He had rice formula
4 1/2 months
Friday night we gave Evan rice formula for the first time. He wasn't sure how to react to the spoon. At first, we would deposit formula into his mouth, and it would come right back out. He had a look of total wonder and amazement on his face. After a few bites, he opened his mouth and leaned forward a little. He liked it! I think he may have swallowed some of it.

The second and third nights went better. We put him in his high chair, and he looked so little in it. He's only about half the width of the chair, and he looks very short and innocent, practically peering over the top of the tray. He sits up pretty well, though. With each spoonful of rice formula, I would say, "open!" and he would open and lean forward. In between bites, he stops to suck his thumb, then pulls it out and is ready for more rice.

We're trying different ideas to get him to sleep better, and we're slowly seeing results. Filling him up with formula doesn't seem to have helped, though, which just goes to show he wants to eat during the night for comfort, not because he's hungry.

Tonight Jerry & I went through the usual sleep routine... formula, nursing, bath, turn off all the lights around the house, rock with daddy, then Jerry put him down while he was still awake and he sucked his thumb in his crib... it's been 30 minutes and still not a peep from his room.

All the new things he's doing
4 months
He's doing so many new things, I can't believe this is the same little guy I gave birth to 4 months ago. He's totally different.
* He sticks his tongue out at random times. At first, he stuck it out to imitate us last week. Now he just sticks it out every now and then. We made a posting when he was about 3 weeks old that said he stuck his tongue out imitating us, but really he was only barely doing it back then. Now it actually comes out past his lips.
* He can go into a sitting position when we are holding him there. Previously, his curly little baby body resisted bending at the waist.
* He rolled over 3 more times this week for Jerry. He still doesn't do it easily. It's as if it requires great concentration, and when he doesn't get it, he cries. Often he rolls over and then can't get his arm out from underneath him. Usually babies roll over from tummy to back first (because of their round tummies), but Evan is doing back to tummy, and has never done it the other way before.
* Once he rolls onto his tummy, he acts like he is trying to crawl. He doesn't lift his tummy off the ground yet... I'm sure he doesn't have the arm strength yet. But he scoots a few inches forward. Often this activity ends in him crying because he's upset he can't crawl (at least that's why I think he's crying).
* When lying on his back, he'll lift his arms up in front of him. It almost looks like he's reaching up for me to pick him up, but I'm not sure.
* He briefly touched his toes the other day. Perhaps the cute thing where babies hold their feet is coming up next???
* Jerry does this thing where Evan is lying on his back on the bed, and Jerry pulls him to his feet by his arms (Evan's arms will be all tight). Evan loves it.

Sleeping problems
It's a really good thing I'm not working right now. As of a couple weeks ago, our goal was to get him to sleep in his crib and get him out of our bed. I started putting him in his crib for all daytime naps. He sleeps in there, but never for more than one hour (if he is napping with me, he can nap for 2 hours or more). Then, at night, Jerry puts him in his crib at 6:00 and I bring him to our bed at 12:00. The only problem is, he wakes up once every single hour. He isn't hungry. He will go back to sleep once he's rocked, and then when he's in a deep sleep we put him back in the crib. This is tiring, but we figured that if we did it often enough, he would eventually get used to the crib and start sleeping in there for longer periods.

This plan backfired. Now, when I bring him to bed with us at 12:00, he continues to wake up every hour, all night long. He goes back to sleep when I either rock or feed him. Sometimes he'll just go back to sleep if I pat his baby butt and comfort him. But before this, he would only wake up every 3 hours to eat, and even then he didn't cry, he would just stir a little, I'd feed him, and we'd peacefully both go back to sleep. This, however, is not peaceful.

The baby book says babies go through a sleep cycle every hour (just like adults do, except their cycle might be shorter). When they enter the light sleep cycle (each hour), they will wake up if they are unhappy (say, if they're hungry, in pain, or all alone in a crib when they dont' want to be, for example). So that explains why he has been waking up every hour. I believe he continues to wake up even when he's in our bed because his body is now in the habit of waking up whenever it enters the light sleep cycle.

So what are we supposed to do? Take a break from pushing the crib thing and try again in a few weeks? Or keep pushing it, and allow the family to be so sleep deprived we can't think straight? I get flustered just thinking about going through another night like that.

Last night was actually a little better... he still woke up every hour, but all I had to do was pat him and he'd go back to sleep. I didn't have to actually get out of bed and rock him.

New Picture Galleries!!
September and October are up check them out. August and November will come later. Here's a shot of Evan's fussy face.

Pictures Almost Done
I couldn't get all of the pictures uploaded tonight, but I do have them organized. Just need to make the final cuts and then post. Should be up Monday night. For now, here a couple shots of the little cutie.

He rolled over
16 1/2 weeks
Evan rolled over for the first time, all by himself! He was lying on his back and kept rocking from side to side like he was trying to do it. Finally he rolled over to his tummy, then propped himself up on his elbows. I put him on his back and he did it again. I cheered him on and clapped for him when he was done and he looked up at me all surprised and confused. I guess he doesn't know this is a big deal. Yay Evan!!!

My dad sent Evan a care package of great outfits for winter which was a total godsend. Evan is so big!!! He wears 6-9 months even though he's only three and half months old. We realized last week that most of his clothes were for summer, and since it was 90 degrees until the day before Halloween, it was ok, but now that winter is suddenly here, we had to hurry up and get him something warm. Thank you dad for all of the great outfits. Evan will be modeling them very soon. Especailly the very hip warm-up suits!

I know it's been months since a picture has been posted, but I'm working on it. Babies take a lot of time so cut me some slack. Ain't he cute!!!!!! If all goes ok, I'll have all of the picture up do date by the end of the weekend.

He pulled off my glasses today
16 weeks
He's really getting good at his hand-eye coordination. Today I was holding him close to my face and he grabbed and poked my cheeks, tried to stick his fingers in my eyes, and actually brought his mouth to my nose like he wanted to eat it. Then he pulled off my glasses, and tried to stick them in his mouth. After I cleaned off the fingerprints and slobber, he grabbed them again.

The old lady at Nordstrom
Over the weekend Jerry and I went to Nordstrom Cafe (for the best gourmet sandwhiches ever) and had lunch. We got up to leave (Jerry was holding the baby) and a white-haired lady reached out her hand and grabbed Evan's bare foot as we walked by. She said, "His feet are so... oh, they're actually quite warm." Jerry laughed and then she asked how old he was. Jerry said three months and she wanted to know if we really thought it was a good idea to bring a baby of that age out in public.

He made a friend
While I don't usually shop at Nordstrom, it's my new favorite place to be because they have this nursing area in their women's restrooms... big plush couches, relaxing music, and other breastfeeding moms who don't look at me funny are some of the perks. While we were in there, there was another baby there who was 7 months old. The mom and I held the babies close to each other and Evan leaned into her. The whole time, Evan just stood there staring at her, not moving his hands or any part of his body. The girl baby reached out and pinched his cheeks, tried to stick her fingers in his eyes, then stuck her fingers in his mouth. He stood there (with my help of course), totally umoved.

sleeping progress
We've been really bad about enforcing any type of structure to his sleep, and as a result, he is unfamiliar with his crib and refuses to sleep in there, he goes to sleep at odd hours, and it also takes him a long time to fall asleep when we try to rock or dance him to sleep. The sleeping situation is in a state of unorganized chaos and we've decided to do something about it.

This book I'm reading keeps talking about the importance of establishing a routine and being consistent. Hard for us because we like to get up and go whenever we want. But change is happening starting today.

During the day today, I rocked him to sleep after noticing his first "sleepy cues," (rubbing his eyes, cranky, etc.) and he took both naps in his crib! A few weeks ago he would have immediately awakened after being put down (he has very sensitive crib radar). Tonight while I was in night class, Jerry did "the routine" which we decided we'll do every night at the same time... a calming bath, diaper and clothes change, rocking in the rocking chair to soft music, then placed into the crib. It worked! He only stayed asleep for a half-hour (I can hear the expert parents out there now: hmmph. A half-hour... how sad. ) But for us, this is progress!

When I got home from school I fed him and then tried to rock him to put him back down, but for 15 minutes his blue eyes were wide open. He enjoyed the rocking, thumb in mouth, listening to the nice music, but tired he was not. Jerry took over with the rocking, and still no luck. Currently they're out playing in the living room. Oh well. I guess we can't have total success in one day. I guess I'll go take over and try again.

He half rolled over on Halloween
almost 16 weeks
For Halloween Evan was a fireman. We went to my parent's house to eat dinner before venturing to the mall (the modern day town center, where all the kids dress up and show off their costumes). We never made it to the mall because Evan fell asleep (we keep forgetting that we can't keep him up past about 7:00). After eating, we were all watching Evan lay on his back, pretty much just staring at him. He started to kind of roll to one side, but couldn't get beyond his arm which was in the way. Jerry gave him a little push, and got him over the hump, then Evan finished by removing his arm from under his body and propping himself up on both elbows. We repeated this activity about six times.

Each time after rolling over, he would forward-scoot toward a toy (pushing his feet off of my body). He wasn't lifting his tummy off the floor or anything, but still... he gets the idea that moving his body in this way will get him to new destinations.

My dad predicts he'll be crawling within 6 weeks. That would be a little early. I just realized that once he learns to crawl, he'll be getting into more things, thus adding to the stress of our days! And that could come in 6 weeks?

happy times
Evan is so happy! He's sort of easily amused. Jerry sits Evan on his tummy and sings funny songs to him while making Evan sort of "dance" (by moving his arms around) and he just cackles! He loves it! I sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to him and he smiles and cackles like it's the funniest thing ever. He also likes any type of bouncing.

Speaking of bouncing...
Evan spit up about a cup of curdy stuff all over Jerry's face today. Now that I think of it, it was pretty funny. Jerry was lying on the couch, holding Evan above his head and sort of shaking him. Evan was laughing deliriously (see above). I was walking by, carring a basket of laundry. Suddenly, an outpouring. I just stood there, totally dumbfounded. Looking totally grossed out and shocked, Jerry said, "Can you help me?" I continued to just stand there, still dumbfounded, not sure what to do for like a full minute, and finally Jerry pushed the baby into me so he could run to the bathroom and clean up. At least his mouth had been closed.

The kid is growing like a weed
In spite of all his spitting up, he's keeping enough down that he's getting huge. He is now wearing 6-9 month size clothes! We went shopping this weekend, bought his first pair of jeans. He's a big boy.

The sleeping issue
No progress on the sleeping thing. I haven't really tried, though. I did receive my book from Amazon on how to get him to sleep through the night (without using the cry-it-out method... more on that later), how to get him to sleep in his own bed, and how to establish nighttime routines. I didn't realize being a parent involved such obsession over sleeping and sleep related issues. Soon I'll finish my book and then we'll try some new things. Hopefully something will work.