11 weeks tomorrow!

Well at 9 weeks Eli weighed 13 pounds at the Health Unit. I weighed him myself at home by weighing myself and then him and I and deducting my weight on Saturday so at 10 weeks he was 14 pounds. He is literally gaining a pound a week! If he keeps it up he will be 20 lbs by 16 weeks which is just under 4 months. People go crazy when their baby is 20 lbs at 5 or 6 months of age.

What's new with Eli lately. He's fussing less at night. He's smiling at things I do. He definitely knows how to grab hair and hold on real tight! He can also bear weight on his legs for a long time and take steps. He took like 5 the other day towards me with his Dad holding his hands. He also has a thing for our couch, he just loves it!! It's all sorts of reds, greens, blues, and purples with tons of different designs. So he is really becoming so much more aware of his surroundings. He is squeaking and making coos and nahs and loves to just watch me. I just can't wait until the first time he laughs at something I do or say to him. He has sort of giggled since about 3-4 weeks but only when he's half asleep so I'm not sure how intentional it is.

He's in his swing right now. I try not to put him in there often but he has been quite fussy today. I think he was overtired but he wouldn't calm down and he wouldn't eat so I put him in the swing, turned on the music and he fell asleep. Swings are a great invention. So is his new wrap baby carried, maman kangarou. It's like the Moby wrap but it has a nifty pocket on the front. I can't believe that in less than two weeks he'll be 3 months old. Time flies by! That's already half the time that I was going to breastfeed at minimum. I thought that might be difficult to do for 6 months but it's just the first 6 weeks that are rough. I could definitely continue that. We really want to have another baby soon though. So we're thinking that after 6 months we'll stop protecting and see whether breastfeeding is a form of birth control for us since it's not always the case for everyone. Then if we get pregnant I will have at least done my minimum 6 months. But if we have to stop breastfeeding to get pregnant we'll find that out by the time we really wanted to get pregnant at which is when Eli is 9 months.

Anyway that may have been too much to share but it's the kind of issues that are on the mind of a mother in the first year and that's what this blog is about!

Eli and I are going to check out Mom & Baby yoga tomorrow! I'm very excited! I miss going to different types of yoga. I'll let you know how it goes!

12 lbs at 2 Months! & Infant GERD

Eli turned 2 months old yesterday and we weighed him in today at about 12 lbs!!! Wow! Pretty much doubled his birth weight. Way to grow buddy!!!

Other exciting things that happened in the last week have been:

* watching Eli turn his head from one side to the other in one motion while on his tummy

* watching him jump when I lift him into the air

* moving the snaps up in his cloth diaper to the medium setting

* finding out Eli can actually be alone for about 15-20 minutes in his brand new swing from my parents

The downfall of the past week has been Eli showing symptoms of infant GERD. He's been spitting up so much more and screaming when he eats. So immediately I got on an elimination diet. For two weeks I'm cutting out: dairy, chocolate, citrus, tomatoes, my de-caf mochas, carbonated beverages, & peanut butter. Then I'm slowing introducing them back in to see what the culprit is. Although I may have already found it because he was doing so much better after 3 days on the diet and then last night it all started again. I think it may be indian food. So I will cut out that for sure and see if any of the other things I'm adding back in cause any reactions too.

I tell you though the guilt I feel knowing I ate something and caused him to scream like he does and get so upset, unbearable. It hurts my soul.

So I will keep you posted on my progress on this! I think I am going to reintroduce chocolate after 1 weeks. It'll only be vegan chocolate anyway. Then I'm going to add tomatoes 3 days later, then citrus, de caf coffees, carbonated beverages, peanut butter and finally dairy. It's actually been kind of nice to be free from dairy again, a great excuse too. If I just can't figure it out from these I will cut out soy, wheat, corn and eggs which are also likely culprits.

Wish me luck! Wish me no more screaming baby!

5 hours and 15 minutes!!

Yes, that's right, our little bouncing baby boy bundle of joy slept from 12:30am to 5:45am last night. It was AMAZING! Here's hoping it continues and only grows in length. I could tell that lately he definitely understands night vs. day. At night he always eats for a shorter amount of time and doesn't freak out and get distracted as much as during the day. And he's having much more awake and not eating time during the day. It's really neat! He's finally figuring out that being awake does not need to mean that he needs to being eating. Woo who!!!

So that's basically my news for today, a nice milestone. Other than that he's been doing really good, not eating as much anymore so he must have increased my milk stores enough to satisfy himself. It's been a nice break. He was weighed at 6 weeks 5 days and weighed in at 10 lbs 6.5 oz! Big boy!!! Love him so much!

Ok off to the Brimm (my fave coffee place) cuz he's having a good snooze!