Clara's First Camping Trip

Our philosophy on doing stuff with kids is to do it "early and often."  We hope that our kids will become good travelers and also that they will love the outdoors!  Andrew went camping three or four times last season as a baby, so we were eager to get Clara out there and try out our "camping with two" strategy.

We headed out to the Buffalo Creek Recreation Area south of Bailey, near where we go to cut our Christmas trees every year.  This is a really nice area with plenty of flat land, and lots of National Forest land that is eligible for freedom camping. 

To handle the two under two thing, we brought two tents - one for the girls and one for the boys.  We set them up a significant enough distance apart that a nightwaking by one shouldn't effect the other.

Andrew had a ton of fun exploring the surrounding area.  We brought some trucks to play in the dirt.  He is really becoming fun, and I am super excited to spend more time with him in the great outdoors!  He's so curious and full of the joy of discovery.  I'm really looking forward to this part of having kids.

So as the sun was going down and we started getting ready for bed, I realized that I had forgotten to pack Andrew's bottle of milk, which is the way he relaxes to get to sleep.  Oops.  We had a brief conversation about whether we should just go home at that point, but we decided to give it a shot.  There was about a 50/50 shot that once asleep, he'd make it through the night.  (Ah, optimism!)

I went to sleep with Clara, nursing her to sleep in the girls' tent.  I could hear Andrew over in the boys' tent for a very long time.  Singing, chatting, changing positions...  He finally wound down and dropped off to sleep around 10p.  So far so good.

In the middle of the night (2am-ish?), I was awoken by Andrew's cry from across the clearing.  Unfortunately, his method of getting back to sleep after a wakeup was also to have a bottle.  And unlike going to sleep initially, which he does happily, night wakeups are scared and upset affairs.  I ran over to the boys' tent and offered to switch places with Travis, to think that maybe Mommy had the touch to get him calm enough to go back to sleep after Daddy tried his best.  A few minutes later, Clara woke up to be fed, so I was nursing Clara and trying to comfort Andrew... and they were both keeping each other awake.

So that is how it came to be that we packed up camp at 3am and drove home.

We used to say that it counted as a night of camping if we made it until dawn.  Maybe with two kids, that criteria needs to be a little looser?

Ten Month Update... And Some Other Stuff

Happy 10 months to my beautiful, happy, friendly, independent little man!  We weighed him last week at the birth center when I went for my midwife appointment.  Looks like he has clawed his way back up from 17lbs at 8 months (7th%ile) to 21 lbs at 10 months (39th%ile).  That's right people - a four pound gain in two months.  No wonder we've had poop!  And he's still eating like a horse!


Oh, and we got the 7th tooth the other day (lower left lateral incisor).  The 8th can't be far behind!


I think we may be done co-sleeping again, this time.  And this time I think it might be for good, barring special circumstances.  He is very restless and distracted when co-sleeping lately, due to his new mobility, and I seem to disturb him a lot (not to mention what he does to me!).  Last night he slept all night in his crib, and had two wakeups at 1:45a and 4:30a, which were easy - a quick bottle and back to sleep by himself.  I think that might be a record - if not, it's only happened one or two other times.  This is great timing for sleeping on his own, because I want him to be a fairly independent sleeper by the time Baby Girl (BG) comes - a new interloper will need to be in my bed!


In other sleeping news, Andrew has given up the pacifier.  He just won't take it anymore.  Which... is really fine, because this seems like an awesome time to wean him from it and not have to worry about a struggle with it later.


The one behavioral thing we are dealing with right now is biting  He seems to bite to communicate that he needs something.  Tired? Bites.  Wants a snack of solids? Bites.  Wants mommy to come down on the floor and play? Bites.  Maybe it's related to the recent/upcoming teething.  But I can't help but think it's at least partly that he needs more ways to communicate.  I've started expanding the signs we use (adding "eat" and "tired" to "milk" and "all done."  Also hoping to add "potty" or some variant soon), and have been trying to be more consistent with them.  He hasn't made any signs back yet, but if I make the sign for milk (which I've been using since he was 4 months), he whimpers and kicks his legs: "YES THAT'S WHAT I WANT, ISN'T IT OBVIOUS???"  Hopefully this is just a teething/communication phase, and not a "We have a biter" revelation.

Also, fascinating cloth diaper development.  In the past, I have just used the Kirkland Free and Clear laundry detergent from Costco for my diaper laundry instead of springing for any special soap (which the diaper makers generally recommend, and it's been working fine.  Well, Travis went to Costco a couple months ago and picked up a bunch of ALL Free and Clear instead - there was a coupon which made the name brand cheaper than the Kirkland brand, so he thought, "Score!" and stocked up on it.  So we've been using All for like 6 weeks now, maybe two months.  

Well, you also might remember that ever since Andrew got back on the eating-not-starving track, he's been pooping up a storm, and having a lot of poop-splosions.  Well, since that time, the diapers have been more stained and way way way more smelly.  Smelly to the point that vinegar was no help, and stained to the point that bleach was no help.  Seriously. Of course, Andrew started eating well... about two months ago.

It finally occurred to me that the smelly, stained diapers could possibly be related to the switch in detergent and not the sudden volume of poop.  So I picked up some more Kirkland detergent this week, and tonight was my first load of diaper wash going back to the Kirkland brand.

You guys, it was like night and day.  There is NO SMELL.  The stains that were there, and I assume were starting to set in are much lighter!  I can't even believe it!  I would never have believed that a name brand like All was worse than Kirkland - let alone WAY WAY worse.  I feel like I should apologize to Costco.

Anyway that's my story.  And the lesson is: diaper stains and smells got you down?  Try switching detergents!  I recommend Kirkland!

Here are some recent pictures of our guy:

Oh and On Pine Hill (heh) last week we got 7-8" of snow when 1-1.5 was expected.  After it warmed up and the slabs of snow started sliding off our metal roof, this is the gnarly ice sculpture we got to enjoy for a while.

Fun times!

friends and family

We took a short trip over to Indianapolis before Thanksgiving.  It was Andrew's first flight as a Premier on United.  Congrats, buddy!

We took the opportunity to visit our friends the T's who live in the Urbana-Champaign area.  Believe it or not, Indianapolis is their closest major airport!  It was a bonding time with our old friends now that we have a child and can talk with them on whole new levels.  Unfortunately, Andrew was coming down with a cold, and we had a couple of really rough nights.  But we made it through!

Ooh, new toys!

Puzzles with Evan and Nora

Learning to sit up is hard.

We then headed over to Kokomo to attend Aunt-to-be (ATB) Kathleen's bridal shower.  It was fun to see family and to meet new family!

In fact it was exhausting.  Thank God for Grandma!

We wrapped up our trip with a stay at the Hyatt Regency Downtown Indianapolis, with excellent views of the Indiana State Capitol.

This is my favorite nursing picture ever.  My post-baby belly may be hanging out there, but this is my life!

An unfortunate coda to this trip: I left my wallet in the rental car and it was never recovered.  Three days before leaving on an international vacation!  AGH.  I blame mommy brain.  Not my brightest moment.

camping, colds, and sleep

Last weekend we did our second attempt at camping.  We drove up Geneva Creek, off of Guanella Pass Road.  It was a fun easy 4wd all the way up to just below the continental divide, topping out at about 12,000 ft.  We really really really wanted to camp up there in the "Geneva City" basin, but unfortunately, with the incredibly wet, snowy winter that the high country had this year, the mosquitoes were positively swarming, so we descended.

The lower part of the road was extremely busy with campers - even though this was dispersed camping - so we grabbed a wide spot in the road to camp.  Not our ideal situation, but it worked.  We took the three man tent this time, which was palatial in its accommodation.  We tried the suggestion of Terry and Tara, which was to swaddle him and have him sleep on the cushy changing pad.  This takes up a lot of room in the Jeep, but is a nice place for baby sleeping.

Dressed to combat mosquitoes and late afternoon sun.

Luxurious mattress

In the three-man tent

Chilly morning in camp.

Andrew didn't have the best night camping, but what we didn't realize at the time was that he was coming down with a cold.  He spent the following day pretty out of it, and we had a panicked night of constructing tents in the bedroom at home where he could sleep in the bouncy chair (semi-inclined) with the humidifier (which I wish we had a picture of).  This was followed by two nights of sleeping in the swing in the closed-up bathroom with the vaporizer running.  Then he graduated to sleeping in the crib with the mattress inclined by a pillow. This has worked surprisingly well.

I brought him back to my bed for a night, and neither of us had very good sleep.  So last night, I swaddled him up and put him down in the crib after reading Goodnight Moon, something I hope will become part of our bedtime routine:

He went down at 9pm and had three wakeups - 1:30am with a feeding, 3:30 am (just gave him the pacifier and rocked him back to sleep), and 4:45 am with a feeding.  I'm mostly confident we can get rid of that 3:30 break.  And then, though he was making noises from 6am on, he didn't get up until 7:15a.  So if you don't count the 3:30a wakeup, that's a 4.5 hour block followed by a 3-ish hour block and then a couple more hours before fully awake... I can handle this!  I got great sleep in spite of getting up to walk to the next room.

I think that for the time being, this means the end of co-sleeping for us.  We'll see what happens when I go back to work.  I've heard that the best sleeping arrangement is the one that gets everyone in the house the most sleep, and for one night at least, I think we all had a great night.

the state of the union

Here's a round robin update on how we're doing here.

Breastfeeding: I'm shocked at how much more efficient Andrew is lately (10 minutes each side, 13 if he's dawdling) and shocked also at how much I miss when he would lollygag for 30 minutes on each side.  We have continued to go to a breastfeeding support group sponsored by our lactation consultant, which has been awesome for us, and for me to socialize with other new moms.

Sleep: Andrew defies all conventional wisdom on baby sleep.  He only needs 9-10ish hours a day, including naps.  He rarely takes long naps, mostly just cat naps - except for today, because we apparently wore him out on the weekend.  If he goes to bed before about 9:30pm, he wants to get up for the day (or at least throw a party) around 330-4am.  I thought babies were supposed to need a lot of sleep!  I'm working on letting go of the idea that "what the books say" doesn't necessarily apply to us, and things are getting much easier for us.  We co-sleep at night for the most part.  Once he started to be able to sleep by himself in the crib, I started putting him down there for the first 3-hour segment and then bringing him in to sleep with me, so that I could get some more restful sleep myself.  The problem I had with that is that I would put him down and then stay up to get things done or just spend time with my Travis, and i ended up more exhausted than before.  So we are back to full time co-sleeping, and he goes to bed when I do between 9:30 and 10:30.

Travis has been sleeping in the spare room since his paternity leave ended. This works out really well for us because he gets enough sleep for work, and then if Andrew does decide to throw a 4am party, he is freshly ready and able to entertain him, and I can get rest, and we both end up with a reasonable amount of sleep.

For naps Andrew will sleep in the crib in the nursery, in the cradle in the living room, or in the swing in the dining room.  I'm encouraged that after a rough start of needing to sleep on someone ALL THE TIME, he seems to be rather flexible in his sleep situation.  We swaddle him whenever he is sleeping by himself to help him not get distracted by his own hands.

Cloth diapering: we are also using and loving the BumGenius 3.0-4.0 one-size models.  I'm definitely loving the cloth diapers.  We do disposables on the road/for travel days and I can't wait to get him back into the cloth at the end of the day.  He has stopped pooping overnight, so I've been doubling the liners and he's been going all night on one diaper, which gets me even more sleep, because now when he stirs, I just roll over, start him feeding, and drift back off to sleep.  I don't even have to wake up.  Not bad.

Currently my biggest stress is going back to work.  I am in the throes of trying to determine what childcare is going to be and I'm completely freaking out about it.  I'm having visions of him being left in a crib to cry, and I have the same nightmare for a nanny as I do for a day care center.  He's pretty much the easiest baby in the world - never cries without a reason, always very easy to soothe - which is why leaving him to cry would be absolutely tragic.  I'm getting emotional just typing that.


On the positive side, some of my pregnancy pounds have melted off.  It's never been easy for me to lose or maintain a healthy weight, and so to see some of it slip off so easily is ridiculously exciting.  I attribute it some to breastfeeding, some to getting back to exercising, and a lot to cutting out dairy.  I may want to continue that diet even after Andrew is okay with it again!

That's my world right now.  Here are some pictures and highlights of this week:

Daddy gives a bottle of mama's milk.

Sitting up supported! Like a couch potato.

Grandpa and Andrew play on the baby gym.

My new friend, Maulee Brown

This beautiful girl pictured above followed Travis home from his morning walk the other day.  She's a pit bull. I have rarely seen a dog so obedient and well-behaved.  And so friendly and affectionate!  She hung out on our porch all morning and didn't seem to know how to get home even when I took her on a walk to the vicinity of her house and said, "go home!"  When her mom came to pick her up, she was grateful that she was found by people who were friendly to her - some in the neighborhood apparently don't appreciate her very much.  It was hard not to be friendly to such a wonderful dog!

It's gotten very warm again, so we decided to do Andrew's bath on the porch:

Bathtime still life.

Naked baby!

Tub with a view

After the bath, we went out to get some exercise and walked from Morrison to Quincy and Wadsworth (~7 miles) through Bear Creek Lake Park.  We pushed Andrew in the BOB.  It was quite the adventure.

http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/41709904

We've had lots of storms.  With storms come rainbows. And internet outages.

We took Grandma and Grandpa off-roading.  First we drove over the (smooth) Boreas Pass Road.  Then we attempted Georgia Pass:

The family cradle now lives in Colorado.  Andrew broke it in with a three hour nap today.

Grandma got to give Andrew his bottle.  Andrew is still getting used to the bottle thing.

2 weeks

Andrew Lee is growing up.  He's almost back at his birth weight, currently tipping the scales at 8 lb even.  Dr. B is very happy with that.  Nursing is SOOOOOOOO much better.  We are even moving forward with side-lying nursing, which was a challenge at first.  We are co-sleeping, and so the side-lying nursing is key to getting mommy, and daddy too, a lot of sleep.  And though of course we are up in the night, I think we are getting a whole lot of sleep, all things considered.  I honestly can't imagine doing this any other way.  People actually get up and walk to another room every 2-3 hours?  Andrew and I just roll over, he latches on, and we both drift back off to sleep.  Other than a couple of diaper changes (thanks, daddy, for handling those), we don't leave our nest.

This  is also the clear choice for sleeping because he seems to absolutely *loathe* being on his back, alone in a crib or bassinet.  So we've been "practicing" during naps, experimenting with laying him down in the crib or the pack-n-play.  Usually, if he's already asleep, it's about 2 minutes before he's woken himself up (swaddled or not) and is asking politely to be picked up.  In 2 minutes more, the polite asking has turned to demanding.

Lately, though, he's been having more "quiet alert" awake time, which makes him seem like a very mature kid.  If he's put down when quiet alert, he seems content to look around and take in the world from his back.  He won't go to sleep though.  A couple days ago he started fussing and Daddy put on an Alabama CD, and he immediately quieted down and seemed perfectly content.  It was really funny, because one song would wind down, and he would start to fuss a bit, then the next song would start and he would calm right back down, listening and dancing to the music.  So I guess that we have discovered Andrew's first favorite band.  :o)

Listening to old Alabama...

Today the sun finally came out after our May snow, and we went for a walk up the gulch.  It wasn't that far, but it was really nice for mommy to stretch her legs and get some exercise.  Andrew rode in the Moby carrier and fell asleep.  As the weather is nicer, we are recovered from birth, and we are having more quiet alert time,  I can't wait to experiment with more of my baby carriers and slings and get this one out to enjoy the world.

I guess it's really time to admit it - I'm really going in for the Dr. Sears "Attachment Parenting" approach.  I didn't go into this with a lot of "rules" about how I wanted to parent my baby (other than the breastfeeding, which I felt very strongly about), but I'm pleasantly surprised at how easy the attachment parenting principles are and how natural and good they feel.  The experiment continues - after all, what is first-time parenting but one large experiment??  ;o)