Cooper is into his screaming again. He seems to be screaming pretty much nonstop the past two days. Most likely due to his cold. Who knows? I was trying to find things to distract him. I gave him some tupperware, a plastic spatula, and a wooden mixing spoon. He loved playing with these things. He enjoyed banging them all together and just waving them in the air. He also enjoyed putting each item in his mouth and chewing on it. Funny thing is, he had all his normal baby toys around him and he only reached for the kitchen items. I could make a lot of money packaging kitchen items and selling them at a toy store! Cooper has all these really colorful, fun toys but instead he reaches for the plastic lid to the tupperware. Cracks me up. Hey, as long as he’s happy that is all that matters.
The Foley’s
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Snot
I hate snot and buggies! EWW!! Unfortunately as a mom I guess I am going to have to get use to wiping away these wonderful beauties. When Cooper woke up this morning, his entire left nostril was caked over and closed up with snot. I had the privilege of peeling away the sludge so my poor little boy could breath. After I finished opening his airway, he sneezed. Yep you guessed it, and he blew a huge wet one right on my shirt. I started to nurse him, but he was having a lot of trouble breathing so I thought it was best to get the snot sucker out. So I put some saline solution up his nose and proceeded to suck a ton of yellow snot from his nose. He hates it when I suck the snot out of his nose- you could probably hear his screams two zip codes away. Then of course, later in the day he just has snot running down his nose, which I must wipe unless he wants it ending up all over him.
I cannot wait until Cooper is old enough where I can hand him a tissue and say, “blow your nose!”
Head Cold
Yep, Cooper and I (Susanne) have a head cold. Never fun to have a head cold if you ask me. I feel pretty run down and tired. I slept for 11 hours last night. My head hurts, my throat hurts, and I have some nasal congestion.
Cooper has a stuffy nose and I am sure he feels pretty much the same way I do. He has slept a lot more than usual today. He took a 3 hours nap this morning and is napping right now (2 hours so far). I figured it was best to just let him sleep since he is not feel the greatest either. Poor guy. He screams pretty much the entire time he is awake. I guess it is his way of saying, “hey mom, I don’t feel good.” If I pick him up, he stops screaming so we have been doing a lot of holding and walking together today.
I am just feeling pretty run down. I am hoping that tomorrow will be a better day!
More toes please!
Here is a recent video of Cooper enjoying his toes again! If Cooper could talk, I think he would say, “more toes please!”
I have also posted a blog about Alternate Vaccine Schedues on my other blog. Check it out!
Spring
We took Cooper for a stroller walk this evening right before his bedtime. I took along the camera and decided to take some pictures of the trees in bloom. I was not anticipating taking any pictures of Cooper, but as we passed by the green field, I thought to myself- what a great photo op! Happy Spring!
He Should be Napping!
As I write this post, I am watching my son on the video monitor play instead of nap. Crazy! He is not crying or whining. He is just playing and talking to himself. I put him to sleep about 40 minutes ago. He woke up after only sleeping for 30 minutes, which is not enough. He usually sleeps for 1.5-2 hours in the morning. Instead he has chosen to practice his new found skill of rolling from back to belly and from belly to back. He is actually laying in his crib giggling at himself right now. Usually this would make me upset that he is not napping, but I cannot help but find myself laughing at him. I know he’ll be tired later, but for now I find it humerous that he is just entertaining himself and having a good old time rolling around in his crib.
Tummy Sleep
Last week Cooper began rolling from his back to his belly. Previously, he was only able to roll from his belly to his back. So Cooper has now acquired a new skill. Yea!
We were still struggling to get Cooper to sleep unswaddled during his naps. We had successful made the transition to a sleep sac at night, but not for day time sleep. Well, on both Sunday and Monday during his naps, Cooper managed to roll over, swaddled, onto his tummy. This is not safe! I watch him do it on the video monitor. I would have to go in an flip him. Also, I should mention that at night he has been flipping himself onto his tummy to sleep. On Sunday night, Chris actually went back in and flipped him to his back, but within two minutes, Cooper flipped himself back to his belly. So, I put him in a sleep sac yesterday for both naps. He flipped himself on to his belly in under five minutes and slept great! Apparently, Cooper perfers to sleep on his tummy.
This brings me some concern. The Ameraican Pediatrics Associaion recommends children under one should sleep on their backs to reduce the risk of SIDS. However the risk of SIDS dramatically reduces once a child is over the age of 6 months, which Cooper is! I am just concerned about him rolling his face into his bumper and suffocating. I found a bumper that I am planning to purchasing that is made of mesh called the breathable bumper. It will still keep Cooper from getting his arm or leg stuck in the slats, but allow air to flow in case his face is up against it.
So we now have a tummy sleeper who does not need to be swaddled! YEA!!! I still find him sucking on his fingers while sleeping. Too Cute!
Infant Potty Training
Okay…I know what some of you are thinking…yeah right! Well I use to think the same thing. When I was pregnant a friend of mine lent me a book on infant potty training. I was completely overwhelmed at the thought of trying to implement potty training with a baby who cannot yet walk. So I quickly tossed that idea aside. But then I found out that my good friend and neighbor had taught her son to have a bowl movement on the potty at 4 months old, I was intrigued, but I was convinced that Cooper could never do that. When Cooper was 4 months old, he was still exclusively breastfeed and would poop while I was feeding him. I knew that holding him over the potty was not going to work because I was always feeding him when he decided to go. However, when he was started on solids, Cooper started to go to the bathroom after I feed him. So I thought, heck, why not give it a try.
I did some research and found that you should choose a word to say as they go to the bathroom and use the sign for bathroom. For a month when he was going to the bathroom, I would sit in front of him and make the sign for bathroom while saying the word “potty”. He would still poop in his diaper, but I wanted him to associate the word/ sign with the action he was doing. Then about a week ago a family friend gave me an infant potty seat that fits on top of the toilet. So I decided to see if a month of training had paid off. Last Saturday morning I feed him and then held him on top of his potty seat, made the sign for bathroom, and said the word “potty”. In less than two minutes Cooper pooped on the potty! Chris and I were excited and shocked that it has worked. Well, I was still not convinced that Cooper would actually poop on the potty consistently, but it has been a week and he has only pooped in his diaper once and the rest have been on the potty! I think that is pretty darn good. In fact, I can tell when he needs to go- he starts to squirm and make grunting sounds, but he holds his poop now until I take him to the toilet. Pretty amazing! I think that babies are a lot smart and understand a lot more than we are willing to give them credit for.
Now, I want you all to know that I don’t expect him to hold his pee. That I am waiting to teach him when he gets older. But for now I am happy to not be changing any more smelly poopy diapers!
Sleep Sack Update
Yesterday was not a very good napping day for Cooper. He usually takes 2 naps that are 1.5-2 hours long. Yesterday Cooper took an hour nap in the morning and virtually no nap in the afternoon (besides the 30 minutes he got in his carseat while shopping). I was pulling my hair out trying to figure out why he would not nap. I put him down for his afternoon nap and he refused to fall asleep. I watched him on the video monitor for over an hour just kick his arms and legs about. He fussed and then the fussing turned into screaming. I finally just got him up. He was awake with no nap from 11am- 4pm. Crazy!!! He can usually only make it 2.5 hours before he needs another nap. I thought I was going to loose my mind. He was fussy too!
Then today I put him down for his morning nap. I was watching him on the video monitor. He usually falls asleep rather quickly (within 5 minutes). I had him in his sleep sac. He would start to fall asleep but his arms or legs would jerk and he would startle himself and wake up. It finally dawned on me that his jerking movements were preventing him from sleeping. So, I went in and swaddled him. He was fast asleep in 2 minutes. Weird thing is he sleeps fine at night not swaddled, but the naps seem to require the swaddle. Darn! I thought we were done with swaddling. But if swaddling helps him to nap better during the day, then keeping the swaddle around a little longer is not so bad.
Babble
Cooper is starting to experiment with sounds. The first video is of Cooper’s latest experiments with his voice and lips. The second video is of Cooper saying “mom”. He did this for the first time this evening and I was completely in shock. Who knows if he really has any idea what he is really saying…it is still pretty cool if you ask me!