so distracted when he is nursing that I had to go upstairs when he got hungry to nurse him or it would have taken hours!We had a great time playing with everyone and visiting. There was a bocce game and everyone had fun writing on the front sidewalk with the chalk that Louie bought.

Rule Breaker

Yesterday was fairly uneventful except that Vovo was able to get Nicolas to nap (very briefly - about 20 minutes) on his back. That is pretty unusual and I was glad that he did sleep for a bit on his back, but of course he always sleeps better/longer on his tummy. 4 months old and he is already "breaking the rules". Something tells me we are going to be in real trouble when he gets older!

Still not sleeping peacefully at night. I spent 2 hours sleeping in the rocker/recliner and Lou spent an hour. It is just easier to stay in there than go back and forth between bedrooms. He did have some gas - not sure what I ate that caused that - poor thing. Still hasn't pooped since Tuesday morning, so I am sure that may be making him uncomfortable. Poor daycare - I suspect he is going to have a "code brown" while he is there today!

Fooling Mommy

We had a lovely weekend. Lou's parents came to the house and helped us watch Nicolas and finish the new garden. The new garden is almost complete - just need to put down the edgers and finish mulching. Nic had a fun day playing with Vovo and was very impressed with the new garden :-)

Sunday Louie spent most of the morning playing with Nicolas while I grocery shopped and did some work outside. Then it was time to switch off and Luis got to "play" outside while I played with Nicolas. It was great teamwork.

Nicolas loved his rattle socks - he kept trying to put them in his mouth. He started doing something strange during feedings this weekend. He will nurse for a while, then he will start sucking his fist, then he nurses some more and so on. It is getting difficult for me to figure out if he is done eating. And he also started looking up at me and occasionally smiling while eating. It is like he has a private joke going on in his head. I think it is teething related since as soon as I try to "shut off the tap" he cries and wants more. He also started biting my finger this weekend, so I am chalking it all up to teething.

We all scream for ice cream

Well it was another long night for me last night. Poor Nicolas had some serious gas issues. He never appeared to wake up, but he did some significant squirming around all night and I could hear him farting for a good portion of the night. I ended up sleeping in the rocker/recliner from about 1:30-4:00 since he would go through spurts of spitting out the pacifier and crying. Luckily we splurged when we bought the rocker/recliner and it is really comfortable (thanks Luis - you were right on that one!)

This afternoon was the Parent's Ice Cream Social at Nic's daycare. We got to meet some of the parents of the other infants and Lou got to eat some delicious Edy's ice cream. Since Nicolas still doesn't seem to do well when I eat ice cream, I ate a cookie instead. It was nice to get together with the other families in a social setting.Nicolas was again only interested in daddy during dinnertime. He kept faking a cough so that Luis would look at him. Me, on the other hand, could have left the room and he wouldn't have cared. It just means I get to eat my dinner in peace :-)

Chatty drooler

Nicolas continues to produce copious amounts of drool, but I don't think we will actually see any teeth for a while yet. Yesterday he watched us eat some lobsters. For some reason, he only had eyes for daddy and kept trying to talk to him while Luis was eating. When Luis was looking away, he would do his fake cough to get attention. Didn't matter than I was talking to him or watching him - he only cared about daddy's attention (of course until he got hungry - then he was very interested in me).
Not sure what is going on, but last night Nicolas was very restless again. I slept in the rocker/recliner from about 2-3 this morning since I was tired of going back and forth between the nursery and our room. I woke him up a bit earlier than usual (4:45) to see if he would be less restless once I fed him. He decided that it was a good time to have a nice long chat while I was changing his diaper. I am sure Luis loved that as he was still trying to get some sleep and I hadn't turned off the monitor.

Nicolas is enjoying his bathtime more and more. What a relief - in the beginning he HATED his bath. Now he loves to splash Luis with his feet. By the end of bathtime, Luis and I are almost as wet as the baby!

Our little Peanut

Yesterday Nicolas had his 4 month checkup. Everything is great, but he is on the small size (no surprise there). He now weighs 12 lbs 3 oz and is 24 1/4 inches long. He is in the 25% for height and in the 10% for weight. The doctor doesn't seem concerned - developmentally he is doing great and the doctor even commented on how strong he is for a baby. Poor thing had to get 3 shots but he was a trooper and only cried while he was getting the shots - as soon as we picked him up he stopped crying.

Last night a friend came over for dinner and we ate pizza. I haven't had pizza in ages because every time I ate it in the past it gave Nicolas a lot of gas. But I figured it was time to try again since it had been months. Last night Nicolas was a little restless and definitely had some gas, but it wasn't nearly as bad as before. I figure in another month we should be in the clear (I hope!)

Haunted by cheesecake

Well, the cheesecake I ate last night was a bad idea.

Nicolas had a very restless night. He seemed to sleep ok, but was very restless and squirmy all night. I certainly didn't get much sleep. He had a lot of gas all night/morning. I even got up around 4:30 to feed him a little to see if that would help him sleep better. He did for a little while, but continued to squirm. I slept in the rocker for about an hour and then Luis slept in it for about an hour after I came back to bed. Easier than having to continually go into the nursery to help pacify the little guy. So, I think we are all pretty tired this morning.

Today was music class at Daycare and Nicolas loved it. Mary Lou (one of his teachers) said he didn't take his eyes of Kathye, the woman playing the music. Nicolas was kind enough to save a "code brown" (poopy diaper that requires a change of clothing) for me as soon as we got home.

He is "talking" more and more these days. He is also really enjoying playing with his toes/feet.Tomorrow is his 4 month birthday and checkup. Hopefully he won't cry too much when he gets his shots.

Bed, shmed

Today we went to Kayla's christening. We were all dragging a little this morning so we were a little late to the ceremony, but Nicolas was a very good boy in church. He was very quiet except during one of the songs when he decided he was going to join in and sing for a bit. But, he was smart enough to know to stop singing when everyone else did :-).

The reception after at the Shafman house was a lot of fun. Nicolas got to see his friends (Kayla, Emma, CJ, Ava, Andrew) and had a great day. He even took a nice long nap on Kayla's floor.

Cultivating a green thumb

We put in a new garden today out by the stone wall. It is the biggest garden yet and took almost all day to clear the land and till the soil. We had lots of help from Momma and Poppa Marques. Poppa Marques kept an eye on Nicolas for most of the day so we could concentrate on getting the garden area dug up. Once Vovo ran out of bottles, I went in and fed the little guy and Vovo helped dig holes and transport sod. It was definitely a team effort and all the help was much appreciated. We were able to plant most of the larger plantings and now the rest just needs to be filled in.

Everyone was tired at the end of the day and we all went to bed exhausted.

Morning Mommy!

I woke up this morning around 3:30am to the sound of Nicolas moving around a lot in his crib. So I decided to investigate and hopefully just give him the pacifier to help settle him back down. There is my little man, rolled over on his back at a 90 degree angle from when he started smiling up at me. I turned him back onto his tummy and gave him the pacifier and he closed his eyes to go to sleep. For the next half hour I played "retrieve my pacifier" with him. He would pull it out, spit it out, or turn his head so that it came out and I would get back out of bed to fix it. After 30 minutes I decided to try nursing him for a few minutes to see if that would settle him down. I got back into bed at 4:15 and at 4:30 when Nic started fussing I sent Lou to play "retrieve the pacifier". He got lucky and only had to play it once :-)

Today was sprinkler day at daycare. Nicolas splashed his hands in the water, drank all his bottles which are now 5 oz. and had a three hour nap. Wish I had one of those! Nicolas was very talkative and happy when I picked him up from daycare. Makes me feel better about bringing him there - he must like it since he always seems happy when I get there. Course, I'm quite pleased when he seems so happy to see me at the end of the day :-)

Splish Splash

Today Nicolas discovered two things:
1. His adorable little feet
2. How to splash in the tub

Nicolas had fun playing with with Vovo (grandpa Marques) all day today. During one of my short breaks I went downstairs to give the little guy a kiss and he was laying in the Pack N Play holding his little feet looking quite pleased with himself.

After work he was very playful - lots of big gummy smiles and laughter. Luis and I gave him a bath right before dinner and as we were getting ready to take him out of the tub he learned the fun of splashing with his feet and ended up splashing water all over Louie and himself. Not sure he knew exactly what was going on as he had a bewildered look on his face, but it was hilarious to watch.

How I love the sweet smell of a nice clean baby...

Daycare, Day 2

Today was Nic's second day at daycare. He woke up bright and early at 4:15 and I nursed him and put him back to bed until about 6:00. We woke Luis up about 6:15 to help with a poopy diaper. Since we know how much Luis likes the poopy diapers, we try to save them for him to change. No call from the daycare which means he did fine eating. I am sure Nicolas is adjusting better than I am. He was happily playing in the bouncy chair when I picked him up.Although it had only been an hour and a half since he last ate, I nursed Nicolas when we got home. He nursed about twice as long as usual and then after a 15 minute break he was back at it. Not sure if I need to send more milk in his bottles or if he was just soothing himself after trying to adjust to his new environment. The pediatrician did say he may nurse and cuddle more as he is adjusting, so I am going with that explanation.

Tomorrow he spends the day with Vo vo (grandpa).