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.