Crying over spilled milk.

I was thinking a few days ago about how lucky I was that Heiko is almost 6 months old, and I had never accidentally knocked over a bottle of expressed milk. A mother's milk is liquid gold, a very precious commodity; especially for someone who is struggling to produce enough as it is.

Well, I did something even worse than spilling a bottle of milk. I ruined TWO bottles of milk. After Heiko goes to bed, part of my evening routine is to take the milk that I pumped at work that day and prepare and refrigerate Heiko's bottles for the nanny the next day (he gets 2 breast milk bottles and 1 or 2 formula bottles during the time I am at work). Well, on Friday night after a long week of parent/teacher conferences, the Avocado nightmare experience, and trying to get Heiko back to a normal sleep schedule, my brain was fried. The established nighttime routine that I had been practicing for 2.5 months was completely forgotten. Erased from my mind. I remembered to brush my teeth; I forgot to put the milk in the refrigerator. It stayed out all night to spoil. 13 ounces. A whole day's work. Down the drain.

I cried. I made Jonas pour it out; I just couldn't stomach it.

Now Heiko will be using the last two remaining bags of my frozen milk that exist. I was using those two backup bags as a tiny little safety net. It's only two bags (I hear some people produce so much milk that they have to donate it... if you are one of those people- don't speak to me... unless you want to give me some milk), but those two bags gave me comfort sitting in my freezer. I would be able to have milk on hand for him anytime I wasn't going to be available... not now. Now he'll have to have formula if I go somewhere. I knew this day would come; it was inevitable. But still, it's sad.

I will continue to nurse whenever I am with Heiko, and will continue pumping until my head explodes. I am getting used to the isolation and the fact that I have next to no time to plan and prepare to teach, but I do look forward to the day I can join my coworkers for lunch, can run some last-minute copies, can go peruse the library for just the right book, and can actually talk to a human adult at some point before 6pm.

This is the conclusion of the Pity Party. Here are some cute pictures of my perfect baby and husband.

5 Months!

Here's what our 5 month old boy has been up to:

-Rolling over from back to belly... still hasn't remembered how to go the other way. Instead, he just stays on his belly and complains until someone rolls him back over.
-Found his feet!
-Much more vocal... experimenting with volume.
-Blows spit bubbles.
-Reaches (and sometimes moans) for things he wants.
-Laughs sometimes when he is tickled... though he mostly still does his big open mouth silent smile.
-Loves to stand and jump.
-Sits up for a few seconds... then tips over.
-Puts everything in his mouth... and I mean EVERYTHING.
-Learned a new game called "drop all of my toys on the floor from the highchair"
-Starting to eat solids! Loves eating. Weighs 18 pounds.

Look at this big boy!  As tall as the couch!

 

Using the arm rest.  =)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Almost a "hook 'em"!

 

 

 

"What is this thing you're always sticking in my face?"

 

 

 

Eating from a spoon.

Our pediatrician told us back at our 4 month appointment that whenever Heiko started to show more interest in eating solids, we could start giving him some in small amounts.  Well, after enough stare-downs and grabs, we decided to let the games begin!  He also hasn't been sleeping well the last month or so, he's been waking to nurse after only about 5 hours on a good night, and sometimes every 3 hours like a newborn.  While we didn't start solids specifically to solve the problem, we thought the introduction of something new might be an added bonus... but it looks like we'll have to pull another trick out of our sleeves to fix that problem.  It appears this might be a behavioral issue rather than an actual hunger problem... any ideas are welcomed.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand.  I made a couple of purees (sweet potato and carrots), but we found some organic whole grain brown rice cereal that we decided to try first.  It is really bland, and mixed with breast milk it pretty much just tastes like breast milk.  We thought that it would be a pretty safe bet for his first time eating from a spoon.  So we froze the homemade baby food (in jars... amazon will be delivering some freezer trays to freeze in smaller proportions sometime in the next week or two... procrastination you got me again!) and will try one of them sometime soon.  Maybe on his 5 month birthday tomorrow... who doesn't like a yummy treat on their birthday?

We put Heiko in his new high chair, got out a nice absorbent bib, and mixed up his "dinner"... he still will be nursing (and drinking formula soon) for most of his nutrients for the next few months, so eating solids is more of a social experience and an opportunity to get used to different tastes.  Well, as we had predicted, Heiko absolutely LOVED eating.  He swallowed it right down (the portions that he didn't knock off the spoon), and told us he wanted more every time the spoon was taken away.  Here, see for yourself.  =)

It starts out with Jonas' hand right in the way, but don't be alarmed!  I picked up the camera and found a better angle to catch the action.



Sweet potato coming soon!

Bouncing Baby

When we were given this door frame bouncer before Heiko was born, we thought it looked so fun but it would be a long time before we would be able to use it... well the time flew by at lightning speed, and our little jumper loves to bounce! His buddy Quentin has a jumperoo that Heiko plays and bounces in when he's with the nanny, so we pulled our bouncer out and he absolutely loves it.

Here's our little kangaroo! Oh, and he shows off some of his volume experimentation in this one, too.