We've gotten into a ritual of giving Chase a bath every night before bed, hoping that it will calm him down and prepare him for bed. Unfotunately, we have a little too much fun with him...
At least we know he likes the water!
The story of one little family, three little boys, and our many adventures in DC and beyond.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Where have we been?
Our apologies for the lack of posts- we have been busy, but not with anything too fun. While we have been celebrating Jackson and Addy's births from DC, we've also been working a lot and taking care of a sick baby. Poor Chase has had a nasty cold, cough, and an on-and-off fever. Nights have been trying for all of us (well, mostly Helen & Chase), but luckily during the day Chase is generally in a good mood. He's practicing his new skills and getting into everything. It's time to baby-proof!
He's got a maraca that he loves to shake. Despite his parents, the kid has some rhythm.
He keeps chasing Mueller, who has no place to hide now that Chase is on the move.
He loved to pull things off the coffee table and look through it...
...so we got a new ottoman-style, safe coffee table. And Chase played in the box!
He asserts his independence and wants to drink from a big-boy cup.
Nasya came over and showed Chase how much fun it is to walk!
Chase got silly in Daddy's sweatshirt.
But mostly he's been crawling everywhere!
(This pictures captures it all, toys everywhere, Chase on the move, and Daddy watching football from the couch.)
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Welcome!
Welcome to the world
Adelyn Marie Zayac
born January 25, 2011 at 2:17am
7lbs 9ozs, 21 1/2 inches
Chase is so excited about his new cousin! We are thrilled for Uncle Joey & Aunt Meg and cannot wait to hold this precious bundle of joy.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
Chase on film: 8 months
or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhhOZP5WtGE
He crawls forwards, scoots backwards, attempts climbing up, and says Dada. All of Chase's party tricks in one video!
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Chase at 8 months!
This past month Chase has gone from sedentary to all over the place! on his 8 month birthday he started crawling (forward), but he's been on the move for days. He doesn't sit still and we can't leave him on the sofa or the bed because he'll roll, scoot, or lean off. More recently he's been crawling/scooting backwards (see Christmas post- last 2 pictures). AND, as if those weren't enough developments, last Thursday (1/6), he said his first word: "Dadadadadadadada."
At 8 months Chase is:
19lbs, 2oz and 28 or 29 inches long- 50th percentiles on both. He's growing! The doctor said he looked great and was meeting all of his developmental milestones. He also said he'd get teeth, "any day now." We've heard that one before!
Crawling!: He just started going forward, and his preferred method of moving is going from crawling to sitting, and then reaching to get what he wants. He gets up on his knees and rocks too. He had been going backwards and winding up under things (the Christmas tree, the dresser, the sofa, etc).
Going from crawling position to sitting: See above- he's figured out how to get back to the seated position. If he's lying on his back he can't sit up, but he'll roll onto his belly, get up onto his hands and knees, and then roll into sitting position--usually quite a ways away from where he started.Pulling himself to standing: While he does this when we put him in the crib during the day, he hadn't done it anywhere else--Until I tried to take his 8 month old picture! He tried to pull himself up on the sofa. He often pulls himself up to standing while he is playing with/on us. He is loving looking around and this new outlook on the world.
Talking: As we mentioned, he started stringing syllables together last week and has really had fun practicing. Dadadadadadadada. He's been repeating syllables like that ever since (rararara, bahbahbahbah, dadadad). Last Friday Kayla said he was talking up a storm using his new found words. While he hasn't put "Dada" with Stephen yet, he does say it when he's happy. And when he's upset (usually in his crib) we hear "mamamama" on the monitor. Coincidence? I hope so...
Eating...or not: Since we switched to the medium flow nipples, Chase's milk intake has increased to over 30oz per day. Unfortunately, I'm only pumping about 25oz per day, so we quickly started going through all of the frozen milk. While we were in NY, we ran of milk in less than 2 days, so we had to give Chase some formula to supplement. While it killed me to do it, he was fine with it (we mixed it in with the bmilk so I don't even think he noticed) and, aside from spitting up some, hasn't had any bad reactions. We continue to give him 1/2 bottle of formula everyday to bridge the bmilk production-Chase demand gap.
While this was going on, we also started feeding Chase breakfast- his 3rd meal of the day. I don't know if it was coincidence or what, but Chase went on a little solid food feeding strike. He refused to eat solid foods during his meal times. He'd clamp his mouth shut and not eat anything. We tried all different foods and tried to entertain him and nothing work. This week we gave him potatoes and broccoli for the first time, and stopped trying to give him breakfast and, viola! he's eating again. We'll start breakfast again in a few weeks.
Clapping his hands: He loves to swing his hands towards each other and he claps when he is excited. Sometimes he gets a little too excited and he ends up just flapping his arms. The best is when one of us is holding him and he gets really excited and just starts shaking his entire body and laughing.
Speaking of getting excited, Chase is so much fun to play and interact with. He smiles and laughs when one of us walks in the room. He laughs at Mueller all the time and tracks him around the room. He imitates some sounds we make and laughs when we laugh at him (we all laugh whenever he burps. It's so funny to watch his reaction). He plays peek-a-boo and gives open mouth kisses (especially to his mommy).
And now, some pictures of Chase. You'll be able to see how mobile he is these days. We'll upload some videos soon too.
Happy 8 months, sweet boy!
Friday, January 7, 2011
I wish someone had told me sooner...
...to upgrade bottle nipples to "Medium" flow from "Slow" flow at 4 months. We didn't do it until 7 months. The change has made a world of difference- Chase is sucking down his bottles and not giving up when he gets bored. This had helped him sleep longer at night too.
...about Bumpkins. Greatest. Bibs. Ever. (Thank you, Carrie!)
...to buy an extra set of breast pump parts sooner. They get worn out and aren't as effective.
...how much lighter and easier an umbrella stroller is. (Yes, now we have 3 strollers. But whatever, I like our umbrella stroller).
...that I'd eventually have to give Chase formula--and that's okay!
...about Bumpkins. Greatest. Bibs. Ever. (Thank you, Carrie!)
...to buy an extra set of breast pump parts sooner. They get worn out and aren't as effective.
...how much lighter and easier an umbrella stroller is. (Yes, now we have 3 strollers. But whatever, I like our umbrella stroller).
...that I'd eventually have to give Chase formula--and that's okay!
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
2010: 7 1/2 months of Chase
EDITED: Sorry, we wanted this to be private on YouTube, but that means that you can't link to it from our blog. Luckily YouTube has an "Unlisted" option just for cases like this.
This link should work. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mFa0wo0LUI
This link should work. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mFa0wo0LUI
Sleep "Training"
As we previously alluded to, we began sleep training while I was away on my business trip in mid-December. We planned to put Chase to sleep, have Stephen respond to him when he cried, go back after 10 minutes to comfort him (gradually increasing the interval between responding), and for me to not nurse him until at least 5am. Not crying it out too much and hopefully the worst of it would be over while I was away. So how did it go?
The first night I was gone, Chase was up (but not really crying) for 1.5 hours. The second night, he was only up 20 minutes. The night I got back, he was barely up 20 minutes in the middle of the night. I was impressed.
The next night he cried for 1 1/2 hours before I finally went in and nursed him. The same thing happened the next night. On the third night, I was hysterical crying and went in after 50 minutes. There was no way I was doing this if our little guy was going to cry like that for so long.
Our first mistake was not reading any books on the subject. After some online research, I discovered that in order for this to be effective, the baby has to be put to bed awake and learn to fall asleep on their own. We had continued to let Chase fall asleep while having his nightly bottle. Mistake #2. So we decided to put the bottle at the beginning of the bedtime routine and (following the advice of a moms website) did the routine when he was tired the first night. Bottle, bath, book, song, and bed. He fell asleep pretty easily and didn't wake up until 4. I nursed him and he went back to bed. This could work. But unfortunately, Stephen unexpectedly had to go out of town the next night so I nursed Chase when he woke up (no idea what time it was) in the middle of the night.
And then the traveling began (Mistake #3: Starting sleep training before lots of holiday travel). Chase had to fall asleep in the car a couple of nights. He was in new places and we kept trying to put him to bed awake, but at all different times at night, with and without his bedtime routine, and when he was or wasn't tired. Needless to say, he was not happy and it got to the point that he was crying any time he went near a crib.
So, what did we do?
We gave up.
We went back to giving him a bottle before bed outside of his routine (when we needed to) and nursing on demand during the night. We stopped letting him cry so he'd get over his dislike of cribs. Those nights he only woke up around 2am and 5:30am, nursed, and went back to sleep. We were both around so I was able to sleep in while Stephen played with him in the morning. New Years Eve/Day was kind of a disaster because he never really got settled after we got home at 2am (upcoming blog post), but that was our fault.
Now that we're home and back to a normal schedule, we're trying again...but with a kinder, gentler approach. We're doing his nightly routine and trying to get him to go to bed awake and fall asleep on his own. But if he hasn't eaten much or seems hungry, we'll give him a bottle right before bed. During the night Stephen's going to respond to him first and see if he can get him to settle back to sleep, but if he's too upset, then I'll just go in. Yes, we want him to sleep 11 hours straight, but I can handle just getting up with him once a night. He'll eventually learn to fall asleep, and go back to sleep, on his own. In the meantime, I don't want our baby to be so sad!
We'll let you know how this works...
The first night I was gone, Chase was up (but not really crying) for 1.5 hours. The second night, he was only up 20 minutes. The night I got back, he was barely up 20 minutes in the middle of the night. I was impressed.
The next night he cried for 1 1/2 hours before I finally went in and nursed him. The same thing happened the next night. On the third night, I was hysterical crying and went in after 50 minutes. There was no way I was doing this if our little guy was going to cry like that for so long.
Our first mistake was not reading any books on the subject. After some online research, I discovered that in order for this to be effective, the baby has to be put to bed awake and learn to fall asleep on their own. We had continued to let Chase fall asleep while having his nightly bottle. Mistake #2. So we decided to put the bottle at the beginning of the bedtime routine and (following the advice of a moms website) did the routine when he was tired the first night. Bottle, bath, book, song, and bed. He fell asleep pretty easily and didn't wake up until 4. I nursed him and he went back to bed. This could work. But unfortunately, Stephen unexpectedly had to go out of town the next night so I nursed Chase when he woke up (no idea what time it was) in the middle of the night.
And then the traveling began (Mistake #3: Starting sleep training before lots of holiday travel). Chase had to fall asleep in the car a couple of nights. He was in new places and we kept trying to put him to bed awake, but at all different times at night, with and without his bedtime routine, and when he was or wasn't tired. Needless to say, he was not happy and it got to the point that he was crying any time he went near a crib.
So, what did we do?
We gave up.
We went back to giving him a bottle before bed outside of his routine (when we needed to) and nursing on demand during the night. We stopped letting him cry so he'd get over his dislike of cribs. Those nights he only woke up around 2am and 5:30am, nursed, and went back to sleep. We were both around so I was able to sleep in while Stephen played with him in the morning. New Years Eve/Day was kind of a disaster because he never really got settled after we got home at 2am (upcoming blog post), but that was our fault.
Now that we're home and back to a normal schedule, we're trying again...but with a kinder, gentler approach. We're doing his nightly routine and trying to get him to go to bed awake and fall asleep on his own. But if he hasn't eaten much or seems hungry, we'll give him a bottle right before bed. During the night Stephen's going to respond to him first and see if he can get him to settle back to sleep, but if he's too upset, then I'll just go in. Yes, we want him to sleep 11 hours straight, but I can handle just getting up with him once a night. He'll eventually learn to fall asleep, and go back to sleep, on his own. In the meantime, I don't want our baby to be so sad!
We'll let you know how this works...
Monday, January 3, 2011
Chase's First Christmas!
Merry Christmas!
The festivities started on Christmas Eve when Chase got all dressed up and hung out with Grandma Joan.
As some of you may know, my dad broke his leg in early December. Fortunately, his lap was a perfect place for Chase!
Then it was time for a family portrait. There were many (many) outtakes, but here are two keepers:
The next morning we got up early to beat the snow....which we did. But we didn't beat the traffic! Luckly Chase was a champ in the car and we were even more excited to get to Concord. It was kind of a whirlwind between a stomach bug, 18 inches of snow, sewage backups, and trips to the hospital, so we didn't take nearly as many pictures as we should have. But we did get to spend a lot of time with the cousins.
The three little ones were so excited about all of their new presents both small and large!
We made our way home via NY where Chase again hung out with Pop and practiced almost crawling.
I leave you with these images. What happens when Daddy watches the almost-crawling baby:
Merry Christmas! xoxo
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