Babies

We all know that Dave is an awesome dad. More proof is his visit to daycare last Friday to participate in the Halloween festivities. The girls at daycare were enamored of him because he was so helpful, and he had a great time seeing all the kids in their costumes. The costumes included an elephant, several pumpkins, a tigger, a vampire, a devil, a lion and of course Henry was a monster. The kids had a great time and were just so cute!!!
Trying not to post too many pics of the kids, but Zoe is so stinkin’ cute in this picture that I’m posting it. I’m pretty sure her mom is a blogger so I think it’s OK. Molly, can you pass this link on?

Henry’s favorite teacher, Julia

Zoe in her elephant costume

(Not to be confused with Molly’s Cooper.) Saturday evening Beaney, Jim, Tammy and Cooper came over for dinner. It was nice to finally meet Cooper, who is 10 months old. Coop is crawling around and wanted to chase the cats so badly. He let me dance with him and he is just so stinkin’ cute! Thanks, y’all, for visiting!

Henry destroys Toy City in his monster-iffic halloween costume.

His costume says “little monster” on the feet.

He is a terror, isn’t he?

Some pictures from our trip to see our friends in Austin. We had a great time visiting with Scott and Monica, their son Evan, and their collection of animals.

The boys didn’t really want to play together, but give them a few years!

Here’s Scott and his son.

And Dave with his son.

Scott and Monica and a few of their pets.

Henry playing with Evan’s Sit-N-Spin. He doesn’t really have as much balance as it looks in this picture.

The guest bathroom was like a spa - lovely products and a shower with teeny tiny tiles and a window that opens to the outside. My favorite! There was also this funky art in the bathroom.

One night we hit Mandola’s for dinner. The wine was so so yummy, I should have bought a bottle to bring home!

The cannelloni beans, however, were a disappointment. They were mealy and in a sauce that was so tomato-y it was hard to taste any other flavors.

We had a fabulous time. Thanks for being such great hosts, Monica and Scott!

I’m only about 7 months late with this post. (Anyone out there want to ghostwrite my blog for me?) Now you can compare Henry’s baby picture with both mine and Dave’s. What do you think?

Jeni

Dave

Henry

Interesting, but not completely unexpected.

For all you moms and dads out there, a quick poll. Please answer in the comments section below.

What time does your baby go to bed?

I’ll start.

Henry’s bathtime starts between 6:30 and 7:30, so he’s in bed sometime between 7:00 and 8:00 PM. Henry is 6 months old.

Don’t forget to tell us how old your baby is. Pass it on to your friends!

I’ve been conflicted about breastfeeding lately. It’s an inconvenience to pump at work, but I’m not ready to give up nursing altogether.

I decided this weekend that I’m going to stop breastfeeding during the day. I’ll maintain my 6 a.m., 6 p.m., and 8 p.m. nursing sessions, but let go of the daytime feedings.

This won’t impact Henry’s schedule during the week, as he is already being bottle-fed during that time. It just means that we’ll be bottle-feeding him during the day on the weekends.

We’ve also already introduced him to formula and we’re supplementing his bottles with about 50% formula, so we don’t need to be concerned about not having enough milk.
I’m excited, I’ve found a solution that will work well for both of us!!

Following in the tradition of cute babies Finn and Tesla. This outfit courtesy of William and Joyce, who still have yet to meet Henry. Come visit!!

A question I posted on a local message board. I’m reproducing it here to see if I get any good advice from my friends.

Greetings,
I’m going back to work in a few weeks and I’m trying to get my nine-week old son Henry to sleep longer at nights (or through the night would be great!).

Here’s some info on his feeding habits.
I try not to feed him any sooner than 4 hours between feedings, but will feed him at 3 hours if he’s displaying hunger signs. He only eats around 2-3 ounces at a serving when bottlefed. I’m not sure how much he’s eating when he’s breastfeeding, but I can’t imagine it’s more than when he bottle feeds. When he bottle feeds, he is not a guzzler. He’s fooled me on more than one occasion when he sucked and sucked and made all this noise at the bottle for 10 minutes, 20 minutes or longer, only to discover he hadn’t actually drank anything. So, all of this to say that he’s not a big eater. But the doc says his weight (11+ pounds) is fine and if that’s what he eats, then fine. I guess part of me worries that he’s not eating enough to sleep long enough at night.

Now here’s his nighttime routine:
He usually gets fed around 8 PM (roughly 2 oz), then has a bath and goes down for the night in his crib. He falls asleep on his own and sleeps until around 1 AM. At that point he gets fed again. I’ve replaced nursing at night with a bottle. Sometimes he will just suck on the bottle without drinking but other times he’ll eat. Last night he ate 1.25 oz at 1 AM but it took 30 minutes or more to get him switching from the aimless sucking to actually drinking. Then, he goes back down to sleep easily.
He’ll awake again around 4 AM or 5 AM. Last night he drank 2 oz at that time but only after aimlessly sucking at the bottle for 10 minutes.
Finally, he wakes up between 6 and 7 AM. I think that’s his natural “wake-up” time even though he’s not technically due to be fed until around 8 AM.

So, I’d like to try to eliminate one of the feedings - maybe the 4 AM. Any suggestions on how to do this? I’ve tried offering the pacy before the bottle but he’s not having it. Would love your tips, hints and suggestions!