Keeping in Teutsch

John Hayden turned 5 months old today, so here's an update about him:

--He hasn't been to the doctor this month, so I'm not sure what his "official" weight is, but I weighed him on our scale and he is around 18 lbs. He's probably gained about a pound this past month, which is normal. I didn't measure him, though, so not sure about his length.
--He's still eating 6 oz. every 3ish hours and has been good about finishing all his bottles. We moved him up to Level 3 nipples on his bottles this past month (which is supposed to be for 6 months and up), and that has helped him to finish his bottles. I guess he was just tiring himself out on the slower nipple and that's why he wasn't finishing them (and falling asleep while eating so much). He averages about 5 bottles a day (and none at night). We tried cereal a few times and he didn't want to eat it (even if I mixed it with applesauce) and would close his mouth tight and wouldn't open it for anything, so he hasn't been eating baby food. I did try again this morning since he's a month older now and he did eat a few more bites than he has and was definitely much more interested in his spoon (wanted to chew on it). He even tried to take the bowl out of my hand a few times as well. He still made yucky faces when I fed him, though. I'm going to try a few more times over the next few days and if he still isn't wanting it, we'll just wait and try again at 6 months. (It's no big deal to me. In fact, it's easier if all he's eating is his bottle.)
--He is still wearing size 3 diapers, although I had to move him to size 4 diapers at night since he was soaking himself. We've officially said good-bye to all the 3-6 month clothing and he is wearing 6 and 9 month onesies and pants. (He can fit in both, although 9 month pants are just a little long.) And I just started putting him in 6-9 month pajamas this week. The 3-6 month ones are getting tight.
--Sleep, oh, sleep! Why won't this baby sleep?!! This past month he learned to roll from his back onto his stomach and spent almost a week perfecting it. At night. In his crib. When he should have been sleeping. Ugh! Then, once he had it down, he started waking every few hours for his pacifier, so I've been sleepwalking to his crib quite a lot this past month to stick his pacifier back in. (And, when not sleeping, stressing and checking on him obsessively because he is now sleeping on his stomach!) Quite a few nights have resulted in me just putting him in our bed so he would stop flipping over and waking up! I know, I know, that's a big "no, no," but I usually attempt at least three times to get him to stay in his bed (lots of patting his bottom and holding his paci in his mouth) before I move him. I'm hoping he settles down and starts sleeping better soon. (He did have a good night last night; I only had to put the paci in his mouth once around midnight. He typically sleeps really good the first part of the night; it's around 2 am that he starts waking.)
--He is such a happy baby and smiles all the time! We've even been able to get quite a few belly laughs out of him. (See video below.) And he is really starting to get good at the rolling; he won't stay on his back very long at all if you lay him down on the floor. And he has also started putting the rolls together (front to back and back to front) so if you turn around for a minute, he's liable to be off the rug when you turn around again. (In fact, for some reason, he tends to always end up off the rug even though we have a big rug and blanket for him to stay on!) He has pretty much complete full body control now and can play in the Exersaucer (although some of the toys on it require a little more advanced motor skills than he has right now). We can also carry him around on our hip now with just one hand. He's drooling a lot and teething, but those two teeth still haven't come in. He doesn't suck his thumb much anymore and instead prefers to pull your hair! Even Matt's arm hair...ouch! He's still enamored with Matt when he's in the room and in eyesight and I adore the way he looks at Juliette and the voice Juliette uses when she is talking to him. She has perfected "baby talk" and she loves to play with him. (By the way, the newest funny thing from her is that she told Matt today that he needed to take some lessons on how to handle babies and she also said that "this makes me think this is how you treated me as a baby and that's not good." She was really preaching to him this afternoon because she thought he wasn't being gentle enough with John Hayden.)
--John Hayden has been on Zantac for a month now and it has really helped with the spit-up. He still spits up, but not nearly as much as he was. However, the main reason for the Zantac was to see if it would reduce the congestion. He is still congested sounding some mornings (I think it's more allergy-related), but I really think he is doing better. It hasn't gone completely away, but it's an improvement.
--We've had two physical therapy sessions so far and the physical therapist thinks he doesn't have torticollis. She said he's not fitting the symptoms exactly, but that he definitely had some flexibility issues, although she can't figure out what is causing it. During the first appointment, he cried whenever she touched his shoulders, so our homework was to work on touching his shoulders lovingly as much as possible in order to get him to relax. After two days, he didn't cry anymore! It was amazing how quickly it worked. Around this time he also started flipping onto his stomach to sleep at night and that combined with other neck stretching exercises we were doing at home led to him being practically "cured" within the week. And his head rounded out more in just that one week as well...the physical therapist noticed and was shocked how quickly he had improved. She's not quite ready to discharge him, but he's doing so well with his neck movement now that she said she didn't need to see us for about 3-4 weeks. We just have to keep up our stretches. His head is still flat, but not nearly as much as it was and I really think once he is sitting up, it's going to round out nicely.
--Oh, and he's been rocking a comb-over for the last few months since all his hair on the sides fell out, but not on the top. As you can kinda see in his pictures, though, just this week, his hair is starting to come back on one side, and it's coming back the same color (blondish red), so maybe it will stay that color. His eyes are also still blue (but Juliette's were still at this age also so I guess that doesn't really mean anything since hers ended up turning greenish hazel).

Here's some pictures and the laughing video:

Trying to sit forward while I was taking his picture. (He was smiling at Matt behind me.)

First sink bath at my parents house.

His first Easter. (Isn't his basket--that matches Juliette's--so cute?)

Easter morning family picture--after church.

We all dressed in baseball attire for opening day of baseball this past Monday.

Swinging outside today.

Playing in the Exersaucer while we cooked dinner.

And here's the comparison of him between 4 months and 5 months. (For some reason these are showing up very tiny, but if you click on them, you can see them at regular size):

John Hayden turned 4 months old yesterday, so here's an update about him:

--At his well-baby check-up this morning, he weighed 17.6 lbs. and is almost 25 inches long. (On the charts that puts him as 95th percentile for weight and 50-75th for height.)
--He's still eating 6 oz. every 3ish hours and this month has become somewhat disinterested in eating. There are days where he doesn't want to eat all 6 oz. at most feedings and he most definitely doesn't want to eat all of it in the mornings (whether he ate during the middle of the night or not). At first I thought it was because of sinus drainage that he had for the majority of February, but I think it's a combination of teething, being very aware of his surroundings, and just a slow-down in growth. He still gained this month, though, so he got plenty to eat.
--He wears size 3 diapers and mostly 6 month clothing, although he can still wear some 3-6 month onesies and pants. He also still fits in his 3-6 month pajamas and I imagine he'll be able to continue wearing those for this next month.
--During the month of February, he woke up pretty much every night to eat (probably because he wasn't eating as much during the day and also because he would cough--from the drainage--and wake himself up.) Starting the first day of March, though, he started sleeping through the night again, mostly. He apparently likes to keep me on my toes!
--He is still a very smiley baby and this month found his voice. He can get very loud!! He still doesn't have a ton of patience for tummy time (he holds out for about 5-10 minutes) and starting rolling over from tummy to back last week. (He doesn't want to show us his new trick this week, though.) He's trying to roll from back to tummy as well, but hasn't made it. He can bring his hands together and hold toys and put them in his mouth and can reach and grab something (and not miss it--more hand control now). He's also able to pull down on the car seat toy and the bouncy seat toy to make them make noises. He can do mini push-ups while on his tummy (I think he could do that last month...can't remember, though) and he has to be buckled into everything now or he will kick and arch his back and come close to getting out. He pretty much has complete head control and doesn't need much support when you are holding him up right, but is still a little wobbly with entire upper body control (as in, if I put him in the exersaucer, I have to put a rolled up blanket behind him or he will slump over; he's not really playing much in it yet, though). He's teething and I can see where two little teeth are going to come in. They haven't broken through his gums, but I wouldn't be surprised if he cuts them sooner rather than later since Juliette cut her first two at 4 1/2 months and 5 months. His newest thing he likes to do is suck his thumb and his bottle at the same time...and that doesn't really work! We're constantly having to move his hands from his mouth while feeding him. He has started pulling on his feet, but hasn't put them in his mouth yet. He still loves for you to sing and do the motions with him for different songs, but his favorite thing to do (and that leads to great big smiles) is to make him ride the bicycle with his feet (which we have also branched out to rowing the boat with his hands and playing air guitar among other things). Juliette loves to do these with him and he grins really big at her. He also likes for Matt to play the actual guitar for him, and if Matt is in the room, he tends to follow his every move. Oh, and he has perfected blowing raspberries, which has led him having a wet face constantly!
--He has started spitting up a whole lot more than he used to, and I mentioned it to the doctor this morning because I thought it might have to do with the chronic congestion he has had the last month. She said that spitting up peaks at 4 months because they are starting to move around a lot more (which makes sense) and that it's possible the spitting up/refluxing can be causing the congestion since it's common for babies to reflux into their nose. (I know that sounds gross.) Anyway, we're going to try out a reflux medication on him. If it works, great...he'll spit up less and be less congested. And if it doesn't work, it's no big deal. His ears looked good and his lungs were clear and he's generally happy, so if the medicine doesn't work, he will be fine. Doesn't hurt to try, though!
--At John Hayden's 2 month check-up, I mentioned to the doctor about him favoring his right side and having a flat spot on the back of the right side of his head. The doctor said to try to reposition him to get him to look to the left more and that the flat spot would probably improve once he was able to sit up in the Bumbo, Exersaucer, etc. She said he might have torticollis and we'd look into physical therapy when we came back at 4 months if he hadn't shown much improvement. Well, we've been pretty diligent about forcing him to look to the left more by the way we lay him down, etc. and he WILL look to the left, but he still very much favors the right side and doesn't seem to have the same range of movement on the left that he has on the right (it's almost like he has a crick in his neck when he turns to the left). So, I talked to the doctor about it again today and we're going to start physical therapy next week. Torticollis is typically from them favoring one side while in utero and then continuing to favor that side after being born resulting in the need for the unused (or not used as much) neck muscle needing to be stretched out. The physical therapist will show us things we can do at home to help stretch it out and to get him to where he'll use both sides equally. And, then once he's sitting up good, his head should round back out. I asked if he would need to wear a helmet and the doctor thinks that it will fix itself by 6-7 months, but she said if not, she can refer us to someone then for a helmet. If he has to wear a helmet for a little while (typically in this situation, it would only be a few months), then it's no big deal to me, but we're going to let nature run its course first and see how his head looks once he isn't laying on it all the time. And, hopefully, the doctor is right and we won't need one. (We have seen a little improvement in it just by making sure we are putting him on his tummy more--which he is still not a fan of, so hopefully, he'll start liking that position more so we can keep him off the back of his head.)
--Oh, and a big milestone: The doctor gave us the okay to start cereal (and even baby food--fruits and vegetables) if we want, so we'll be trying out the cereal and once he gets a hang of eating from a spoon, I'll start introducing the fruit and vegetables one at a time. We're in no rush, though, so if he isn't interested, we'll just try again in a few weeks.

And here's the comparison of him between 3 months and 4 months. (For some reason these are showing up very tiny, but if you click on them, you can see them at regular size):

 John Hayden is 3 months old today, so here's an update about him:
--He now weighs 16 lbs. 3 oz. That was with clothes on at a sick visit the other day, so it's probably officially a few ounces less since they weigh them without clothes at their well visits. (He has a cold/congestion. I took him in because I thought he might have an ear infection, but he was good.) They didn't measure him, so I'm not sure how long he is now. He'll get measured at his 4 month check-up.
--He's eating 6 oz. every 3 hours and is satisfied, so I imagine we'll stay at this number for a little while. He gets to start cereal next month, so we might not have to increase it since we'll be introducing solids soon.
--He wears size 2 diapers (we'll probably be in size 3 by the end of the month) and some 3-6 month clothing and some 6 month clothing. (He's mostly been wearing onesies--since he's so hot natured--and his 3 month ones are getting a little snug and the 6 month ones are a tad loose but fitting great. It's almost time to put the 3 month ones away. He's wearing 3-6 month pajamas and they have growing room.)
--He is a great nighttime sleeper and other than this past weekend when he started getting sick and didn't sleep well, he mostly sleeps through the night and has been for the past few weeks. Yay for the return of uninterrupted sleep! He's still not an awesome napper, but it doesn't bother me since he sleeps good at night!
--He smiles a ton and chuckles a little. Still no big belly laughs, though. He loves his little blankie, is an occassional thumb sucker, and is getting better at batting at his toys and not missing them. He has pretty good head control, but still a little wobbly, and he can hold his head up at a 90 degree angle when on his tummy, but he really HATES tummy time still. (He tolerates it if you lay him on his tummy on the boppy pillow.) He has started holding his hands together and I caught him looking at one of them the other day, but I don't think he's quite figured out what they are yet. (It's so cute when they start staring at them like "What are these things?"! He'll be doing that soon.) He loves for you to sing songs that require motions and move his arms and legs, such as "Head & Shoulders," "Hokey Pokey," and "If You're Happy and You Know It." He also loves for you to play peek-a-boo with him with his blankie. That is sure to get big smiles! He will definitely coo and talk to you a lot if you start talking to him. And, if you lay him on the floor on a blanket, he'll try to watch TV. (He especially liked the American Idol auditions, bless his heart!)
--He's been in daycare a month now and is doing well. The Type A person in me loves the fact that they send home a little sheet every day with the times he ate, slept, if he cried and how much, etc. I love that! Last week Matt had the flu (and was in quarantine, which was successful since we didn't get it!) and so I had to play single mom all week. Matt usually takes Juliette and John Hayden to school and daycare and picks them up, but I had to do it all week, and I really enjoyed being able to see him in the daycare setting more. Didn't really enjoy the craziness of getting us ready in the mornings and the bedtime routine, though!

Here are a few pictures:

His blankie

Sucking his thumb

His favorite place to nap!

Those cute chubby cheeks and pretty blue eyes!

 And a comparison of how much he has grown in a month:

I wanted to show off our birth announcement/Christmas card to those of you who I was unable to send it to. (I wish I could have sent it to everyone I know, but that would have been expensive.) I also decided it would be nice to take a little walk down memory lane of our past Christmas cards since Juliette has been born. Enjoy and Merry Christmas!!

And, I can't forget big sister in this update. Juliette will talk to him and play with him when he is awake. If he is crying (and we're not holding him), she'll go stick the pacifier in his mouth. If he spits up while sitting in his bouncy seat and I'm not looking, she'll get the burp cloth and wipe it up, and she still thinks he's adorable!

I'll close this post with something she said last night while I was bathing John Hayden in reference to the male anatomy that made me laugh: "I'm glad we had a boy, so I can see how their booties work!"

John Hayden will be one month old next week, so I thought I better share his birth story and pictures before time got away from me. He was born on Tuesday, November 6th at 1:19 pm via a repeat c-section and weighed 7 lbs. 8 oz. and was 20 inches long. (I guessed he would be 7 1/2 lbs. and as you can see, I was right!)

We had to be at the hospital at 9 am Tuesday morning and the c-section was scheduled for Noon, but an emergency c-section had to be performed on another patient, so our time got pushed back. Most of the morning was spent waiting around, and everything went smoothly except for one little "we're going to pick on him about this forever" moment that is best described with the following pictures:


I had to be in recovery (next to the operating room) for about an hour before we could move into our regular room and everyone could come see him. As soon as we got in our room, Matt went and got Juliette so she could have a few minutes by herself to see him and hold him. And then after a few minutes, our families came in to see him--and to pry him from Juliette's hands--she's quite the baby hog!


And now I'll tell you a little bit more about John Hayden:
1) He's like a little teenage boy: he eats A LOT, and burps and passes gas just as loudly as them! :)
2) He hated being naked/diaper changes at first, but now he doesn't scream through those as much. (Sometimes he still gets upset when you undress him, though.)
3) He LOVES being swaddled. Juliette hated it and wanted her arms free. He loves it, but I only swaddle him at night since he had his days and nights mixed up at first and sleeps so soundly when swaddled.
4) Although he loves to eat all the time during the day, he goes 3-4 hours at night between feedings and sleeps soundly. I'm able to get about 6-7 hours of sleep a night, so things are going well and I don't feel too sleep-deprived.
5) He LOVES having his hair washed if you hold him over the sink to do it. He isn't very fond of actual baths yet.
6) Speaking of his hair, he actually has quite a bit of hair and it's reddish blond. You should see it in the sunlight! It looks more brownish red on top and blond on the sides when you are inside, but we had his newborn photo shoot last week and the photographer was set up in the sunniest place in the apartment and when she showed me a couple of the pictures on her camera, you could see the red. We're quite curious to see if it changes color and/or falls out and he becomes a bald baby like Juliette was.

And, to answer two other questions that everyone asks:
What does Juliette think of him? She loves to hold him and tells me everyday how adorable she thinks he is. When we first came home, she pretty much sat by me on the couch the whole time she was home and asked to hold him every 10 minutes, but she's gotten back into her normal routine of playing in her room and doesn't ask to hold him as much since he doesn't really do anything. I know she is going to love it when he can interact with her and actually play!

How am I doing? I feel good now. The first week or so after a c-section is always rough, but I'm happy to be past that time and back to being able to drive, lift John Hayden in his carseat, and stand up or sit up in bed without pain! My incision area is still a little tender, but for the most part, I'm back to normal. (Except for the fact that I have almost 10 lbs. left to lose and can't fit into my pre-pregnancy jeans yet!)

If you were waiting for this blog post, sorry it took so long. This kid does not like to sleep during the day. He only cat naps for about 30 minutes at a time about a handful of times a day, so it's hard to do any extra things beyond taking a shower, washing bottles, doing laundry, etc. Matt is officially at home full-time, though, for the month of December (he's done with school for the semester), so this month should be much easier to get things done, although I'm not looking forward to having to share the remote! :)

Check back next week for 1 Month pictures and an update. I'm going to do updates on him every month.