It's been a big week for little Tripp! He's getting so big so fast and it's driving me crazy! Here's a list of the AWESOME things he did this week:
Monday: looked cute
Tuesday: looked cute while yelling at me
Wednesday: pulled himself to a stand! ... while still looking cute and yelling at me
Thursday: Got up on all fours and did three crawls backwards! (quit the yelling but still looked cute)
and Daddy gave him applesauce... which he now LOVES.
Friday: turned 7 months old and wore Mommy down till she collapsed after bed time.
All in all I'd say he's been really busy this week!
Favorite things:
- squealing
- rolling ALL OVER THE PLACE
- getting on all fours and rocking back and forth
- destroying his bed in protest of going to sleep
- Mommy's hair
- the brim of Daddy's hat
- Taking a bath in the big bath tub
- playing all by himself (he's decided I just get in the way...)
- Snuggling... but only when it involves trying to eat my face or play with my hair... that's still snuggling right?!
- Rolling, rolling, and more rolling
Not so favorite things:
- going to bed before he's ready (even if Mommy is SO ready...)
- trying to fall asleep in the bed he's destroyed
- when Mommy and Daddy let him fall under the water in the tub
- banging his head on random objects
- trying to fall asleep in the bed he's destroyed
- Not being able to crawl
- When Mommy and Daddy try to make him snuggle... or kiss him too much... or squeeze him too much... or in general, love him too much
Right now my big debate is about giving him pureed foods. I had decided (and talked with our doctor) about waiting until he could eat finger foods before re-introducing solids. I felt great about this simply because his little tummy has such a hard time digesting anything I give him. I'm not a Nazi about it though. He eats those little puff things and Daddy shares his applesauce... but I swear every time he eats, the poor thing gets backed up! And if you've ever met a baby who hates not being about to go to the bathroom... multiply that by 10 and you've got Tripp. Honestly, the boy has loved pooping since the day he was born! He went three times on me before we could even get him out of the tub, two more times when we were cuddling in bed, once on Michael while the Midwives were fixing me up and then ended the evening by going once when we got home. All of this within the first 6 hours of his life. That must be a record.
So what do I do? He's getting to the point where he grabs our spoons, steals our dinners and eyes anything that looks remotely edible. I was reading in my baby book (which I LOVE by the way...) that peaches and pears are great for helping relieve constipation. But then do I really want to start him on fruits and him not eat vegetables? Or do I wait until he gets a tooth (oh yeah... he still hasn't cut that stupid tooth on the bottom. Curse you tooth! Curse you!!!) to just start him on finger foods and hope his digestive system is up to par by then? So... this is the debate I have every time I think about Tripp and food within the same sentence. Again, why is there no manual with this baby?!!?!
As for sleeping.
The little guy still wakes up every four hours to eat. I know he's hungry (he still eats every four hours during the day) and falls right back to sleep after eating .. but I'm so tired! Haha! After working till midnight (almost every night) if not later on homework, I just want about 6 hours straight of sleep. I have so many people telling me to just let him cry it out all night for as many nights as he needs to teach him to sleep through the night. Here is my problems with that:
We used the 'cry-it-out' method with him for bed time and it was great! I went back and forth for weeks about it before deciding it was the right thing (for us) to do. Tripp, by 3 months old, had a really hard time sleeping with us. He would wake up every two hours because of our noises and then would want to eat. I KNEW he didn't need to eat that often because he'd go 3-4 hours during the day. We moved him to his own room so that he could get comfortable there and then tried to decide our plan of action (while in his own room he would sleep about 3 hour stretches). The first attempt of helping him self-sooth was to lay him down drowsy and then pick him up if he started to cry. I did this ALL night long. He would sleep for 30 minutes, realize I wasn't holding him and then wake up crying again. So... I prayed and prayed and prayed about what to do. He needed to sleep. I needed to sleep. Michael needed to sleep. EVERYONE NEEDED TO SLEEP. I decided to try the cry it out and took my decision to the Lord. I felt REALLY comfortable with it so we decided to bite the bullet. (let me just pause and say how weird it was to feel comfortable with letting him cry! Everything about that goes against what a mother feels and to feel like it was okay was very strange. It wasn't until later that I knew why!) The night we laid him down I was really nervous. Of course I kept my cool and acted like it was just like every other night for him. We did our bath, baby oil rub down, fresh jammies, rocked in the rocking chair while reading a book, Daddy said 'goodnight' and 'I love you', and then we nursed. Most nights he falls asleep while eating but I made sure to wake him just a little for when he laid down. Then I kissed him, told him goodnight and that I loved him. When I walked out of the room he started fussing. When he worked into a cry we'd go in and say 'I love you but it's time to go night night.' and then walk back out. He only worked into a cry 3 times and was asleep within 30 minutes It was amazing! The next day and night he went straight to sleep with 10-15 minutes of minimal protest and has been great ever since. I think that is why I felt to comfortable with our decision. Tripp was ready and knew how to go to sleep on his own, we were just getting in the way... So why not do this with sleeping through the night? Nothing about it feels comfortable. Yes I am tired and would enjoy a full nights sleep, but he is not ready to be sleeping more than 4 hours. His little tummy gets empty and I'm not going to deny him the food he wants and needs. Plus, the doctor said this is completely normal for his age! Maybe soon I will change my mind but for right now we'll do our 3 feedings a night.
As for Michael and I, we're doing great. We're so excited for California this summer and can't wait to get a taste of what working life is really going to be like. Michael just approved for an extension on his internship so we will be there until school starts! This is GREAT news because the alternative would have had him working up and down the Washington and Oregon coast with a group of guys harvesting crops for farmers. Tripp and I would have flown back home to spend the month of August (which would be so much fun!) and we would have been apart for Tripp's first birthday (not so much fun...). Now, we're just waiting to hear if we'll be in San Diego or LA. Hopefully we'll be in San Diego so we can be close to Courtney and Joel for baby girl Croskey's birth! Keep your fingers crossed
Also, we've started to get our bodies back. This week I started running and Michael started seeing a nutritionist! It's been so much fun exercising. The guide I'm following will have me running 30 minutes straight by the end of 8 weeks... Yeah, I know it's kind of embarrassing that I can't run for 30 minutes right now, but whatever. I've never run before, Tripp kicked my butt during pregnancy, and I have always hated exercising. But, that is all changing and I'm looking into 5ks for this summer. We just need to find out where we're going to be living so I can sign up for one! Michael is loving watching what he eats and realized that he had already lost 10 pounds since Alaska before seeing the nutritionist! Talk about motivation. He wasn't doing anything in particular and the weight was already coming off. It can only get better from here!
Well, I need to empty my camera so I can upload pictures! I'm going to go back through this post soon and add them but for now all you will get is text. :) Well love you all!
Madi, Michael and Tripp
Tripp pulling up to a stand for the second time ever!!!
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