Meeting Santa

Cayden met Santa for the first time this past Tuesday night at Bass Pro Shop. He was way more interested in the train set next to Mr. Claus than the guy in the red suit himself, but the photographers distracted him long enough to get one decent shot. Look at the jowels on droopy dog. The baby, not Santa.

Thanks to the Bilz family for the "Santa's Little Helper" jumper; the photographer loved the reindeer feet.

A new record

While Moday night's three wakings (1:30, 3:30 and 5:30 a.m.) convinced us we were back in the land of sleep regression, last night angel baby slept from 8:15 p.m. to 5:55 a.m. -- 9.5 hours!!

Notice how I only use the angel baby moniker when he sleeps well for us?

Incidentally, If I hadn't awoken at 3:30, then 4:30, then 5:30 in anticipation of baby cries last night, it would have been my first 7.5 hour stretch of sleep since somewhere around the second trimester, when I started having to get out of bed each night to pee.

Poopoo in the Potty

No, Cayden hasn't started potty training. But oh how the poop landscape changed with the introduction of rice cereal!

This morning we got the first post-rice cereal poop, and unlike his very liquid poops to date, this one was much thicker, like peanut butter. And it stuck to his buns, requiring more than just a gentle wipe to clean him off.

I decided I didn't want to let the peanut-butter-poop dry out in the diaper pail until I do diaper laundry later this week, so this morning I began our poop-scraping journey, which I read will be quite interesting over the next couple of years.

Used way too much toilet paper to get the poo in the toilet, so now I'm on the hunt for a poop-scraping aparatus. Plastic knives, spoons and putty knives have been recommended to me, so far.

Since he's only pooping about once every 8 days now, I guess I have a week to pick my poop scraper.

Babyproofing

When we bought this house two years ago, we did a lot of cosmetic work in the first two weeks we moved in, including ripping out a ton of carpet and laying hardwood floors upstairs. After we put the floors in, we just never got around to re-installing the railing that had been along the living room edge. So for the last two years, the back of this couch has been the edge of the living room, and we're very lucky that no one has pushed the couch back so that it fell off the floor and down into the staircase and foyer.

But now that we have mere months before Chicken Wing is moving around, we realized the need to put something up behind the couch, so we can eventually put a baby gate at the top of the stairs.

So babyproofing started today, in the form of wall construction. Forget outlet covers and toilet locks; our entree into babyproofing required lots of power tools and off-site babysitters. Brian and my brother framed and drywalled the wall, and they hope to finish it within a week or so.

I'm a little miffed that we bought all the spindles and other crap to make a banister MONTHS ago, then Brian decided a wall would be better. But then again, this wall -- which will include three recessed and spotlit boxes -- gives me the perfect place to feature a huge 11x14 print of "a mother's view," my favorite photo of my baby.

Nursery

I realized last week I never posted pictures of the nursery, once it was completely done. So here it is.

Sleeping through the night

That's right, folks -- we have a baby who has been sleeping through the night for a week!! Not the "sleeping through the night" adults are used to, but ever since last Friday, his first stretch of sleep has gotten longer and longer after bedtime.

Last Friday he slept almost five hours before waking up -- a heck of a lot different than the up-every-hour crap he was doing not to long ago -- and last night he slept from 8:15 to 4:40 a.m. before waking for a snack!

And the icing on the cake? Now it only takes me 15 minutes to put him to bed, before he's completely out for HOURS.

Sooooo, is it coincidence that we started rice cereal last Friday night, and he's been sleeping like a champ ever since that same night? DOUBTFUL.

I know the docs don't necessarily agree that rice cereal makes babies sleep better, and I've heard from a few moms whose kids definitely did NOT sleep better after rice cereal.

But my baby? Yeah, rice cereal helps him sleep much more deeply and peacefully. Still glad we waited until we got the go-ahead from the pediatrician, but boy am I loving those magic little sparkly flakes now.

And I'm also really glad we don't have to revisit the CIO discussion, at least for a while. Brian is just thrilled that Cayden goes to sleep so fast and stays asleep so long, so we're OK with the fact that he nurses pretty much to sleep at bedtime and at his (now only!!) nighttime feeding.

And I'm sure now that I've committed this to writing he'll return to his horrible sleep patterns forthwith.

Haven't posted any photos in a while, so here's my handsome boy last Sunday, rolling around on the floor.


And here's what I came back out of the kitchen to find, after grabbing a glass of juice. Chicken Wing watching NFL countdown.


And one more. Cayden making out with his gifaffe, Sophie. Mmmmm, sloppy giraffe action.

Fenugreek: This stuff really works!!

Whether it's the herb itself or the psychological effect it has in reducing stress for me, production is definitely up! I got 19.5 ounces at work today.