Tuesday, May 26, day 140

Luca and I have a had a rip-roaring busy week!  We did yoga twice, went on play dates with other new moms, went for walks, had friends over for dinner, went to a barb-que and went on two picnics (though one was rained in)!  On Thursday, Fab and I asked  our friend Monique (thanks again!) to babysit while we went to a dance performance.  Both the show and the evening were great!  

Luca has gone off the bottle, which is a bit of a problem if we want to leave him with a babysitter for the night.  I forgot to give him a bottle for all of April and he now solely prefers the real thing.  We've been trying to get him back onto the bottle but I don't have much hope now!  From what I've read, we may need to start feeding him from a cup which is feasible at this age. 

Luca has started to really vocalize!  Overnight between Wednesday and Thursday, he started long monologues with just the letter A!  It's really funny!  I'll try to get a video of it soon!

Luca is strong enough to roll over now, but shows little interest on his own.  He prefers to see what's going on around him than to roll over.  He's liking to stand a little more too, but his jumbo legs tire quickly!

In this video, you can see our newly acquired (and much loved) Bumbo chair which is designed to help him learn how to sit on his own.  Since we got it on Wednesday, I've already noticed an improvement in his sitting skills, but he still does some crazy side bends if you're not holding him.  Also his first taste of applesauce (I had some left over from a recipe).  This week, Luca also sucked on Cantaloup and watermelon.

Oh, and his hair is starting to come in!  He has a little buzz cut!

Tuesday, May 19th, day 133

Luca trying to hide!

Time is really starting to fly.  I can see changes in Luca's development everyday which is really cool.  For example, everyday he spends more and more time resting on his elbows during tummy time and everyday he's able to slow down his arm and hand movements when reaching for a toy so his accuracy is improving.  He's also less likely to be comforted solely by feeding.  If something's bugging him, he wants it solved before he eats.  He's more distracted by noises, especially when feeding, and wants to know what's going on around him before he finishes.  I am starting to have to find more peaceful places to feed him.  I think he's growing because he's always hungry.  If the world were made of breast milk we'd have a serious problem on our hands!  I'm struggling to keep up with demand.  It's possible I've been too active - which can decrease my production.  I might need to eat a bit more and relax more to keep up with demand!  He's still getting up a couple times at night out of hunger.  I'm hoping this is just a little phase.  

I've been thinking about trying to get him on a routine.  He would like to stay up until midnight and finish his sleep cycle at noon.  Obviously I find that a little frustrating!  I would like 8pm-8am.  The problem is, he's tired when he's tired and awake when he's awake.  

Luca is to drool as Niagara is water.  It's amazing how much he's drooling.  His hands are always in his mouth too. 

 

Luca's been off and on with solids.  Somedays he can't get enough (as you can see in the video) and other days he won't take it.  I'm going to cut back to feeding him solids only about 2 or 3 times a week as I think he needs it.  This way I won't be as frustrated when I pump for the meal and he turns it down! 

He's sleeping downstairs alone now.  Fabien really misses having him in the room with us and often goes down to check on him.  Because I spend so much time with him, I'm enjoying having a little space from him at night.  I do stress that the monitor isn't working though.  

You can see how much he likes the food in this video!  I know the segments are long but I feel like Luca's personality is starting to show more.  Sorry about the lousy cinematography! 

I shot all the clips for this video this morning.  I'm trying to show off his developing skills!  He still has no interest in rolling over or standing.  You can see me playing with him a bit.

Tuesday, May 12th, day 126

It's a rare occasion that you don't get a big smile as a greeting!  Sometimes he'll even blow bubbles at you!

He's saying "woo" in this photo!  One of his favourite words!

Fab's family, Danielle and Denis.  I think they were talking to their sons Maxime and Gregoire in France, via MSN.  Small world these days!

Sometimes Luca fights sleeping . . . but this position he just can beat!  He always crashes in this position!

It's been a pretty busy last couple of weeks.  Luca turned 4 months old on the 6th!!! (I forgot - oops!)  Fabien's dad, Denis, and step mom, Danielle, visited from France for the week.  It was their first time to Canada.  The weather was good for most of their visit so we had some good adventures.  They especially like our squirrels and Montreal's mixed up architecture with different colours and styles on the same building.  I think they found it difficult to understand the Quebecois accent - probably like English in Manchester or parts of the southern states.  Luca enjoyed their visit and barely touched the ground for the whole week!   Danielle and Denis were great with Luca.  Danielle helped me a lot with changing diapers, giving baths and dressing him.  She never missed an opportunity to hold him.  It was also nice to have Fab home from work for the week. 

On Wednesday, Danielle and I fed Luca his first solids.  He's been biting a lot and sometimes seems like he's still hungry after a full meal.  He's also been waking up every three hours at night out of hunger.  I bought some rice cereal and mixed it with some breast milk.  He seemed to push a lot of it out again (which is apparently a sign that he's not ready for solids yet) and had a slightly upset stomach next the day.  Not to be discouraged, (and because my Mother's senses were tingling)  Fab and I tried again today, almost a week later.  This time we couldn't get the next spoonful to him fast enough!  I accidentally made about a quarter cup's worth trying to get the consistency and he almost ate it all!  (The cereal box says to start with a tablespoon of milk and equal proportion of cereal - I did double!!!)  We actually cut him off a bit before he wanted cause we don't know how he'll take it long term!  He crashed after and I'm hoping he'll be gone for 6 hours.  Fabien has the magic touch with feeding him, I could get him to take it at all but from Fab he couldn't get enough!!!

He had his second set of shots on Saturday.  Out of the two shots (one on each leg) the first was fine, but the second - which is known to be more uncomfortable - made him cry hard for a few minutes.  Poor guy.  I was trying to feed him but he was too busy being pissed off to feed.  He didn't seem to have any side effects after.  On Sunday he napped slightly longer than usual.   While we were at the clinic, I asked the nurse to weigh him to satisfy my curiosity.  He's now (two weeks after his last weighing) 17 pounds 7 ounces - which is a gain of 1 pound 4 ounces!  I wonder what eating solids are going to do to him!  

On Sunday night, Fab and I decided to take the plunge of moving him downstairs to his bedroom to sleep at night.  To ease the transition (for us, I don't think he cares) we have been sleeping down there too!

I think that's all the news we have from our little microworld!  The leaves came out on the trees in the last week and the weather's getting better and better everyday.  Can't wait for summer!