Camera!!

We visited the Apple store yesterday about the broken camera in my phone. Apparently it's a semi common issue on the new iPhone. They couldn't repair it on site, so I got a new iPhone with a working camera. Yes!! I missed that rear facing camera for sure.

So here's a cute baby picture to brighten your morning.

Busy Day

The bean had a very exciting day today. We met a friend of mine from work and her little boy and went to the zoo! We thought we would beat some of the crowds by going earlier in the day, but discovered that it is super crowded because all the kids on field trips are there. We went before lunch and that was a bit of a struggle for both boys because they got hungry and then were to distracted to eat. We decided not to do anymore mornings at the zoo! We will start later in the day instead. Just as both boys had pretty much had it, all the field trip groups were starting to leave.

The bean loved the animals. Despite seeing baby lion cubs, penguins, elephants, and other assorted animals, the thing that captivated him the most was the pigs in the farm area. They have a contact area (essentially a petting area) with farm animals that opens next month. He will love that!

We got a membership, so we can go back whenever we want. The bean doesn't have the attention span to do more than a few hours at a time, so eventually we will see it all.

Today was also take your child to work day. The bean isn't old enough to go to work all day with Jeff, but we stopped by Google to see him after the zoo. They had kid friendly foods still out for lunch, so we had a snack with Jeff and then were able to go up to his office and say hi to his coworkers. Jeff's floor is usually closed to visitors, so it was a special treat. The bean got a cool bag and toy too. There were tons of kids there!

After all the excitement, mom and the bean needed a break, so we headed home.

You are probably noticing the lack of photos with the post. I usually write the posts and upload pictures from my phone. I'm having a serious camera issue, which is going to require a trip to the Apple Store to remedy. I took pics today with my regular camera, but I didn't get a chance to transfer them to the computer yet. Look for a photo post of our day soon!

The Great Cloth Diaper Change

This event takes place in honor or Earth Day every year on the Saturday of Earth Day weekend. It's organized to break the world record for number of cloth diapers changed at one time. The goal is to promote awareness about cloth diapering. This year all the events happened at 11am local time. I was so excited to participate this year, until I discovered the closest event to us was about an hour drive each way. Boo!! Hopefully there will be a closer on next year.

I decided to participate in spirit at 11am and changed the bean at home. Sadly my pictures are blurry. I discovered right before 11 when taking my before picture that something is wrong with the camera on my phone. Have to visit an Apple store to get that sorted!! We changed from a bum genius in my favorite Albert print to a Tots Bots Jack and the beanstalk. As you can see, the bean is quickly bored of being changed and is all over the changing table. He stayed on his belly through the whole change. Silly little man!

I love that we aren't filling the landfills with disposable diapers and that he doesn't have all those chemicals on his skin. Despite having inherited my easy to anger and make red skin, he hasn't had diaper rash issues. Not to mention how cute cloth is!! Way cheaper too. All my cloth will have decent resale value when I'm done. Can't say that about a used disposable!

OBG Newborn Pics

I usually post from my phone, but I am having a rare able to make it on the computer day. Hence the flood of OBG posts. Easier to get to the old pics on the computer. Hopefully you won't be pictured out and will be able to enjoy all these!!

We had pictures taken of Myles on Sept 18 when he was nine days old. Even that little, he was quite photogenic. Because I was so in love with the outfit, he wore his going home outfit. I loved that little shirt!!!

I adore naked baby pics. Jeff not so much

Sleeping so peacefully

Love this expression

Posing so cute

What is happening to me??

I don't know about this

Able to settle

Love this one

Love his little feet. I have other pictures I have taken with our rings to show how big he is. 

OBG Myles's Birth

Another installment in the oldie but goodie series. Figure I will just go in order. I'll warn you in advance that this is really long. You can skip to the bottom for the pictures if you want :)

As you all probably know, Myles was on his own timeline and went past his guessed arrival date. I had been having pretty regular contractions on and off for about two weeks, but they never progressed to active labor.   I am sure almost all of you are surprised or were surprised to hear I had been having contractions for two weeks. Contractions like this are called prodromal labor and eventually progress to real labor, but there is no telling how long it will take. We knew that you were all anxious and excited to meet our baby and we didn't want to announce we were in labor until it was the real, get admitted to the hospital labor. Just waiting those extra two weeks past our guess date was enough to make a lot of people blow up my phone with texts and calls. I can only imagine how much worse it would have been if we made the contractions public! So few people let their pregnancies go that far these days. The prodromal labor was both exciting and frustrating for us. We kept waiting and waiting to see if it would turn into something. We did a lot of walking those weeks. Thank goodness the weather was nice!

Finally Saturday night, September 8, it was time. We got admitted to the hospital around 6pm and I was thrilled to find that my favorite midwife was on that night and that another of our favorites would be coming on in the morning. We settled in for a night of labor. Jeff did wonderful distracting me, mostly with discussion of baby names, until the contractions got too bad and I didn't want to chat anymore. I sat in the shower for a while, sat on an exercise ball for a while, and ultimately was able to hit the tub. We spent the most of the rest of the night in the tub.  Myles had his head cocked to the side, which caused me to have back labor and pretty severe contractions. Jeff was awesome, keeping the room warm, the water warm, offering me stuff to drink, and most of all pushing on my back during contractions. Apparently I had moments of being pretty funny in labor. I do remember telling Jeff that at least when this was all over I wouldn't have heartburn anymore. I had horrible heartburn all through the second part of my pregnancy.

Finally I got all the way dilated and it was time to push. Thanks to Myles's head position, pushing was a long process. Babies should tuck their chin and present the crown of their head. It's the smallest part and it makes it easier for them to find their way down. No matter what position I got in, or what we did, he refused to change his head position. This made it way harder for him to make his way down. I pushed for hours in lots of different positions, always making progress. Between his size and head position, it was just slow going. At least contractions don't hurt when you push!

Finally at 9:22 in the morning on Sunday September 9th, Myles made his appearance. Once his head and shoulders were out, I was able to reach down and help catch the rest of him and bring him up to my chest. He cried for a second and then looked around and checked everything out. Our midwife didn't announce gender, so I got to check him out and find out he was a boy. I got to cut the cord too. Jeff said that was the scariest moment of the whole thing for him. Me in a post birth haze with a large pair of scissors. He was more afraid for our midwife than for Myles! I didn't know it until later, but right as Myles landed on my chest, Jeff started taking pictures of him. These are amazing to look back on and see his adjustment to the outside world. He hardly cried, and quickly settled onto me.

The first words out of the nurse's mouth were that my dates had to be wrong, because Myles didn't look like he was 2 weeks overdue. I was certain my dates were correct (within a few days), so it just shows that some babies just need longer than others to cook.

We finally got moved to another room and were able to take a well deserved nap. Then Jeff went to a local Italian restaurant and brought back a delicious dinner. It was one of the best meals ever. We have to eat there again to see if it was really that good or if it only tasted so good after all that hard work.

We both pretty quickly decided that none of our favorite names fit him, so it took us a while to come up with one. Jeff suggested Myles that evening, but we didn't make it official until the next morning.

We only had to stay overnight, which was actually longer than I wanted to stay. With one exception, we didn't have any visitors, which was rough for all of you that wanted to come, but heavenly for us. The time to just rest and get to know Myles was priceless. Skin to skin time between mom and baby is so essential in those first days, so with no one but Jeff there, Myles and I just snuggled under blankets. The first time he wore anything besides a diaper or was when we were ready to be discharged.

While having no medications during labor was tough, I am so glad I went that route. It was an absolutely amazing, empower experience. I can't imagine not experiencing his whole birth. I am very grateful to my wonderful, supportive husband who helped make it possible. Our midwives, Heather and Audrey, were so supportive and wonderful as well. You could tell that they both truly believe in the natural process and that if given time and space, mom and baby can work the whole birth thing out.

The obligatory scale photo.

Daddy holds Myles for the first time

Mommy and Myles

Sleeping so peacefully

I think I'll keep him

Tired daddy and Myles

Getting ready to go home

Big Feet!

Going home diaper! (its a Tots Bots Tini Fit for anyone who uses cloth and knows brands LOL)

Going home clothes. 

All dressed!

Strapped in the carseat

Our expanded family

Happy Sounds

The bean has a very distinct noise that he makes that he is very proud of. Jeff taught it to him. For a long time, he would only make the noise to Jeff, then he started making it whenever he was really happy, and now he makes it when he is happy or when is tired to help keep himself awake. Its such a cute, hard to describe sound. He makes it very randomly and spontaneously  so its been hard for us to capture on video. We have really wanted a video of it, to remember it when he gets bigger and doesn't do it anymore.

One memorable time he was busy making his noise to Jeff was when we were in Vegas. At this point, this was still daddy's noise. He was having a bad day that day and literally wouldn't let me out of sight, including letting Jeff hold him. I was wearing him and we were walking around and he kept staring at Jeff and making his noise. He was like, I am happy you are here daddy, even though I only want mommy today.

Finally when I was trying to get him to take a nap, he started making his noise almost continuously  Pardon the dark video, the audio is way more important the the image anyway. To help you maybe make out what you are seeing, he is laying on my legs with his legs in the air and his butt towards the camera.

Hope you think its as cute as we do!

Big mess

The bean loves to eat food with us. He plays with it way more than he actually eats in the evening, but he is very proud to be included in dinner. If I don't give him stuff fast enough he tries to grab from my plate.

Clean up is getting worse and worse though. One of these days I'll get a good picture of his lap and all the food in it. Here he is tonight after dinner. He had food up to his eyebrows. He loved it though!

The door

The bean's fascination with doors and door stoppers continues. He's located the one in our bathroom too and makes some pretty determined moves to get to it.

The one downstairs continues to be his favorite though. If the door is closed, he messes with it till he gets it to move enough that he can get behind it.

The way he watches us do everything and then tries to do what we do if he really wants something is almost scary. I think he will be into a lot more once he develops better dexterity!! For now, at least it keeps him entertained

More food

We had our regular Monday swimming lesson today. We are halfway done with our six class session. As always the bean loved his time in the water.

After swimming, we met a friend of mine for lunch. The bean is so used to going out to eat, he behaves fairly well. He loved my lunch and kept insisting on having more and more of my food. If he keeps this up, I'll have to start ordering him his own food soon!!

We had leftovers for dinner, but after playing with his Cheerios, he got a pizza crust from each of us. This is a loved food of his. He had a good time.

Feeding himself is such a great developmental activity. When we first started giving him stuff, he struggled to even figure out how to get it in his mouth without having his fingers around it. Now he has mastered putting big things in his mouth and is getting so much better with little things like Cheerios. The other bonus is that we can eat without having to interrupt our meal to try to get mushed up something into his mouth. He entertains himself with his food while we eat. Clean up is probably the only downside and that isn't to bad. I keep saying we need a dog to make clean up easier. Jeff has very practically pointed out a dog will likely add more work than losing the clean up. I have to admit he's right.

Yummy!

The bean is getting better and better at eating. He actually swallows a lot more instead of just playing with it. We are starting to use a spoon for foods that aren't easy to eat with your hands. He doesn't want to be fed though. He had to hold the spoon. This means way more food gets on him than in him, but it's all part of the fun.

Lunch today was random left overs. The bean had some mashed potatoes (on his spoon), some veggies from my beef stew, and some bread. He was quite pleased with his lunch!

On the move

The bean has discovered he can scoot. He is mainly on the hardwood or tile, which are slippery surfaces, so scooting is easy. His main gear is reverse, but he is starting to figure out how to go forward too. This opens up all kinds of treasures for him to discover. His current favorite found treasure is the door stopper behind the bathroom door. Even if you leave the door open, he knows its there and will move the door to get to it. Hopefully the builder installed sturdy door stoppers as this one is going to be tested!

More swimming

We had nothing on our schedule during the day today, so we decided to check out the fancy pool I heard about. They have a one hour swim that they call happy hour that is only $2. I figured that way even if it went badly, we weren't out full admission. After convincing the lady at the desk the bean was under a year old, we were in.

The pool was as great as I thought it would be. They have a play area that has a padded bottom this was a first for me in a pool) that is pretty shallow. It has jets on the floor that shoot up like little fountains. There is a barely submerged island where the bean could sit. He could stand (with help) in the shallower area too. Once he can walk, he will have tons of fun.

As nice as the play area was, it was hard to practice swimming as it wasn't deep enough for me. That problem was easily fixed by changing pools. They have a small lazy river that was the perfect depth. The bean thought the current in the lazy river was interesting and we swam around and around and around. He did really well! He prefers to swim on his belly so that he can look around, but we practiced swimming on his back too. We are working hard at kicking on cue and doing some practice with arm movements. He really doesn't have those down yet, but is starting to move his arms more when he swims.

I love that he is so comfortable in the water. An hour in the pool is just perfect for him, so we will have to partake of happy hour frequently!

Seven months old!!

The bean is seven months old today. Time sure does go fast!! To celebrate he appears to be growing another bottom tooth. Nothing on the top yet.

Here he is post nap

Swimming again

Today was our second swim class. The bean got very excited once we walked out in the pool area. I guess he remembered it from last week. We had a good time again. We are working on different swimming movements and cueing the movements with words. The bean doesn't quite kick when cued, but is getting close. I've always said "kick,kick,kick" when he kicks in the bathtub, so this isn't a totally new association for him. We worked on reaching and pulling today too. I dunked the bean underwater again this week. He isn't totally sure about it, but it went better than last week.

I found out one of the other public pools around us has a whole play area/wading/shallow pool just for little kids and babies. The general pool doesn't have open swim during the day but the little pool does. I can't wait to go check that out! My goal with swimming lessons was to learn how to help him harness his instincts in the water and make him more comfortable, so I am not sure that I want to do lessons again after this one. There are no adult/tot classes specifically for kids who have taken them before so all the sessions of class will be basically the same. The bean and I might have more fun just going to the pool.

Daddy's Birthday

Saturday was Jeff's Birthday. We met some of his friends at The Grill from Impanema for dinner. Its a Brazilian style all you can eat meat extravaganza  They rotisserie cook all kinds of meat and servers come around to your table and cut you pieces. They also have a salad/vegetarian/cold foods bar. The company was fun and the meat was amazing.

The bean doesn't do meat yet, but likes fruit and veggies. The food bar brought a variety of things for him to eat. He is getting enough of an opinion about what he eats that he started shunning some of the things I was giving him to pick up other things from my plate. Watermelon (which he hadn't had before) and strawberries (which he loves) were the biggest hits. Despite a bib, he made a complete mess of himself and his shirt. Its a good thing that I rock at getting out stains! He thought all the people (and another baby) that joined us for dinner were great. He loves to have new people to talk to.

Home from dinner, wearing a lot of our dinner

He is such a happy baby

We hear this phrase from almost everyone. He is so happy! Yes he is, most of the time. When he isn't, he sure isn't! I attribute his happiness to two things, his personality and our parenting style. It's hard to know how much each plays in, as there really isn't a good way to separate them. I do know if I deviate for our usual parenting style, he doesn't like it!

Our parenting style is called attachment parenting. I actually didn't know what attachment parenting was until after he was born. I starting doing things that felt right to me, and he liked it, so we just kept going. I read about attachment parenting somewhere and said hey that's what we are doing!! I love how natural it feels. I don't worry about what "they" say you should do. We follow our instincts and his cues and everyone is pretty happy.

The basis of attachment parenting is that your child needs lots of love, attention, time with their parents, and that you and your child have to build trust with each other. Trust is built by always responding when your child cries and they learn to trust that someone will meet their needs when they cry. Although the bean gets upset and cries, it's rarely full on wailing with tears anymore, which I certainly attribute to being responsive. He doesn't have to resort to that type of crying to communicate his needs. To really practice this style of parenting, you have to believe that you can't spoil a baby by holding them to much or responding to them.

The benefits of attachment parenting have been shown in studies and become apparent as babies get older. Toddlers tend to be much happier (less "terrible twos") and all ages tend to be very empathetic. It's obvious with the bean already. If I get upset, he gets very worried and upset. They also actually tend to be more adventurous and independent as they get older, taking cues from their parents. If mom and dad are relaxed and in view, they are more willing to explore a new area and not be clingy. Even now the bean is rarely overstimulated or afraid even in noisy or crowded situations. I wear him in these situations and he feels secure with me. He watches my face regularly to see if I'm ok with everything and then he's ok too.

In some respects, it's more work up front. We don't do any "baby training", like using methods like cry it out to put him to bed. We also don't have him on any type of schedule. We have routines and we follow his cues for when he is ready for certain things. This actually makes it easier to go places and do different things at different times, as he easily adapts. The biggest thing I have found, is if he is at all uncertain about things or not feeling great, he wants a lot more time with me. This might mean I hold him or wear him more or he might sleep with us. In Vegas, he had the double whammy of a new place and a new tooth, so he spent a lot of time in our bed. That's no big deal though. A king bed has lots of room for everyone!!

One of my favorite things about attachment parenting is that it isn't an all or nothing you must follows these rules method. There are 7 basic principals (Dr. Sears calls them the Baby Bs) and you do what works for you from these. For example, we don't co sleep nightly anymore. The bean spent the first about five months in our room and then gradually transitioned to his room. Now he only sleeps in our room or with us if he needs to. I know some of the things we do parenting are different or new to you from when you had kids, so I thought I share why we do what we do! If you are interested in more information, Dr. Sears has a great section on attachment parenting on his website.

Mommy's helper

It's me the bean again. I love to help mommy these days so I thought if write an entry. I pretty much go where mom goes and I love to watch her do things. I try to hold everything she does, but she doesn't let me touch or hold everything. It's so unfair!!! She says its cause everything goes in my mouth. I don't see what the big deal is.

Now that I can scoot around on the hardwood, I can be more useful. I helped with the dishwasher the other day. I refused to sit in my crib while she got my clean diapers, so I got to help her with those too.

On Thursday when we went grocery shopping I got to do a whole new thing. I got to sit in the cart for the first time. Usually mom wears me. I could turn all directions so much better. I only fell over a few times. I watched everything that went in the cart to make sure we got everything on the list. I watched the cashier closely when he rung up our order too. I hope we go back to the store soon!! That was fun!!

Poker

Sorry about the lack of a post yesterday. The bean hasn't been sleeping well and so I haven't been sleeping well.

Friday Jeff was playing poker with some of his friends. The bean and I tagged along for the pre-poker dinner. The guys played a few hands while waiting for dinner and as soon as the bean saw the poker chips, he knew he needed one. Jeff was kind enough to sacrifice a chip. The bean knows what he has and hasn't examined before and gets very excited about new stuff. Except for a brief pause to eat my food, he obsessed over that chip.

Before he and I left, he got to hang out with Jeff and "help" him play a hand. Somehow Jeff kept him from eating the cards or destroying his pile of chips.

It's good he is leaning manly things like poker young! We will have him playing soon!

Swim class

Today was the bean's first day of swimming lessons. We were a little early so we had to wait for the previous class to finish. We sat on the bleachers and he excitedly watches the people in the water and was very vocal.

For now there are three other kids in our class. The bean is the youngest but was the happiest in the water. Maybe because he's the youngest. He practiced kicking and moving in the water and sang songs. The instructor did dunk him, because he was so comfortable and he wasn't really sure what he thought of that. The class is only 30 min and he seemed a bit sad when it was over. We go every Monday for six weeks.

Since it was just the bean and I, and I of course was in the water with him, I lack pictures, but it was a good time!