And then the rat dies!

Two days ago, Connor tasted rice cereal. He's been watching me eat for a few weeks now, and apparently he was learning how to do it. He's a total champ - and it wasn't even that messy, though there were certainly some messy moments. Today, I diluted the cereal less and he was even better. He eats two teaspoons of cereal mixed with four teaspoons of breastmilk. He seemed very pleased with himself after this morning's meal.

But, life is not all good in our household. Connor is sleeping less and less - which means Ed and I are sleeping less and less. Ed took night duty last night, and between 11:00 and 3:30, Ed got no sleep. Connor was able to sleep some because he seemed to fall asleep instantly when Ed would pick him up. Then, as soon as Ed would put him down, he was wide awake again. At 3:30, Ed decided Connor was legitimately hungry and I nursed him to sleep. Before collapsing into sleep himself, Ed looked up at me and said "I feel like I'm a rat in one of those experiments where every time it doses off, the researcher wakes it back up. And you know what happens at the end of the experiment? The rat dies!" Ed declared the he and Connor were no longer friends and then he passed out. I took over duty of waking up every half hour to calm Connor when finally, even mean old Ed relented and said if I wanted, I could just bring Connor into bed with us. So, here we are, Connor's back in bed with us and I'm hoping against all odds that he sleeps tonight at least a few contiguous hours so I can get some sleep myself.



But, lest you think that Ed and Connor really aren't friends, Ed purchased him a very cool exer-saucer that Connor enjoyed enough to give us a whole dinner without him needing us. Woohoo! We may not sleep, but at least we can eat. Though sleep researchers suggest it's an Old Wives' Tale, many people keep telling us that giving Connor cereal will get him to sleep. Hopefully that's true.

So there you have it. Another post about sleep. I never thought I could think about a topic so much. You should hear Ed and I trying to ponder this mystery throughout the day when our zombie like selves try and piece this mess together!

Elaine

I love a piano

Now this is a cool toy! Connor can already bang on the keys - always a good skill for a budding Mozart. He can't sit up and play it by himself, but he's excellent at playing it while supported. At this pace, he might not even need Aunt Linda to teach him how it's done - he's probably a natural.

Tonight we went to a local pool hall and enjoyed a rousing round of pass the baby. Many thanks to my co-workers who held him and entertained him while I cruised into the final four of the winners bracket in the pool tournament. Unfortunately, my streak was ended by the person who eventually won the bracket and I left the bar before dueling to the finish of the loser's bracket.

Last night Ed was a rockin' champ putting Connor back to sleep every hour after Connor woke up and indeed, it seems as if Dr. Gandhi was right that Connor wouldn't be starved by not eating every hour. However, when Ed brought Connor to me at 5:00 to eat (the time we had agreed upon at the start of the night), Connor gave me the biggest smile ever and started chowing while Ed passed out. Connor woke up for good around 7:00 when he once again was quite a good eater and he smiled at Ed and looked at him with wide open eyes letting Ed know that the day was starting! Tonight Ed is once again taking nighttime duty (yeehaw!).

Elaine

Christmas comes but once a year...

unless you have grandparents who live out of town! Tonight two big boxes arrived filled with presents, and because I have no self control when it comes to presents, we decided to open some. After all, what if there was a puppy inside?

Connor was pretty happy to see a brightly colored car. He probably knew it was his because nobody else in the household gets happy looking things in primary colors. It makes a popping sound when it rolls, sort of like the old popcorn vacuums that Ed and I had as kids. He seemed pretty intrigued by the gift. He also got a bear that sings, talks, and plays games. He wasn't quite sure what to do with it, but in time I'm sure he'll figure it out. And then...he got a bunch of books, two of which I read to him before bedtime tonight. Tomorrow we'll open more presents, but this should give Connor something new for tomorrow during the day. And this is a good thing, because Connor's attention span is sometimes about 4 minutes long. Now that he's staying awake for longer periods of time, it can be a real challenge to entertain him. Ed or I pick up his toys, play with them, and then quick...find something new. Maybe a couple of baby sit-ups. And then it's on to tummy time, where he can show off his brilliant head control. (By the way, his head has advanced to the 75th percentile, which is fairly impressive since he's still hanging onto the 5th percentile in weight.) After big head Connor bobs around a bit, it's time to flip him over and maybe do a little baby massage. But, don't get too used to that because pretty soon he'll need to be put in the bouncy chair. And that's all in the first fifteen minutes. OK - I'm exaggerating a bit, but really - it's challenging to entertain this guy with his brain moving so fast. It takes a lot to keep him impressed.

Well, I better get some sleep since I'll be working again tomorrow. Tonight Ed is taking on night time duty since Dr. Gandhi assured us that Connor does not actually need to nurse every hour throughout the night. We're hoping to limit him to twice a night, and eventually push that to once. Connor needs to get a good night's sleep tonight because tomorrow afternoon Ed is bringing him to my office to go to the annual Children's Holiday Party along with my center's party at a local pool hall. Hopefully Ed will teach him how to play pool earlier in the day.

Elaine