Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays from Santa Ollie

On Vacation

Ollie is going on vacation today. A nice long Christmas drive. He will be in the car for 18 - 19 total hours over the next week. He will be visiting great-grandparents, great-aunt's, great-uncle's, 2nd and 3rd cousins, grandparents, aunts, uncles and a future cousin. Lots of new faces and new things to look at. I'm sure there will be a lot of staring a people's faces and lots of grabbing shiny things. Jewelry wearer's beware! So far the stranger anxiety hasn't set in so he should be ok for this week.

He now has his forward crawling gear working well enough that he can get where he wants to go within a few feet. Long distance crawling is still a bit off. Of course he's already trying to stand, but that's no where near completion. Ollie has also started chasing the cats. They can still out run him, but not for long. Watch out world, here comes the Ollie monster!

Almost

Ollie is pretty much back to his normal self. He can breath through the night without the nebulizer treatments or vaporizer. We still have his bed raised a little bit to help with his breathing, but he seems to be back to normal. His cough sounds much better and isn't as stuffy. He still has a bit of blood in his mucus from being so dried out. It's not a bloody nose, but a little comes out with his mucus. He's pretty much back to his normal routine.

Last night he felt so good that he wouldn't go back to sleep right away when he woke at 1 am. We let him play in his crib by himself for 1/2 an hour, then Tresa was able to get him to go back to sleep. He was still tired this morning, we had to wake him up to get him ready for the babysitter. He was all smiles when he got woken up (must get this trait from his mom, it's definitely not from me). He did his normal morning activity and was ready to go for the day. 6 more days to go of the antibiotics, but he's pretty much his rambunctious self. Now only if we could get him to calm down without any illness causing it.

Better

Ollie was fairly back into his regular routine last night. He only got up once during the night and didn't seem as stuffy as he has been. He should be better in time to travel. Hopefully he'll be thoroughly entertained by all the new people and places. I'm sure he'll stare at everyone and everything. He stared at a couple of kids while we were waiting for the doctor. Guess he wasn't sure what to think. Maybe the stranger anxiety is on the way.

Ollie gets frustrated easily and he is a very difficult baby to soothe. I went to get his medicine for him last night and placed him on the bed. BIG MISTAKE. I took a bit longer than usual because I couldn't get the medicine right, then...THUD! Ollie was rolling around on the bed and off he went. No bumps or bruises, just scared and a worst father of the year award handed out to yours truly. I had to turn on the x-mas lights to soothe him, of course he was then frustrated that he couldn't touch them!

He gets easily frustrated when he stumbles during crawling or can't reach something he thinks he should. He's getting better at crawling, just not perfect yet. If it we could only teach them how to crawl and they didn't have to learn it on their own. I have to admit, it is sometimes funny to see him raise his arms in these big motions to move forward, he tries hard. The plastic on the windows seems to be a big motivator, as well as the stereo. If he sees either, he's off as fast as he can for those and usually doesn't stumble. If nothing else he gets himself there backwards. Watch out world here comes trouble!

When it Rains, it Pours

I took Ollie back into the doctors yesterday to have his cough checked out. He lost his fever Friday, but still had the cough and stuffiness, making it extremely difficult for him to breath at night. He slept most of Saturday and Sunday. Monday, he was mostly back to his normal self, at least as far as up time goes. But he was still coughing and stuffy. We went to see his doctor and his x-ray from last Thursday revealed he had Bronchillitis and on top of it he had started to develop a small ear infection. JOY. So he's on antibiotics and a nebulizer to help him breath. At least he is acting like his old self. I hope this is the last of it for awhile. My wish for X-mas is that he is well.

Even though he has been sick, he's become better at crawling. He can go small distances without stumbling. Of course he has to investigate everything. We baby-proofed the plugs this weekend in preparation. I'm sure we'll do the doors when we get back from our trip. We'll have to get baby gates as well. He'll be an expert at crawling when we get back. What a present!

103.2

Usually I'm the optimistic person and Tresa is the pessimistic person. When it comes to Ollie, our roles reverse. 103.2 was his high fever temperature yesterday. Of course thought of the worst, meningitis. He had no other symptoms at the time. He's teething, but that is too high of a fever for that. So, we got him an appt. with the pediatrician. They gave him some Motrin and his fever broke while we were there. Since he didn't have any other symptoms, they decided to run tests.

Since he had been up all night and was tired and hurting they decided to keep him up most of the day. At the pediatrician, he got a catheter to dip his urine to check for a kidney infection. Which of course, made him mad. We then had to take that to the hospital, where he first got a CBC done. He calmed down and then they came back in to check for the flu. He got mad and calmed down. Then we had to get an x-ray to check his chest out. He got mad and eventually calmed down. During all this he tried to go to sleep, but with people poking and prodding him every few minutes, he had no choice but to stay awake and protest. All those tests and all he has is the flu. Not very happy about the excessive testing. Why didn't they just start with that one and leave it at that? No wonder the medical field is so screwed up and expensive.

When we got home, he got a good 3 hr. nap. Tresa cleaned and disinfected the house. I installed the computer card and printed some stuff off that needed to be done. I got a nap around 5:30 - 7:30 since I was up with him most of the previous night. He was up and played a bit, ate a bit of baby food (though he gagged a bit), and we all went to bed a bit after 10 pm. He slept with us until about 1 am when he got a full bottle. I put him into his bed and he complained about 4 am because he had scooted himself into the top corner of the bed. I moved him back down when he coughed and he slept until 6 am without any motrin since 10! Tresa called when I got to work and said he is back to his normal self, except with a cold coming on. Hopefully, the fever has broken for good and he just has a cold for awhile. I wish he was bigger, so he could have medicine for all his ailments.

Santa's Little Helper

Ollie went to see Santa last night. He didn't seem upset at all at sitting on his lap. He just kind of looked at him, no beard pulling. Just a stare. He doesn't quite know what's going on with this whole Christmas thing. He just likes the pretty lights. Love's to touch and look at lights. Love's wrapping paper. Love's making a mess of himself. I think this year, Christmas for Ollie will be about us keeping all the paper out of his mouth!

He's become more adept at bringing things to himself. We were eating at a sandwich shop last night and Ollie was eating crackers. We set the crackers on the table and he would reach, grab, pull them to him and shove them in his mouth. Of course, if we are eating something now, he has to have something too. If he doesn't have something too, you get screamed at. The mimicking of his parents has begun.

The Grind

These top teeth suck. Ollie is having a worse time with the top teeth than he had with the bottom. He constantly has a rag, bib or toy in his mouth. The numbing stuff isn't doing wonders. Last night while I was burping him for his midnight bottle he was grinding his bottom teeth against the top gums to make them feel better. I was amazed he went back to sleep at all. I knew he would be up later. At 3 am, he woke up, so I gave him a bit of tylenol. Then I moved him onto his side from his tummy, away from the railing and he fell right back asleep.

He's already going to be crabby at x-mas from the travel, I hope his teeth come before then. If not we'll have a very crabby Christmas. I hope there are lots of x-mas lights to look at, it is his favorite distraction.

Babble-on

Baby babbling has begun! Ollie is trying to tell us things more and more. He's even gotten out Da-da, much to my chagrin. He's still working on Ma-ma. He's got the long Mmmmmmmm down, just no ahhhhh. He tries to tell us everything though, it's kind of fun to hear something other than cries.

On the crawling front, he's moving backwards mostly. Not really coordinated yet. He has taken a few movements forward. He doesn't quite get that you have to move your hands forward too and usually loses his balance and plops on his head. He has lunged forward and has figured out how to move forward a few times, but nothing consistent.

His top teeth are on their way in. That's probably why he was so crabby this weekend. I'm sure all of this will be much improved by Christmas.

Snow Day

Today is the first real snow day we've had this year. Okay, so it is more like ice-snow, but it looks great! Unfortunately Ollie won't get the chance to play in it just yet. It'll all be gone by the time we get home tonight. He got to walk through it this morning for a little bit with his momma. He seemed to like it. He had a big smile on his face when I took him into the babysitter in the falling snow. Maybe later this year we'll get to go sledding down our hill in the back. Hopefully it won't scare Ollie too much. He'll love the hill in the winter for sledding, he'll hate it the rest of the year because he'll have to mow it!

I know it is pretty sad to be planning for my 6 month old son to be taking over my chores already. Come to think of it, the cat's litter box needs a regular cleaning! Ha ha ha ha!

up, uP, UP...not quite

You know when you look into the future and can see what's coming. What is coming with Ollie is very obvious. He can almost sit himself up from a crawling position. He props himself up and gets himself about 1/2 way up and can't get any farther. He'll take your hand to help him to a sitting position. He'll figure it out on his own soon enough.

He'll also crawl and have more teeth soon. He can get around pretty much anywhere he wants to go, except he gets there going backwards. He also has to play with everything, particularly shiny things! His top gums seem to be beginning to swell to accept teeth.

Every night this week he's gone to bed at 7 or 7:30 and pretty much slept through the night. You see all these changes and you can tell he's going to be a bigger handful in the not to distant future. The cats have been warned. They are going to be very sticky soon.

New Schedule

Ollie has started to change his schedule. It started over Thanksgiving and it seems to be continuing. Though it's not all at once. He seems to be going to bed at 7:30 consistently. He's gotten up a couple of times around 10 and slept through the night. Other times, he gets up between 12 and 4. It seems to be evening out for the better though. I'm still not sure what to do with sleeping through the night. It's funny, I get to sleep through the night and I'm still tired. Must be too much sleep.

I have to admit, he is the cutest baby in the mornings. Happy, vocal, playful and very mobile. He was so mobile this morning, he almost rolled off the bed. All he had to do was roll over again and he would have fallen. Too bad you can't baby proof a bed. He hasn't taken any major dings yet. Mostly his throwing up through his nose has caused him the most pain. I'm sure dings are going to become more common with more mobility. Better stock up on the band-aids.

Ta-Da

Ollie is the best interactive toy baby ever! He now enjoys testing out the sound of breathing through his nose loudly. In and out, in and out...all in a huff. He scoots backwards, can manipulate objects. Play peek-a-boo...by himself, which is a great distraction for him when he's not happy. Just toss him a towel and he hides. Oh no, he's all gone!

This morning he was up early so, he got to play a bit and started lunging for things in front of him. He also dismantled the toys on the bottom shelf. I'm sure it's just the beginning of destruction. He's a lot more fun than in the first few months, more independent, more evocative and more demanding.

"No" is starting to be used more in our house. Too bad he doesn't understand it yet. You tell him 'No', move him away from the offending object and he's back there in 2 seconds. You can't help but laugh at your own frustration. He's certainly laughing at us while he's getting in trouble.

Turkey Day

Ollie's first long holiday went pretty well. He seemed to enjoy his time around the house. His naps seem to be waning. Thursday and Friday, he took several 15 minute power naps. Saturday and Sunday they seemed to even out to only 2 naps and a quick nap, which won't last long, I'm sure. He even slept through the night on Saturday. Only got up once on Sunday because he had twisted himself sideways. Hoping the trend continues.

He also has become more vocal. Especially in the screaming department. He does it just to hear himself. He even woke his Aunt Annie up because he was so loud. Babbling has started to emerge. He thinks he's talking and you understand all his ramblings. Pretty soon we won't get him to shut up.

He is more or less crawling/scooting backwards to get where he wants to go. He even made a circle this weekend and can roll to a crawling position. Baby gates here we come! He loves playing with the stereo because it's shiny silver/gray color. He turned the sound up repeatedly last night. Of course we moved him away from it and he was back there within a few minutes. I'm also going to have to move the cords for the speakers. He likes playing with those too. More work for his dadda. I intended on getting more pictures scanned, but I was a bit busy all weekend.

He got to eat turkey too. Baby turkey counts right? Why does all baby meat smell like cat food? I wouldn't like it. It took Ollie a bit to warm up to it. The cats seem to like the taste they got off the lid! Apparently it's good for growing boys and kitties!

Shocking!

Ollie slept the entire night! ALL NIGHT LONG! I asked Tresa at 4 am why she hadn't gotten me up to help with Ollie. She replied that he hadn't woken up. Of course she had just checked on him and he was fine, but I was still worried until I heard him rustling a bit over the monitor. We still had to wake him up at 6:30 to go to the babysitter. I guess he got worn out from his non-sleep the night before and his putting to bed. I felt like I got too much sleep from sleeping through the night.

He screamed bloody murder last night when he was supposed to go to bed. He was rotten, the worst he's ever been when being put to bed. Luckily, Tresa was putting him to bed, I just got to listen. He was so tired and fighting it so much. He finally fell asleep around 10 pm.

His second tooth pushing through caused the problems from the previous night. It probably helped wear him out for last night. I don't expect last nights sleeping pattern to continue, but I can dream...or maybe not if Ollie wakes up.

Pain in the Mouth

Usually Ollie will go to sleep and stay asleep after he's laid down. Sometimes he needs the vacuum cleaner on for about 10 minutes until he's out for good. Last night, his teeth changed the game plan. He did ok going to bed and got up about 12 for his bottle, which is normal for him. 1:30 rolls around and he fusses, Tresa can't get him back to sleep. So, I give it a shot.

He's pushed himself into the corner of his bed head first on his belly. I move him back to the middle of his bed and turn on the vacuum. 15 minutes later, I think he's asleep. I go back to bed after turning the vacuum off. About the time I get back into our room, I can hear him on the monitor. I repeat the previous cycle and he seems to be out. Not so fast.

So, I give him baby tylenol to help with the pain and start the vacuum CD at 2 am. I make a bed on the floor in his room and wait. About 2:30 the CD starts skipping. So, I decide to shut it off. Ollie still can't stay asleep. The CD goes on again until 3 am, when I finally shut it off because it is skipping again. Ollie stays asleep and I camp on his floor to make sure he doesn't wake up. Tresa came and got me sometime later, when she awoke and noticed I looked a awful lot like a cat or two. Ollie was out until 6 am. I can't wait for a full set of teeth. Of course, then he'll use them to bite me!

All He wants For Christmas

Is his 2 front teeth! Yes, the first has popped through. It is sharp! The second seems to be on the way. I expected teething to be worse than it has been. Granted, he's chewing on everything, except his teething rings. He isn't doing too bad with it though. He doesn't always have to have something in his mouth. He's on his way to having a full set of chompers a whole month earlier than it is normal. See, he is special!

Other things on the Ollie front...Naps. They seem to be waning. He was up for 6 straight hours Sunday morning. I'm not sure if it was his tooth that kept him up or if he was just that awake. He wasn't too crabby in the morning, the afternoon is another story. But he seemed to do about the same as he has been doing on weekends. Other than the beaver like chewing on everything. Luckily his momma and I are still physically intact.

Paper Boy

We have found a good use for all the unsolicited advertisement magazines we receive in the mail. They become Ollie's play toys. He loves to crinkle, crunch and eat the paper from the magazines. He pretty much likes to eat anything, but paper is fun to play with. All the colors and sound must attract him. We usually have to keep an eye on his paper activity because he's become adept at ripping and trying to eat small pieces. Those magazines seem to work the best. He doesn't get ink all over him most of the time. Apparently, I used to play with the newspaper and would have black ink all over me. Ollie has less ink on him, but is just as messy with his paper. Soggy paper is not fun to clean up!

'round-a-bout'

Ollie is a moving machine. Last night, in the space of 5 ft, Ollie rolled, scooted and squirmed his way around the floor for about an hour. He made it over to the stereo and was able to turn it up. He was quite active and very happy. He was even up for a 4 hr. stretch. He's been doing that a lot lately. It won't be too long and one of his naps will disappear.

We got more pictures. I'll try to scan them in later this week, maybe the weekend.

Whopper

Ollie is a big boy! 18 1/2 lbs. and 27 3/4 in. long. 2 more shots, a flu shot and a few minutes of screaming. Not too bad for a 6 month old. He seems to be growing at a consistent pace. Of course he's the perfect little boy with lots of personality. The stranger anxiety hasn't set in yet, but it usually begins within the next month. Christmas will be fun with that. There's also going to be the issue of travel. Apparently, until 9 months, when babies travel they get very crabby and very clingy. Just like our last trip. Should be fun. Ho Ho Ho!

Not too Long Now

This weekend Ollie took another step in becoming mobile. He got himself up on all 4's and kept his head on the ground. He kept himself up for awhile. Able to rock a bit on his own. He kept doing it over and over. I swear I saw fear in the cats eyes at his new talent.

He has been doing better at sitting up, but once he starts to fall, he can't right himself yet. The carts in stores seem to be helping and he likes being in them better than in his old car seat. Now his only problem is that he wants to forward in the cart. Not even a year old and he wants to ignore his parents! The fun is just beginning.

Food

Ollie has done well this week sleeping. Only 1 night he has gotten up at 2 am. The rest he's been asleep since 11pm and been more or less stayed asleep. We've been a bit worried that something happened and nothing has. He's even been flipping onto his stomach and sleeping on it through at least half the night. He just has a clogged nose in the morning from sleeping on his tummy. Same as his dad gets when he sleeps on his stomach...sorry Ollie, you got that from me!

What's this have to do with food you ask? Well, Ollie has gotten to eat first thing in the morning due to all this. This morning he even got cereal. Baby rice cereal, but cereal nonetheless. He's also had a few other odd eating habits and has become quite messy while doing it.


Ollie enjoying Sweet Potatoes, one of his favorites


How is that going to fit in there?

Happy Half-Birthday!

Ollie is 6 months old today! It's amazing how much he's grown and changed in that little bit of time. The weeks seem to last forever, but all together the time seems to go fast. We've looked back at pictures of him when he was first born and compare them to now. He's gone from 7lbs to almost 18! He's started at 19.5 inches and is somewhere in the upper 20's. We'll find out for sure on Monday during his next appointment. We started with a crying, jerky, very needy baby. We now have a playing, smiling, yelling, interactive youngster. Amazing what difference 6 months can make.


Happy Birthday Ollie!

Clothes

Baby clothes are made rather strangely. They make them so that your baby looks like a small adult. Things like this outfit


Ollie Singing

The collar on this outfit is split in the front and in the back! Why? There are a few buttons in the back, but this doesn't prevent a complete collar. Strange. This is a 1 piece outfit too. He's also got baby jeans that zip and button. T-shirt's without buttons around the top. He doesn't like those because the neck doesn't stretch and it squishes his face. Pajamas that snap in a triangle. Down both legs and up the torso. Why couldn't they just do 1 leg like they do with zippers? It's difficult enough to snap them with the lights on, but at night it's nearly impossible.

All in all though, Ollie seems to be happy being clothed, other than shoes. Socks come off easily too. I bet he'll be a little streaker once he can walk and take off his clothes. Hmm, sounds like someone I know.

Testing, Testing 1, 2, 3

Ollie has begun testing his new found strength. Rather we've been testing his new found stregnth. He sit him up much as possible. He does pretty well until he starts leaning a direction, then over he goes. We are with him so he doesn't fall. By X-mas he'll be a pro at it.

Crawling will sure to follow. It won't be far behind. We've been able to set him on all 4's in the crawling position and he's rocked back and forth for a few seconds before his strength gives out on him. Just last night he almost got the crawling position on his own. The cats will be in trouble once he starts crawling. Now they can run away from him. They'll have to hide. He'll be slow, but he'll get them for sure.

He also likes to 'walk'. You can hold him by his hands, stand him up and he'll attempt to get somewhere. He usually starts going backwards, but eventually makes 'steps' forward. He also enjoys jumping on his parents in this position. If his gastric is active, we usually end up with a bruised tummy and covered in milk.



Ollie prepping his walking gear

New Chair

Ollie got to try his bigger car seat out this weekend. He hated it of course. It's one of those that the baby is sitting upright, not laying down like his old one. He just got too long for his old one and he hated it. So, it was time to move him on up to the big seat. This morning on the way to the sitter's he fell asleep in it. A habit that he continued from his old seat. The only problem is this one doesn't come out of the car as easily, so we'll have to carry him into stores or use the stroller. That's ok, I need to work on my biceps anyways.

Ollie also got to go to Pier 1 this weekend. He loved the colors and all the new things to look at. Of course we had to stop and look in the mirrors to see the baby on the other side. Silly boy! He didn't do too bad at sleeping last night. He got up at 11:30 for a bottle, woke up at 2 something because he got stuck on his tummy and went back to sleep without a bottle and the vacuum of course. He then slept the rest of the night. Out of the ordinary. Anyways, here's another pic of Ollie in his halloween costume.

Musical Sleeping Patterns

Ollie can't seem to figure out his sleeping pattern. It changes every night. We think he is now starting to get his first tooth. He chews on our shoulder when we try to put him to sleep. Makes for a soggy shirt when he's done. Last night he was up until 9pm. The previous 7:30. What a strange boy. If it is teeth, nothing will be on a schedule for awhile and we'll have an unhappy, in-pain baby for awhile.

Vocal Lessons

Here's a mp3 of Ollie's latest vocalization. You may want headphones. He is loud!

Ollie Alarm Clock!

He's just a happy little guy who likes to hear his own voice. What a silly little guy.

1.5

1.5 - that's how many jars of food Ollie ate for dinner last night. He was a hungry boy. He usually only eats 1 jar. He didn't hardly spit anything up at all. Then 2 1/2 hrs. later he had a full bottle, again, hardly any spit-up. I swear, we are going to have a round ball for a child if this keeps up.

Last night Ollie kept waking up because he kept rolling onto his stomach and couldn't figure out how to get back on his back. We've heard stories of other babies, younger than Ollie, already sleeping through the night. We are jealous. We are also going to have to eventually break the vacuum cleaner habit. He can't soothe himself, so that seems to do it. I guess we'll ask about it at his next appt.

Mr. Whimper

Ollie has begun to make his wants more apparent lately. When he wants something he holds his arms up and starts to whimper like a little dog. If he wants you to pick him up, up go the arms. He sees his bottle or a jar of food, "mmm mmm mmm". Until he gets distracted or he gets what he wants. He enjoys watching the fish swim in the tank. He's gotten similar to Splatter in the fact that he doesn't understand he can't touch the fish, so he whimpers' for them and tries to grab them through the glass.

He also whimpers for the cats. They still don't want anything to do with him. He gets excited when they are in the room. We put him near them and he tries to grab them. Splatter and Zoey run, Piper and Sassy tolerate him and he's even gotten to pet them a few times. He's also gotten to grab a handful of ear of each cat. They didn't mind though. Now if we could only teach him to not clamp down, the other's may like him.

102nd Dalmation

Here's a couple of pictures that Tresa's company took for Halloween.



Not too bad considering he can't sit up by himself!

Michael Jordan Jr.

This weekend Ollie discovered his tongue. He stuck his tongue out all weekend. Raspberries - tongue out, eating - tongue out, playing - tongue out. I took a picture of it, but it'll be awhile before it gets developed. Maybe I'll have more pictures up this week.

Sleep Roulette

These past two weeks have been different in trying to get Ollie to sleep than any we've had up to this point. Ollie has started to want to stay up more. He's fighting his sleep harder than before. So the usual tricks have not worked as well.

Last week, I could put him on my chest with a binky and pat his back and he'd fall asleep, if I caught him at the right time. It seemed to work quite a bit that week. Then this week came. He didn't want anything to do with me this week. He didn't want to be on my chest, he just didn't want me. The vacuum cleaner has even begun to fail unless he's really tired. Last night he wouldn't nap around 7pm. So, we put him in his swing. He played for awhile and we gave him a rattle toy. Of course he chewed on it. I started saying prodding him with mamamamamamama. He got sleepy and fell asleep while swinging, eating his rattle and me saying mamamamamamama. Strange, strange boy. The below links are Ollie getting frustrated playing in his exersaucer and trying to eat his toys.

Ollie Frustrated 1

Ollie Frustrated 2

Sleep

It's been strange the last couple of nights. Ollie has been skipping his ride home nap and going to bed earlier. Sunday it was 8pm, he slept 'til 2. Monday it was 8 and he got up at 10 and 2. Last night it was 7. He got up at 9 and 2. He woke at 5am for another bottle and then took a cat nap in bed with his dad while his mom got ready for work. I hope this isn't changing his current sleep schedule. I just hope he gets a nap on his way home tonight. Maybe his sleeping patterns are beginning to change. He's supposed to start sleeping longer at night...without interruption. He hasn't conquered that part yet.

Strength

Ollie has become a rather strong boy lately. Last night while playing, his momma and I were able to set him in a crawling position. You know arms fully extended, legs under butt on his knees. He wasn't able to hold this position long, but long enough for us to recognize it. He also is getting better at sitting on his own. He pretty much held himself up during his bath last night. Granted he grabbed the sides for stability, but he did it on his own. He does not like to be down much anymore. He also LOVES watching the fish in the fish tank. He keeps pulling himself as close to the tank as he can when he's in his high-chair. It makes for a good distraction for him. The cats on the other hand, don't want a thing to do with him, just his bed. I found Splatter taking a nap in his bed the other night, she got thrown out in a hurry. Any time he's near them and he can grab the cats, he tries...and they run. I don't blame them though, if someone grabbed my hair and pulled as hard as possible, I wouldn't want to be around them either. Oh wait Ollie does that to Tresa and I too. As well as pinching our skin, eyes, mouth, ears and anything else he can get a hold of. If you have sparkly things on, you are his favorite things to grab. I guess this year, we'll not only have to keep the cats out of the Christmas tree, but Ollie as well.

Waaaaaaaah!

That's pretty much what Ollie sounded like yesterday. He was crabby almost all day. He couldn't get a good nap in for anything. So, he would wake up crabby. Then we'd have to attempt to entertain a crabby boy for 2 hrs. until his next nap. Luckily he went to be about 8pm and slept until 1am. Then from 2-6. He was tired. He woke up happy and all smiles, which always makes up for all his crabbiness the previous day. They say if your first baby is easy the second will be difficult or vice versa. Well, I'm hoping he's on the difficult side.

He's also becoming more mobile and interactive. He regularly rolls his way to things without hesitation. He also likes to play peek-a-boo sometimes. His favorite new thing is to get raspberries on the side of his stomach instead of his belly. He laughs and giggles like crazy. Then of course he pays you back with raspberries during feedings. His white high-chair looks like the food dejure after some feedings. Ollie has to help clean up the high-chair by gumming the plastic. What a messy boy!

Strange

I was looking through who had visited Ollie's page and someone got to this site by typing in the following "a picture of a bottle of prune juice". Granted I've mentioned prune juice before, but I guess Google isn't perfect.

Yes he's still only getting up once a night! Yea! He's also not becoming more vocal and more active and LOVES to stand and sit. He sat yesterday by himself, but it was a slumped over sit. We all gotta start somewhere. Besides he was too interested in his feet to straighten himself up. He had on colored socks, don't you know they make great play toys! And I thought I'd have nothing to write today.

Routine

Ollie seem's to have gotten into a routine lately. At least sleeping routine. It has been great to get a normal amount of sleep again. He usually falls asleep between 9 and 10. Then gets up only once during the night and again about 5 or 6 when we usually get up for work. It probably won't be much longer and he'll sleep through the night. Then of course his teeth will start to come in and we'll start all over. Sigh

He is also becoming very adept at sitting up and standing and loves both. He is almost able to sit on his own, but he'll have the occasional jerk reaction and go flying. We still have our hands on him, so he doesn't get far. He can't stand on his own, obviously, but he's gotten tot he point that we can hold his hands only and he can stand with that little bit of help. I bet he'll be sitting by himself by the 6 month mark and start standing on his own a bit after that. He also loves playing peek-a-boo...sometimes. Growing and changing it seems almost every day. He's going to be a really big boy soon.

Ollie's First Picture

It occurred to me the other day that I had never posted a pic of Ollie's first professional picture. So I'll post a link to it, since a huge pic! It does contain some graphical content and those bits are labeled, so you've been warned!

Ollie's First Picture

Who's the sleeping baby?

This weekend Ollie slept in his own room, in spite of our trepidation about it. He did extremely well. Especially last night. Friday he had 2-4 hr. stretches. Last night he got up once. ONCE! My body is in shock from so much sleep! It turned out better than we thought. We are guessing that us moving, the cats running around in our room (they have bells) and our floor boards creaking was waking him up. He has a nice quiet serene room. He also took naps and went to sleep and back to sleep without the vacuum cleaner. Maybe we won't burn the engine up on the thing. Hopefully his sleep habits will continue to improve.

He also played more with other toys. His exersaucer got a good workout. His swing (which he's almost too big for), his bouncy seat (he can now grab the rings on his own) and of course his toes are competing for his attention. We got some good video of other strange Ollie occurrences over the weekend. He also like his back pack. He got strapped to dadda while they took the cats outside and seemed to enjoy it, even laughing a few times. He is also big into standing and sitting on you. Still can't sit on his own, but he's getting there. I guess next will be his enjoyment of this:



1 weekend - POOF - new baby. I hope it continues.

Moving on Out

This weekend Ollie gets to sleep in his own room for the first time. Tresa isn't to sure about this. I'm still wondering if we'll here him with the baby monitor on. I'm used to getting up every 3 hrs, so maybe we'll be up out of habit. Hopefully he'll stay asleep, like in the picture, for a longer period of time.



I doubt we'll get this lucky, but at least we'll get our bedroom back. We changed his schedule a bit last night, he did go 5 hrs without a bottle, though it was 8pm to 1:30am. Not exactly peak parents sleeping time. Especially since he was up until 10pm! Though it was better getting up just twice instead of 3 times a night. Now if we could only get him to soothe himself back to sleep without a bottle. Better yet, soothe himself at all! Jamming your whole hand down your throat and rolling isn't very soothing.

Hungry Hungry Ollie

Ollie has become an avid eater, though not perfect. He recognizes when bottles are coming, when jars of food are being opened and when we aren't feeding him fast enough. He makes all kinds of noises, raspberries (with food coming back at you), squeals and a few grunts. He also tries to help you feed him. He lunges for the bowls, spoons and jars. He usually ends up a giant mess. I can't wait until he feeds himself. He'll be an even bigger mess.


YUM!

Shiny Happy Baby

Oh how I wish he would sleep through the night! Oh how I wish he would be able to soothe himself back to sleep! Oh how I wish he wouldn't be so crabby all the time. No matter what, you just can't help but love the little booger when he's like this.

That's Entertainment!

There are many things that entertain Ollie. The usually things like his toys, mirrors, balls, shiny things and recently his own feet! His feet entertain him so much so he always has had them in the air quite a bit to get a good look at them. He also loves to play with balls. These frustrate him to no end. Since his fine motor skills aren't the best yet, he usually ends up batting them away. When he does get a hold of them, or anything else for that matter, in the mouth it goes. Luckily, they are all too big to fit in his strained squash hole! We also bought one of those giant bouncy balls in the store for him. The thing is bigger than him! Of course he has to use his arms AND his legs to deal with it. Just like everything else, in the mouth it goes. Which means he sticks his tongue out and licks it!

As his parental units, we must also entertain the little wonder-boy. We make the strangest sounds, funny faces and do silly things. We also have the photographic evidence to prove it!


Now if we only could stop doing the same thing with the cats!

Weekend Update

What a crabby boy we had this weekend. He didn't nap well at all on Sunday. His feeding schedule was a bit wacky this weekend as well. We are guessing it was another growth spurt! Unfortunately for his momma, she got to deal with him on Sunday while I put in the screen door. He did sleep fairly well last night and put himself back to sleep at around 1am. That's a new one. No parental intervention necessary. Too bad it didn't work at 4am. We are attributing all of these changes to the appearance of this little fellow.



DuckBoy to the Rescue!

Weekend

This weekend is going to be the great Ollie experiment. We are going to try and get him out of his old car seat and into his new one. He has gotten too long for his old one. We tried it earlier this week, without great results. So we will try againt his weekend when we have more time to do it. We are also going to try and get him out of his carrier to sleep in. We kind of got him back in the habit when we went out of town. We tried putting him back in his bed when we got back to bad results. So we are going to start all over this weekend. Hopefully it'll be better. Here's what Ollie looked like dressed for the wedding.


It won't be too much longer and Ollie will crawl. He's picking up his butt, getting his knees underneath him and pushing forward. Of course he didn't use his arms, so he looked a little funny. He's doing better sitting up, but no dice yet.

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

Ollie did it last night. He rolled front to back. Back to Front, Front to Back over and over and over until he covered about 5 feet! We had to move our footstools out of the way so he could keep going and wouldn't bump into them. We are going to have to keep a better eye on him from now on. Next up - sitting up!

Ppfffffhhhhtt!

This is Ollie's newest favorite activity. Ppfffffhhhhtt! He does this all the time. Ppfffffhhhhtt! When he's playing. Ppfffffhhhhtt! When he's rolling. Ppfffffhhhhtt! Especially when he's eating. Ppfffffhhhhtt! Last night Tresa was feeding him carrots for dinner. Ppfffffhhhhtt! Before, during and after the spoon went in the mouth, we got a Ppfffffhhhhtt! Ollie's chair got a Ppfffffhhhhtt! Mom and Dad got a Ppfffffhhhhtt!

By the end of the feeding Ollie's white bib, white chair, clothes and skin were a nice orange. Ppfffffhhhhtt! He had previously done this with his green beans last week. Ppfffffhhhhtt! Tresa was laughing so hard at him she couldn't feed him. Ppfffffhhhhtt! We are not going to be good at discouraging bad but funny behavior, he's just too darn cute! Ppfffffhhhhtt!

Big Boy

Ollie has gotten long. Too long, in fact, for his current car seat. He's a bit ahead of the growth curve. So this week he gets to start riding in his upright car seat. We had a stationary test run in our bedroom last night and he seemed to enjoy sitting up rather than laying down. It's still a bit big for him, but he'll grow into it. Probably faster than he is supposed to, but that's not a bad thing.

Pictures are coming later this week, maybe next Monday. We won't get them back until Thursday.

P.S. You can print the pictures on this site! Email Ollie if you need help.

Travel travails

Traveling in a car with a almost 5-month-old. What's there to say? Lot's of sleep for Ollie IN the car, not a lot out of it. Ollie set a few records this weekend. He slept probably 3-4 hrs of the travel time both ways, but he also set records for staying awake, Sat and Sun when we got home he had 4 hr. awake spells because of all the sleep he had gotten. Basically he was all out of whack! Running around, getting to rehearsal Friday, and Wedding and reception Saturday. What a mess. He wouldn't fall asleep when he as tired, so we had to carry him around and entertain him. He entertained himself for awhile during the rehearsal dinner. He played with a coke can and seemed to be the center of attention for awhile. He just wouldn't sleep.

The wedding Saturday was ok for Ollie. We got seated and just as the wedding was to begin he got fussy and crabby and hungry. Since his mom was in the wedding, I took him out and fed him, burped him and then the fun began. By the time we came back into the wedding they were already down the aisle. So in case Ollie got fussy we stood in the back. Ollie sucked his fingers since he didn't want his binky. Then he grabbed my finger, as babies do, and shoved it in his mouth! So for most of the ceremony Ollie had a dadda finger snack! My finger was wrinkly from being so wet for so long. Luckily they had pictures to take before the reception, so I took Ollie out to the parking lot and put him in his stroller and strolled him to sleep.

He woke up when we went to put him in the car to go to the reception. Then his 4 hrs marathon started. He was up until about 8pm when he got REALLY crabby so we took him back to the house and got him his bath and food. Eventually he went to sleep, but woke up a bit later and dozed off again for the night.

The ride home was horrid. He slept for at least 3 hrs. on the way home, but we were all exhausted physically. At one point, we stopped at a rest stop and no one wanted to get back in the car. Luckily we made it back in one piece and tired. Then Ollie started his 2nd 4 hr stretch. He eventually went to bed. I hope he gets back to his normal schedule. I didn't realize how much I missed peace and quiet for an hour every 3 hrs.

On the plus side, he's gotten over his cold, so it's back to training Ollie to sleep in his crib. FUN!

I'm not looking forward to Christmas, it's going to be very exhausting, just with the travel by itself. Plus Ollie will probably be sitting by then, so more work for his momma and dadda. Not ready for that at all.

Going on a Trip

Ollie is going on a trip this weekend. His first long car ride - 5 hrs each way! His uncle Travis is getting married and his momma is a candle lighter, so Ollie gets to sit with his dadda and maybe his uncle Frankie and Aunt Annie. He'll update this blog with information on the weekend and if his dadda gets on the stick, maybe some pics of the event.

P.S. He slept ALL night long! Shh, I don't want to jinx it!

Lights On!

We found out something new about Ollie last night. He's afraid of the dark! We tried several times to put him to sleep with the lights off or a small light on. He wouldn't have any of it. The lights had to be on completely. Granted, this doesn't mean his parents have to sleep through the night with them on. Once he's down for good, they can all be turned out and when he wakes at night, it's not a problem to be fed and put back to sleep without the lights. But, you try to put him to bed for the night with the lights off and you can forget it. He really hasn't shown much of this until last night. It definitely looks like we are going to have a brighter future!

New Words

To prevent Ollie's first words being something that would make a sailor blush, Tresa and Annie came up with replacement words to use instead of cuss words.

"Son of a Snitch"

"Holy Twit!"

"Hammit all to Heck"

Of course, his first words will probably be along the lines of "Spatter, shut up", since this seems to be a mantra around our house. It certainly won't be Momma or Dadda, it'll probably be Splatter, Piper, Sassy or Zoe or CAT.

His new thing to laugh at is my morning bed head. I shake my head and my hair moves around and amuses Ollie to no end. Great, not quite 5 months old and he's already laughing at his Dadda.

Playmate

We found out last night that Ollie's first cousin from my side of the family is on the way. I tried warning them to get as much sleep as they can and get whatever project done they want to get done now. I think it went in one ear and out the other. I'm sure it did when I was told the same things. We seem to have gotten the same amount of housework done since we've had Ollie. It's just worked around his schedule. He even 'helps' or rather supervises our work. Especially now that he likes to be upright more than on his back. Granted he currently is supervising his feet and trying to figure out what they are and what they do, but he's got responsibility for them! Now if only he could lift a hammer!

Better

I think we are all getting over our colds. Ollie definitely had a better night. Not as snotty this morning and mostly in his own bed last night. He's definitely becoming a bigger boy! He's trying to roll from front to back and Tresa said he even rolled over twice in a row last night. The future is upon us. He's going to be mobile in no time.

It's amazing how much he's changed in the past 4 months. We look at pictures of when he was first born and he's totally different. Our next door neighbor had a baby at the end of August and to compare the two is like night and day. Ollie is Godzilla compared to our next door neighbor's kid. Even comparing this picture from Labor Day with his Uncle T.J. to the one of him sleeping on the right, the change is amazing.

Everyone says they grow so fast, you really don't see it until you compare pictures. The time seems to go so slow from week to week. When you add them up, he's totally different.

Cold strikes back

Ollie had a horrible night with his cold, so his parents did as well. He was extremely stuffy. Hopefully he gets rested during the day and feels better soon. Our happy well baby is much better.

Playtime and Cold #2

Ollie has become more involved in his playing activities and more curious about the world around him. He grabs (at least attempts) his toys. He likes his humpty-dumpty toy and of course the rattles. The interesting things are the ones you don't expect. For instance, his car seat handles have red release buttons. Everytime we put up his handle he is fascinated with the red buttons and attempts to grab them every time. He sometimes gets it the wrong side of the handle. He's also shown beginning signs of rolling front to back, but no where near it yet.


Ollie in his bouncy seat

Ollie also got his second cold. The weather change has all of us a bit stuffy. Thank heavens for the vaporizer. After he's unstuffy, he's one happy camper! Guess he doesn't realize he's supposed to be miserable when he's sick.

Sweet Sleep

Ollie almost slept through the night last night. He only got up once around 2 am for a bottle and slept until 5:30. His parents were most grateful. Unfortunately it came at a price. Earlier in the night he was up for 3 hrs. straight! Usually he only stays up 2 hrs and takes a nap and goes to bed. Needless to say, he wasn't a happy camper! Little SCREAMING howler monkey! His parents were at their wits end...vacuum cleaner to the rescue! He fussed a bit and wouldn't settle down from the crying and kept fighting his binky, but after about 10 minutes he was out. I'm not sure what to do with all this sleep.

On the food front, he's getting better at eating his baby food. Sometimes he likes to spit it back at you! His face ends up being the color of the food and so does his high-chair. He certainly enjoys it more than his bottle it seems. He even howls when you don't shove it in his face fast enough! Also, since he has started 'grabbing' for things, especially shiny things, he tries to help you with the spoon. Makes for a messy baby! He's a good little helper.


Ollie's first feeding

Alien Baby

I knew he was an alien. Here is a pic of Ollie in his space ship. Ready to take over the world, muahahahha! He's got his death ray (squeaker), his controls (a rattle and giant bending thing), the wheels (spinning rattle) and a rearview mirror to help see those pesky parents coming after him. He also can turn 360 degrees in the thing. At least he's happy in the thing. If only we were all as happy as smiling babies seem to be.

He's getting back to his normal sleeping pattern. Hopefully the worst is over, at least he's not a hurricane...YET!

Exersaucer Baby

Another fun night for Ollie, actually for his parents. He refused to take a nap after we got home. We took him on a car ride to get Ice Cream and that didn't put him to sleep. We went to the hardware store for a bit, but he was still awake. So, about 7:30 he got to check out the toys in his room. He got to look at his fire truck, stacking blocks, ducks for the bath, his boppy to help him sit upright (he didn't do real well with that) and his exersaucer. He seemed to enjoy this immensely. He didn't quite sit upright in it and leaned on his left arm in the seat, but he didn't seem to mind. He played with some of the rattles and squeaker toys with his right hand. Almost bopped himself in the head with the rattle a few times. He also enjoyed chewing and licking the seat cover he was sitting in. Guess I didn't feed him enough dinner. Bath time (8:00 PM) and bottle...still awake. He also hadn't burped from his bottle. But he still fell asleep, for a little while. Then repeat several times. He eventually wouldn't go to sleep, so we tried to make him burp. He needed that! Then took a cat nap and woke up at 10 pm ready to rock! So, we played the Ollie standing game. Up and down he went as long as his legs could hold him. He does not like laying down! Eventually he got tired and CRABBY! He wouldn't go to sleep. Consequently, he slept on my chest from 11 to 4 and woke for his bottle with my chest full of baby slober! He got a bottle, slept and slept with us until it was time to get up. Of course, he slept while we were getting ready for work.

We are hoping that the past 2 nights are related to his shots on Monday. I guess we'll know by this weekend. At least we got some sleep. Now if it was only with 1 baby less in our bed.

Sleep? What the Hell is That?

Sorry about the graphic language, but Ollie's Momma and I wouldn't recongize sleep if it hit us in the face and startled wiggling all over us. Last night was worse than a nightmare. He went to bed a t his normal 8:30 time, got his bottle at 12 something and woke again at 3. This is where the horror started. He started fussing and wouldn't take his binky, so after trying everything imaginable, we finally gave him a bottle. Of course his gastric decided to kick it back up. So, sleeping in his bed wasn't much of an option. We tried our bed, in which he promptly spit-up. We then tried his bed again and the vacuum cleaner, no dice. So about 4:30 I got him out of bed (which he had spit-up in again) and had him sleep on my chest about 5 am he calmed down and went to sleep. Then I had an hour to possibly fall back asleep and maybe sleep for 1/2 hr. Then the stinking alarm went off and made Ollie jump. So I rolled him off and (in best Gomer Pyle voice) Surprise, Surprise, he woke up!

Now I just need some head gear so I don't knock myself out when I collapse from exhaustion.

Thud

And in this corner...

Weighing in at 15lbs. 8 oz. and 25 1/4 inches tall...Ollie "the Prize" Erickson. Ollie got his 4 month checkup yesterday. He's fine. A big boy, but fine. He's in the 90th percentile of legnth/height and 75th percentile in weight. He's outgrown some of his 6 month-old clothes because he is so long! He also tore the crap out of the sanitary paper on the bench and had fun with it.

He also got his second set of shots yesterday. He was good with those too. Cried for about 5 minutes during the shots, but once he was picked up he was fine. He also slept a bit better in his bed last night. At least he isn't wanting to eat everytime he gets up. Just a binky and he calms back down to sleep. Now if only he can go through the entire night without being restless. Maybe sometime next month.

Weekend and 5 Gens

Ollie had a good weekend, Mr. Hyde hid from us thankfully. He's gotten rolling to the left down without much of a problem, he's almost got rolling right down to perfection. He even liked the pea's he got for a meal! Eww! His bib looked really gross after that feeding was done. We've also figured out when he is done eating his food. He starts spitting it at you! It's like he's blowing bubbles with his food. pbtttttt and the parents are covered in baby food! At least he likes most of what he's eaten so far.

Today Ollie gets to go for his 4 month check-up and second set of shots! I'll have an update on that fun experience tomorrow. Here's a pic from Labor Day weekend. This is of the 5 generations leading to Ollie. Ollie, Me, his grandpa Steve, his great-grandpa Dean and his great-great grandpa Roy.

Beginnings of new tricks!

This is the beginning of some of Ollie's new tricks. He's got rolling over down pat, at least front to back. The sleeping was better last night...not as restless. Then there is what you see in the picture. The funny thing is that we have video footage of Ollie in this position vomiting his milk (like the exorcist) all over his mom's legs, twice! Sorry, I don't have a way to post it. Ollie also enjoys trying to sit up beyond his current position. He doesn't want to lay in Momma or Dadda's arms anymore. He wants to be upright, so we have to hold him upright. Not much longer and he'll be sitting on his own.

Last night he indicated his desire to be mobile. He was on his stomach on his blanket in the living room after he had turned over. All of a sudden he lifts up his butt by moving his legs underneath himself and gives a little push forward. He repeated this several times. Tresa and I looked at each other and laughed nervously. It is not long now and we are in real trouble with a mobile baby!

Suckers!

I'm sure that's Ollie's opinion of his parents...Suckers! He's just toying with us. Crying when he wants ready to sleep, eating when he's full, waking us at all hours of the night and spitting up all over us. Truth be told, he's the one who is the sucker or at least the sucker licker.


He likes the flavor and making himself a mess too! We are just beginning non-bottle food, so I guess he's going to be a mess for awhile.

Pushup King

Here's what Ollie looks like after a roll. He can roll from back to front, but not front to back yet. It would certainly help with his sleeping. Too bad he is restless in the middle of the night...all night long. He can't seem to just stay totally asleep. So, when he makes noise, we get up and check on him. Keeps the parents up all night. I can't wait for his doctor's appt. next week. Hopefully they can give us ideas on what to do. Especially for the crying spells. Last night it was another 2 hrs, but just earlier. Then he woke up at 9pm for an hour of play time as happy as a clam. I wish the pushup king would practice sleeping for awhile!

Humpty Dumpty and the Great Paul Fall

This is the scene right before Uncle Paul lost his balance and fell through the doorway! Ollie was still half asleep before, during and after the fall. Paul was a little shocked! No harm no foul. I'm sure Ollie will have plenty of falls on his own in months to come.

We now have an official rolling baby. Back to Front at least. He's becoming quite adept at it too. We were going somewhere yesterday and Ollie was on his back on the floor in the living room upstairs. I walked into our closet to get my shoes and when I came back out, he had fully rolled over and gotten his hands out from underneath himself. We are in trouble in the coming months!

Mr. Hyde reappeared yesterday. He refused to take his morning nap, so he got to go on 2 walks in the morning to get him to go to sleep. Later that night he woke up early from a nap and was an extreme crab. For 2 hours he cried/screamed and nothing would comfort him from either his momma or I. The vacuum cleaner didn't work, food, rocking, patting...nothing worked. So, his Aunt Annie took him and he quieted down and went to sleep. After he was laid in bed he fidgeted around trying to stuff his hands in his mouth, so I put the binky in his mouth and made sure it didn't fall out until about 11pm. He woke at 1 and had rolled himself over trying to get his hands in his mouth. I put him on his back and calmed him with his binky. He was then up again at 2 (or maybe still up). He got a bottle and prune juice. I tried setting him down, but the prune juice kept causing him problems, so I slept with him on my chest from 2:30 to 4. I tried putting him back in bed, but no dice, so he slept on my chest until this morning. I hope tonight is a better night.

Normal Baby

We are finally getting our normal baby it seems. Last night he slept in his jammies all night long! Considering he has gastric reflux and doesn't keep stuff down long, this is a miracle. He seems to be finally getting over it. Knock on wood! When you are a parent you become very superstitious about these little things. I know it's common, but you don't want to revert back to the previous behaviour, involuntary or not!

He slept in his regular baby bed last night again. He did better than the previous night. He woke up at midnight for another bottle and got cold around 2am, but he pretty much slept until about 5am! Yea, sleep!

We pick up pictures tonight! Maybe I'll get some posted this weekend.

Advancement

A few new things happened for Ollie last night. First, he almost completely rolled over! He got his lower half over, but his upper torso was still on it's side. He was trying to get his hands in his mouth still, so his arms were preventing him from completing the roll. Very soon, we'll have a mobile baby. Scary. Especially for the cats.

Second, he got to get into his swing and it didn't upset his gastric. He fell asleep in his swing! He certainly seemed to enjoy it. Third, he slept in his actual baby bed - no car seat! This little experiment didn't work quite as well. He kept kicking off his covers so it woke him up and his parents a couple of times during the night. We'll have to put his jammies on him tonight to see if it will work. Unfortunately, he spit up a little bit in bed, so we'll see how that works with jammies. Finally, for dinner Ollie had rice cereal with Apple sauce. He didn't like the first bite, but after that yummy!

Labor Day

I think everyone has a decent understanding of what Gastric Reflux is after this weekend. We even got a good video shot of Ollie up-chucking on his momma! Ollie had his attention quotient met and exceeded this weekend. He seemed to enjoy every minute of it. Even falling down in his Uncle Paul's arms! After they fell, Ollie just stared up still half asleep, trying to figure out what happened. The mental image is still funny.

Ollie also got to meet his great-grandpa and great-great grandpa. We took a picture of the 5 generations of us. It is still being developed, so that will have to wait for posting. It rained during the entire reunion, so it was inside. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, but it was shorter than usual. There were a couple of other babies there that joined Ollie in screaming. He even managed to hit the trash can with his spit-up!

On Monday he seemed to catch up on missed sleep. But still got a good 6 hrs. of sleep in. He also got his first taste of baby cereal. Not exactly the best eating mechanism, but what can you expect from a rookie? He seemed to like the taste of it though. Monday was also a day of very little spit-up. We hope it continues, but I probably just jinxed it!

Errand Boy

Ollie seems to love running errands. For 1 of 2 reasons, either he falls asleep during the car ride and sleeps through them or he's stimulated by the new experience. Last night he was tired and crabby when we went to the grocery store. Once we got into the store he almost sat motionless in his stroller just staring at everything. He also loves Pier 1, Lowe's, Hobby Lobby (especially the stuffed animals), Toys 'r' us (stuffed animals again), pretty much anywhere we go. The real test will be in October when we have a wedding to attend that is 5 hours away. We'll see how well he handles that much travel. By then he shouldn't have to eat every 3 hours. Currently he sometimes goes longer than 3 hours. I'm sure he'll be a bit more mobile by then too. This morning he did NOT want to be in his carrier. Every chance he got he tried to squirm his way out. Luckily we buckled him in and he was going no where fast!

Time for company, time to wear Ollie out!

New Night

Since Ollie has been sick, his old schedule has been thrown out of whack. It also helped that we had some errands to do every night this week, but he's been getting more rest than he has in awhile. Makes him a happier baby. It makes you wonder what is going on. He is generally on the same schedule. Sleeps on the way home, wakes up and plays for until his 5:30-6pm bottle. Then takes a nap...especially if we go somewhere. Gets a bath and bottle about 8:30. Then plays until he tires himself out. The vacuum cleaner isn't doing it's job as well anymore. He has to be really tired for it to work. Last night he slept through the night, with minimal fussing at 3, but he slept through it, as did I. I only found out about it when Tresa told me this morning. I hear him when I move him next to me to play the binky game in the middle of the night, but not when he's on Tresa's side of the bed. Bad Dadda.

On the development front, he's found his hands. Now instead of trying to jam 1 fist into his mouth to suck on he tries both while holding his hands together. Makes for a very frustrated Ollie. If he's calm, he usually gets the thumbsucking right the first time. If he gets excited or frustrated...forget it. Next up, stinky baby feet in the mouth...Gross! I also finally got pictures of him doing a pushup and kneeling on Tresa's leg. I'll post them when I get the film developed after this weekends picture taking is done.

Well Baby

It seems Ollie's cold has improved. So much so that he was back to his old schedule last night. Do you hear that groan in the background? That's his Momma and I groaning about the 3am shift. She feeds, I play the Binky Game with him. Ugh. I'm hoping it was just because he got squished down in his carseat that he sleeps in. Doubtful, but I can hope. He's getting well just in time for company this weekend. He should be thoroughly entertained this weekend! Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents, Great Grandparents, Great-Great Grandparent, 2nd uncles and 2nd Aunts and a bunch of other people . Should be fun.

Shhhhh...Sleeping Baby

Be very very quiet, I'm hunting sleeping ollie's. "Wah, I'm up doc". He slept a good 7 hrs again. Getting him to sleep was the tough part last night. The vacuum didn't work for long. He'd fall asleep with it, then be up 10 minutes later. He didn't want to be rocked to sleep, because he kept watching wrestling on TV. I know I'm such a great influence on him already...allowing him to watch pre-determined violence at 15 weeks! Anyways, it had to be totally quiet, lights out and a binky in the mouth before he quieted down for the night. Strange how all this has changed in so few days. I do enjoy holding him after he's woken up, just not at 2 am.

Slober, Drooley, Snot-nosed Baby

Ollie got his first cold this weekend. Mostly just a small cough and stuffy nose with sneezes. He handled it very well. He was still the same happy baby. Just a little stuffy. We got him a vaporizer which helped. The doctors won't give babies this young (15 weeks tomorrow) medicine for colds. On the plus side, he slept a lot more than usual. Saturday and Sunday night he got at least 7 hrs. of sleep. I think his momma and I were thrown out of wack by so much sleep. I hope his cold doesn't last much longer, they are only supposed to last 3-4 days, for his sake. I hope the sleeping through the night stays!

He's been blowing bubbles, drooling on his fingers and all over himself. Makes for a very messy baby. Still not rolled over yet. He's gotten 1/2 way over, but not much farther. He also loves his bouncy seat. He spent 3 hrs. in the thing this weekend. He loved it so much, I had to replace the batteries in it already! Buy stock in batteries now! We are going to go through them if this keeps up. I keep hearing the music it plays in my head. You can only take so many children's songs before running away in the other direction. Besides, their is always Barney for him to annoy his parents with! I HATE BARNEY!

Things About Ollie

He likes:
1. His bouncy seat.
2. Baths.
3. Stuffing his fingers down his throat.
4. T.V.

He dislikes:
1. Going to sleep.
2. Hiccups.
3. Spitting up his last meal.
4. Taking a nap when he gets home from the babysitters.

Things that stop him from being crabby:
1. Looking at the baby in the mirror.
2. WWE Smackdown on TV.
3. Baths
4. The vacuum cleaner.

The vacuum cleaner is what put him to sleep last night. He was crabby and over-tired. So we tried the vacuum cleaner. He was asleep in 5 minutes and stayed asleep for the night. The wonder of loud noises. He also likes watching wrestling for some reason. He was crabby and wouldn't sleep, so we put him in bed and moved him in front of the T.V. He stared at it for 1/2 hr. Tresa and I died laughing. He must like the all the movement on T.V. He also likes Home Improvement, Will and Grace and Cosby reruns. When he wakes up in the mornings. He stretches and is usually happy and looks like this:

Cute kid No?

Earplugs Please

Ollie is horrible when he doesn't get a decent nap after coming home from the sitter's. He usually sleeps on the ride home (at the most 1/2 hr.). Then he starts to wake up when we get in the house. Sometimes he'll play have a bottle and play more, when he should be having a nap. He is usually sleepy by 6pm and NEEDS a nap. Unfortunately, he usually fights going to sleep and gets more tired and crabby. Last night, I had to cannibalize his mobile and carry it around with him in my arms while it played music to get him to go to sleep for a nap at 7pm. He slept until 8 which is ok. He got his bath and bottle and played until about 9pm. This is where the fun starts.

He started getting crabby. So Tresa tried to put him to sleep. He wouldn't sleep, he would SCREAM at the top of his lungs. So in the bed he went to cry it out until he was tired. He settled down and she tried again. Same thing and repeated for an entire hour. He finally calmed down when he got a little bit of bottle at 10 pm and went to sleep. Luckily he only got up once during the night, but he didn't just fall back asleep after his bottle. We had to play the binky game for an hour. This has to improve...someday.

Crabby Baby Games

There are a few things we try to do when Ollie is crabby. Usually giving him a bath is enough to calm him down. Sometimes we have to resort to looking at the baby in the mirror. Luckily we have 2 large mirrors in our bathrooms. When you can get him to actually look at the mirrors he smiles and gets excited. As you can see he's holding his head up much better now too. The white spots are from the camera flash.

Baby Jekyll, Baby Hyde

This weekend we had an interesting case of Baby Jekyll, Baby Hyde. Saturday he was happy, quiet, took naps easily, wasn't very crabby and went to sleep without much fussing. Somewhere during that night, he must have had a potion slipped into his bottle that turned him into Baby Hyde! Sunday he was a fountain. Spitting up left and right. Wouldn't take his naps without a fight. Was hard to put to bed at night. Just a general pain in the rear.

We've also run into another little treat. He's figured out the difference between Mom and Dad. When we met the pediatrician he told us the Ollie would probably prefer Tresa to me for the first 9 months. Well he was wrong the first 3 months. I put him to sleep more than Tresa. The tides have changed. Now unless he is extremely tired he won't go to sleep at night except for Tresa. The other night, I tried putting him to sleep and he was fighting it (nothing new there). So, I laid him in his bed to cry it out a bit. I would check on him every so often and when he would see my face he would scream more! Needless to say, this does not make you feel loved by your first born. So, I try , but after awhile I have to give him up to his momma. Hopefully, the next 6 months go by quickly.

Things missed

Last night Ollie's schedule was totally screwed up. He didn't get a nap after we got home, he took a quick nap at 8. Got up, finished his bottle and slept until 12, then had more to eat and slept until 4am. After his bottle at 4, he wasn't going back to sleep very well due to his gastric. So, I put him on my chest and he calmed down and seemed to sleep. He laid on my chest for at least an hour. Everyone says you'll miss 'something' from when they were a baby. I've already found what I'll miss.

Ahnuld Schwartzen-baby

Last night when I went to pick Ollie up he was in his car seat waiting to go. Pound, pound, pound...pound, pound, pound. He was kicking the crap out of his seat so hard it made the plastic resonate the sound. I was beginning to wonder if we needed to buy a new car seat because it seemed like he was going to kick a hole through the seat! Luckily he didn't, just made a lot of noise. This morning, he did the same thing.

He also drew blood last night when he bopped me in the mouth with his head while looking at himself in the mirror. He got a bit excited to see himself, so since he doesn't have head control...POW. Of course that ended the fun for a little while cause it hurt his head too.

Crab Baby

Most mornings Ollie wakes up groggy but generally a happy baby. NOT this morning! He was fussing and fighting and moaning and groaning. He didn't want to wake up, once he did he fussed with frustration as he tried to eat his fist. Yea, he still doesn't have thumb sucking down. Although he has gotten the 4 fingers down, thumb out in mouth a few times. Then he wouldn't keep his binky in his mouth, so his momma played the binky game while I got dressed. He didn't want to be in his car seat so he fussed around and pushed himself around in it. Almost out a few times. Both Tresa and I played the binky game until we left for work. When we dropped Tresa off at work a happy pants fairy must've flown in the car while the door was open. Ollie snoozed until we got to the babysitters. I got him out (apparently the fairy left then) and took him inside. He woke up with a big smile and extremely happy.

Of course he gets happy right when I drop him off! Though I can't blame anyone but myself for this. He inherited the "crabby in the morning" trait from me. Tresa is bouncing off of walls in the morning, you have to push me out of the bed. Which also means he gets the "I don't want to go to sleep" bug from me too, I'm more of a night owl. People always say, "I hope you have a child exactly like you". So far I'm 2 for 2 in the sleep department.

Ollie Improvements

Ollie was fairly sound asleep after his 8:30 bottle last night. He stayed asleep as well until about 2:30. Of course his gastric acted up for that and he was up/sleeping until about 4am keeping his snack down. That and The Binky Game helped keep it down. Amazingly he hasn't wanted food when he gets up to go to the babysitters the last couple of days. He has to be hungry since he previously ate at 2:30 am. Oh well, I'm not going to complain and ruin a good thing.

Ollie is making self-improvements as well. He's pushing his butt up with his feet to turn himself over. It may be a little while, but he's getting there. He can easily do baby push ups and hold his head up when laying on his stomach. He's even starting to do situp's while on his back, so his stomach muscles are getting stronger. I'll try to get pictures of all this, but the camera is never handy and it seems to be going out, so we'll see how that goes.

Ready to Eat

Of course he's not dressed like this in the middle of the night. He actually kept his food down from the middle of the night feeding. Unfortunately, his gastric still acted up and he grunted and groaned through his sleep for nearly 2 hrs making a very tired Momma and Dadda. He made up for it in smiles this morning though. That and the extra caffeine helps me to make it through the day awake.

Exercising with Ollie

For only $19.95, you can get "Exercising with Ollie" which includes the following exercises and a short video:

100 baby push-ups, while smushing the face into carpet.

50 baby situps while upright in carrier, makes a great baby 6-pack.

75 butt-raises, done on the floor (to aid in turning over) or in the carseat (to aid escape from said seat).

30 Superman lifts (raises head and legs while on belly - he'll be flying in no time).


Video includes:

Look, up in the sky! It's a bird, it's a plane, no it's SUPER OLLIE! Able to barf milk all over his foes in a single regurgitate. Able to scream at high and loud pitches to drive his foes into fleeing.

His current nemesis seem to be an evil group known as "The Cats". Their current mission is to take over all of Ollie's possessions. Especially the stroller (it makes for a good cat bed you know)! They are also attempting to kill the fish for dinner. Super Ollie will not stand for that! When he squeels, "The Cats" go running. He's even doused their leader Splatter with milk several times. Makes for a nice sticky leader! They keep plotting their revenge against Super Ollie. Sniffing and probing for weaknesses while he is asleep. Maybe they'll make peace when Ollie starts eating solids, I'm sure there will be plenty of cat treats all over the floor then.

Actually the cats do well with him, just check him out every so often, but they usually leave him alone.

If you want to know how last nights sleeping went, read yesterdays post again. Hopefully it'll change this weekend.

3rd time is NOT the charm

Last night was close to a disaster. Ollie didn't get a very good early evening nap in. So, he was a bit more crabby than the last couple of nights for his 8:30 bottle. After that he didn't want to go to sleep because he was so tired. I walked with him and he was still awake. Tresa took him and got him to sleep, he woke back up. She got him to sleep again, he woke back up after he got into his bed (like he can do that himself). So, he played for awhile, we shut off the light and gave him his binky and I pulled him next to my side of the bed in his crib and played The Binky Game for about 1/2 hr. You could hear the gastric acid come back up every so often, not a nice sound. Granted he never became the awful howler-monkey he usually is when he is over-tired, but it wasn't as easy as the previous 2 nights.



Also, I have a bone to pick with mobile makers. How come when you wind up a mobile it only plays the song 4 times? The songs don't last more than 20 seconds, so a minute later your winding the thing again! When you're trying to put a baby to sleep and have to re-wind a mobile every minute, it makes it much more difficult to get the baby to go to sleep!

This morning we got a long and interesting conversation from Ollie, I have yet to figure out what it was about though. I'm sure he was telling us how great of parents we are! He was smiling thoughout it, so that must've been it. I can be dilusional can't I?

12 weeks = 3 months?

Ollie was 12 weeks old yesterday! 3 months by some calendars (if you don't go by birth date). He is bigger and cuter than ever. Just look:



Yea, Ollie is living life in the 'hood. That is if you consider a suburban, fairly affluent subdivision a 'hood.

It looks like he is back on a decent schedule. We'll see how long that lasts. Last time it was only 2 days. Hopefully it'll continue. I didn't even have to get back up to play American Parents favorite game "put the binky back in the baby's mouth". I've had to do this a few nights after he gets his 3 am bottle. It goes something like this: Binky falls out, I get up put it back in, binky falls out, I get up put it back in and repeat. Sometimes this goes on for 30 minutes to an hour. If he fusses too much when it falls out, he'll try to get his thumb in there and since he has not perfected that skill yet, it wakes him up. Then we have a whole other bundle of problems. I would rather play the Binky Game than have an awake ollie at 4 am!

The Binky Game sounds like it should be the name of a drinking game. Not that I know what those are like!

Ollie of the Great North

Ollie slept well last night. He went to bed about 9:15 and slept until 3am. I kept expecting him to wake up, but alas he slept. Not that I'm complaining. I was prepared for another bad night.

This weekend we had to go through his clothes that don't fit him anymore. Most 0-3 months stuff is gone. The 3-6 months, well most of them are big, a few are close to being gone. El Gigante baby strikes again. While going through his stuff we found things like the hat in the picture. He is going to dislike us intensely for torturing him.

If Only...

I wish he was like this all the time! Saturday night was good, last night another scream-fest until he wore himself out. He was spitting up too much to go to sleep. I tried taking him into the living room around 9:30 and he was fine for about an hour. He would spit up, then try to do a situp in his bed. I swear he'll have a six-pack of abs before he's 1! Everything was fine until he got the stinking hiccups, which made him mad. Being tired as he was already, he started the sirens wailing. Eventually he calmed down enough for Tresa to rock him to sleep. This is getting old fast. It's almost like we have a colic baby during the nights only. I can't wait until he grows out of this crap and can understand what the words "GO TO SLEEP" mean.

6.5 & Boot Scootin Baby

Last night Ollie slept for 6.5 hrs straight! No Caterwalling, no screaming because he was too tired. Just sleep. He got up at 3:30 and after a bottle slept until he got to the babysitters at almost 7:30. I swear, someone snatched our baby and replaced him with this one. I'm wondering if it's because his gastric is subsiding. He's spitting up hardly at all anymore. He does get an occasional vomit out, but not much. He did manage to give splatter a milk-bath the other night!

He's also become more mobile. Not much but somewhat. He can hold himself up in his car seat for a few seconds from the waist up. He's also gotten real good at pushing himself off of blankets while on the ground. He is starting to learn how to turn himself over as well. Yesterday morning he almost slipped himself out of his carseat onto the floor. He got into a bit of trouble for that from his momma.

The thumb sucking is almost right. He can get his hand to his mouth almost every time. He sometimes still sucks a fist, but when he gets his thumb out the rest of his fingers are out as well, like a high-five. It usually doesn't stay in long, but he's getting there.

Of course, now that I've said all this, it'll probably jinx it all and we're in for one bad night!

Curse of the Sleeping Pattern

Sunday night...same as usual. Monday night is a whole different story. The story goes something like this...

Ollie gets picked up after work, he is so tired he won't even smile. Ollie sleeps all the way home and wakes up after a few minutes of being at home. Ollie is fed at 5:30 and sleeps until 6:30 and then finishes his bottle. He then sleeps until 8:50. Just enough time for a bath and his 9:00 bottle. He's asleep by 9:30 without any fussing! He then proceded to sleep until 12:30! Then the fun began, he got his bottle and decided to fuss for a bit. It turns out he just wanted his momma. She thinks she has him asleep, lays him down and we have awake Ollie!

So, he plays in his bed for awhile and starts fussing about 2:15 (his momma hasn't slept during the night yet and dadda hasn't gone back to sleep, yet). So, we get him calmed down by having him lay on my chest in our bed. Of course the fun isn't over yet!

I start having strange dreams. The first one I dreamt I was in bed and Ollie was no longer on my chest and since he can't get up and walk away yet, I searched for him with my hands. I couldn't find him. Next, I either dreamt I found him on my chest or I woke myself up and found him on my chest, not really sure which. The next dream was me telling Tresa about my previous dream today! Then it got screwy. For some reason I was climbing on a clff with a truck and my vehicle sitting on the edge of the cliff. For some reason I decided to climb down the cliff under the truck. Of course the cliff was made of rocks and was sturdy. I couldn't get myself out, so someone helped me. Just when they came, the rocks turned to logs and I fell. I hit the ground and physically jumped in bed. Which woke me up. I realized Ollie was still on me, so I got up and put him into his own bed about 3. I didn't want to wake him because I had a bad dream!

Of course it wasn't over, he fussed around in bed and wouldn't keep his binky in his mouth, so I'd have to get back up, put it back and wait until he calmed down. It was another 1/2 hr before all this stopped. He even got the hiccups during this time, luckily it didn't wake him up!

All in all Tresa may have gotten 3.5 hrs sleep, I think I got 4.5hrs! I'll gladly trade 2 hrs quiet time for 2 more hours sleep. He is staying awake tonight, more than last night!

Sleep Watch 2003 continues...

Amazing

Amazingly he went to bed at 10:30 and stayed asleep until about 5! Yea Ollie! Granted Tresa and I didn't really get to go to bed until about 11, but it beats 1am! We moved his zantac to 7pm, and it seemed to help him sleep without his stomach acting up. Guess we'll see how that goes.



They say the time goes fast when you have a baby. For me, each week has slowed. Granted he's grown like a weed! He's too long for some of his 0-3 month clothes and he's 10 weeks old. Hopefully this growth will aid his gastric reflux. He's getting real good at holding his head up too, so much so that I've had to encourage him to put it down to go to sleep. You want them to do things then you tell them not to do them! No wonder they think we are crazy!

Second Verse, Same as the First

(sung to the tune of Alice the Camel)
Ollie's parents got no sleep,
Ollie's parents got no sleep,
So go Ollie go.
Boom Boom Boom

Second verse, same as the first

Another night, another repeat. He slept on my shoulder until almost 10:20, then the ants started marching two by two hurrah, hurrah.

The ants go marching two by two hurrah, hurrah
The ants go marching two by two and the little one stops to tie his shoe
and they all go marching down, to the ground, to get out of the rain!

Two many children's songs in my head, too tired to care hurrah hurrah.

Making up for it

He makes up for all his problems the he has no control over by being this cute!

Big sack of Gastric Reflux

Gastric reflux is a nightmare! Last night we had given him a bath and his last bottle about 9:30. He finished up around 10 and slept on Tresa's shoulder until 10:30. Usually that is long enough for his gastric reflux to settle down and we can put him to bed. Not last night!

After she laid him in his bed, she went to get herself ready for bed. Then I heard it. Guh, guh...BLEAK! He was awake from spitting up on himself. Then the fun began. So, I picked him up and tried to calm him until about 11. He started screaming because his stomach didn't want to settle down. So Tresa took him for about an hour and gave him a small amount of bottle at 11:30 he fell asleep...or so we thought.

She put him into bed and not 10 minutes later...guh, guh, BLEAK...WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! It's pretty bad when you can hear your son's stomach churning from 10 feet. So he was upset and he cried until almost 12 when I had to take him back and sleep on the couch with him so Tresa could get some sleep. He fussed for a bit then I finally got him in a position he was comfortable and his gastric wasn't active enough to wake him. We both fell asleep until about 1am when I was finally able to place him in his own bed and I returned to mine. You could still hear the gastric, but it didn't wake him up this time. All of this definitely tries your patience and is very frustrating.

The more things change, the more they stay the same

Well, not much changed last night. We found out his lungs work at full scream. Zero to insane-scream in 5 seconds flat. Luckily it only lasted for an hour last night. His stomach got the best of him and we couldn't get him calmed down. He finally calmed down enough to give his last bottle at 10. I had to 'Oooooo' to him for awhile, but it seemed to work. Luckily he slept for 6 hours instead of his usual 5. He's been flirting with that for awhile, but it's probably just because he tires himself out from screaming so much. Oh well, we enjoy the extra hour. I used to be an 8hr sleep person. Now I'm good to go on 6. 5 is still pushing it though. Maybe he was mad at us for dressing him in this:



I forgot to mention, Ollie is 10 weeks old today! YEA!

Weekend

The weekend went rather well. He slept a lot more than he seemed to be sleeping at the sitters. It sounds like she keeps him up a lot. On Saturday we ran some errands and he went 4hrs without a bottle. That's long for him. Usually it's only 3 hrs in between each bottle. He wasn't fussy Saturday or Sunday night. At least he wasn't like he has been this past week. A few grunts and groans and movement, but nothing big. I hope this lasts! I'm sure it won't, but I can hope. Overall he was pretty happy this weekend, except in moments like this:



But you have to admit, he's awful cute in the outfit!

Gloved One

They tell you to put gloves with rattles and socks with rattles on your child's appendages so they learn about them. Here's our results.

Presenting Ollie the Clown! - "Where did my kiddie car go?"



Boxing Olllie! - "I am the Greatest!"

Planning

All that "planning" you do before you have a baby actually gets done when you say you are going to do it. With a baby, all that goes out the window. It's disruptive on multiple levels. We had to run to a couple of stores last night, luckily when I picked up Ollie he had just eaten. So, he fell asleep in the car on the way to pick-up Tresa from work. He slept through most of Menards (home improvement store). Then we went to Shopko to pick-up some other stuff. He was awake and had the best time looking around, smiling and kicking. After that, we went home to make our dinner. He had a small bottle to tide him over until his 8pm bottle and bath. We went back out to Sam's club to finish getting a few things and he slept through that. So, we get home unload and about 7:30 he starts getting fussy and gets his bath and bottle about 8. He was crabby and over-tired and kept fighting sleep. Tresa got him to sleep about 8:30 and put him down for the night. His tummy had other plans.

He was up at 9, so I took him downstairs to try and walk him back to sleep. It worked for a bit after he burped and spit up. He has a hard time burping sometimes and it can take up to 2hrs to get one out. Of course he'll scream for an hour before it comes out because it's painful. He fought it and woke himself up fully to play until about 11. He got his bottle and fell asleep before he finished. But of course, when I layed him down the ants started marching in his stomach again. It sounded like his stomach was fizzing up like a coke. So, he wasn't sleeping anytime soon. I took him out to the living room and layed with him on my shoulder(the only way his stomach seems to calm down). I had to sit up on the couch because if we tried to lay down, his stomach would start up again. So, I sat/slept upright with him over my shoulder and my head lying flat on pillows. I looked like a Z. I woke up sometime during the night to put him in bed and he didn't wake until 3am. I was so tired I don't remember walking the 10 feet to my side of the bed and getting in.

His zantac got upped because he gained more weight since his last check-up. Hopefully this will help calm the marching ants in his tummy. I really don't want another milk-bath like I got 2 nights ago. 3 spit-ups and I was covered in less that 5 minutes. Not a pretty daddy. I know I was "planning" on posting pictures, but as you can see, my plans got derailed.

Shots!

Ollie got his first set of shots this past week at his 2 month checkup. It wasn't too bad, he's screamed louder and harder during some of his gastric problems. He is up to 12lbs 4oz. and grew 2 inches. He's supposed to gain 2 lbs. every month from now on and slwo down around his 1st b-day. That's an additional 20lbs within the first year! Since he got on the zantac he's gone from the 25th percentile in weight to 75th percentile. No problems in that category. Luckily he didn't have a fever or much pain from the shots, but he bruised a little bit. They said it was more likely to occur during the 3rd or 4th set of shots. I hope he's lucky and doesn't get either.

I've got more pictures coming, I just have to scan them in...stay tuned.

July 4th

What a crazy weekend. We had a total of 10 people sleeping in our house! This included us of course, but that's a lot of people in 1 house. Ollie got a bit out of wack on Friday and Saturday nights. He was up until 11:30 and 12:30 respectively. Not good for the parents doing the entertaining! Luckily everyone slept in. We had 2 of my brothers and a sister-in-law. Tresa's brother and fiancee' and Annie's friend Laura. Luckily Ollie isn't old enough to have any friends so he had no one extra stay with us. He got himself back to normal on Sunday though. I think we were all a bit worn out. We didn't do much of anything. Monday morning he woke up at 4. I didn't even hear him! Tresa brought him to me at 5am and he decided to have a head holding up contest. Ollie won because I laid down with him on my chest before he got tired. He zonked out pretty quickly after that. After his 6am bottle, he was the happiest baby on the planet. All smiles and hardly any fussing. What a crazy weekend.

On Sunday night I also had a strange dream. Tresa and I were taking someone home and we pulled into their driveway. We stop and Ollie's binky falls out and he starts talking to us like he's an educated college professor. I have no idea what he was saying, but man was he smart. I guess it was important!

Babysitter

Tomorrow Ollie goes to the babysitter for the first time. Boy does this suck! It's been great that his mom has been on maternity leave and she could take care of him. She was there all the time, nothing to worry about. Now he's going to the babysitter's. You could say I'm a bit worried about it all. I can't wait until I pick him up tomorrow afternoon.

Beavis or Butthead

I'm not sure, but I think Ollie has become Beavis. The other night after feeding him, he stared at me for what seemed like hours. Then while I was watching TV. "huh, huh, huh", "huh, huh, huh". I swear it was his first laugh! We haven't been able to get him to repeat it yet. But he his cooing and smiling without the aid of gas.

Swaddle that Squaller-boy!

Last night was fun for me. My first view of the the Squaller-boy! This most dangerous and hideous creature attacked. Nothing would pacify him, changing position...nope, bottle...nope, swing...nope, walking...nope, binky...nope, etc. I guessed and guessed. Finally I tried Swaddling the squaller-boy. Ah, peace and serenity and my sanity restored. I guess I can't get too mad, he rewarded me with 20 minutes of staring at my face and a look of "why didn't you do that an hour ago?". I guess I'll know better next time.

The Good Life

Who's the daddy am I?

It seems that Splatter has become a bit jealous of our little one.

Too bad she's no longer the queen of the castle, now that there is a king around. All 4 cats barely come around him. They sniff him and walk cautiously around him. We keep trying to encourage him to grab them just to see what happens, but no luck yet. Splatter did have an Ollie leg for a snack one day, but no carnage was wrought on him. We think she likes him...or at least the taste of him.

Too big for britches