12-31-06
Asher had a nursing strike about a week ago. I know - I didn't believe in them either. I figured people were
just talking about a baby that didn't want to eat right at that moment or they weren't really committed, or, well, I don't
know. But why would a normal baby just up and refuse to nurse? Well, Asher did. He seemed to have come down
with a cold or something (stuffy nose from teething?) because Christmas eve night he woke up around midnight and couldn't
breath through his nose at all. He tried nursing back to sleep like normal, but the whole no breathing through his nose
thing made that difficult. After a few tries we both gave up and I decided to get out the hated nose sucky thingy (otherwise
known as an aspirator, but who wants to say aspirator when they could say nose sucky thingy?) I gave him some Sudafed
and gave it a try. It didn't work. He was really clogged. Now, I'm going to give out my secret for clearing
clogged babies even though many of you will think it is really gross. I laid him upside down on my bed and squirted
some breastmilk up his nose. I pulled out the nose sucker again and this time we got his nose unclogged. SO -
back to nursing and all is well, right? Ya, only now he is M-A-D and the whole nursing thing didn't work the last time
he tried so he is not even willing to turn his face near me for nursing, let alone latch on. I even held his screaming
wailing little head in place and made him try to nurse but it did no good. So we rocked and rocked and sang and walked
and eventually he went to sleep. He woke up again sometime around 5ish and he was not all stuffy this time so I tried
to nurse but he was still very unwilling to even think about it. Finally I managed to hold his head in place and force
him into possition until he gave in and nursed and fell asleep. Later around 7-8AM was the same thing. I was so
scared! I didn't know what I was going to do about this! He wouldn't nurse! I felt so rejected and upset
and yucky... and this was even with a few successes in eventually getting him to latch on! Looking back on it, I cannot
imagine how people going through actual nursing strikes for longer then this make it. Well, that day he nursed just
fine during the day and then that next night he pulled the same thing refusing to nurse. The next day he nursed just
fine and the nights after that were fine as well. Goofy kid. He is almost out of his stuffy nose now and we are
ever so slowly losing our addiction to sudafed. He has got all 4 top teeth in that was quite a bit of work for him.
Ash is also now out of his bucket car seat. He is too long. Bummer on that.
12-23-06 (technically 12-24-06 because it is 2:02AM - but who really cares?)
AHHHH!!!! So, I'm sitting on the internet when I should be sleeping googling Asher's name. Here is what I
find:
Name Forecast 2005: Up-and-comers
A look ahead, part two. 10 names poised for a breakthrough or revival in 2005,
with honorable mention candidates.
BOYS
Asher: A biblical classic, but it sounds like a modern blend of Ashton and Tyler. (Runner up: Jude)
Declan: With Aidan and Liam now American standards, the more Irish the better. (Runner up: Seamus)
Emmett: Old-fashioned but not heavy, a rarity for boys. (Runners up: Jasper, Everett)
Hudson: The hunt is on for surnames that won't turn androgynous! Hard to picture a little girl called Hud, but time will
tell. (Runner up: Maddox)
Otto: The biggest stretch on the list. Otto will never be a top-10 hit, but this year I heard several stylish parents
considering the name then shying away. In 2005, they start to pull the trigger. (Runner up: Reuben)
(Kristina, I included the other names for you.)
NO! Asher can NOT become popular. I'm sorry, but the world did that to me with Gavin's name and I will not
accept them taking Ash's name too. It wouldn't bug me so much if that was the only result I saw like that, but it was
not by a long shot. On another popular baby magazine website they listed the top 10 boy and girl names that were searched
on and Asher's was #1. #1 top name searched on for yesterday! Man, if we ever win the lottery and are rich and
don't have to work and all that and we have any more kids, I'm naming the dang kid that symbol thing that prince used for
awhile.
Anyway, that aside, we're doing well. Ash actually crawled a little bit today. That was pretty fun.
He is so wiggly! He never wants to lay in my lap and nurse anymore if there is ANYTHING even a little more interesting
to do (ie - watch lint float in the air.) I have to resort to taking him to a quiet dark room to nurse him and then
he just falls asleep. It is doing horrible things to my TV watching habits. Dozens of ER episodes have been taped
with no one to watch them. I'm hoping that his improved mobility here will give him some more quality independence so that
when he is nursing he will be able to just focus on that.
I've been giving him some baby food blends lately. I've held off on giving him any baby food while with me for
so long, that it still feels like I should be in the "1st" foods but at 7 months old, he is really beyond that. He would
love to be able to do more finger foods, but he holds things with his whole fist and he keeps trying to get his whole fist
into his mouth when we give him something and it just doesn't work. He really needs to get that pincher grip thing down.
He doesn't really eat much of the solids these days. I'm secretly happy about that because I'm just not ready to let
nursing start the slow weaning process. I know I know, he'll still be nursing for a long time yet no matter what he
eats with "real" food. I just have enough trouble with supply that I like any nursing sessions I can get with him.
Ash has a crush on "aunt" Krissy it seems. Krissy is Uncle Tony's girl friend, but she wouldn't be if Ash had anything
to say about it. He just lights up whenever he sees her and while he is getting really picky about people that are not
me NOT holding him, he actually will reach out to her from my lap to have her hold him. It is really funny but poor
uncle Tony isn't real happy that his little Tater nephew wants him taken out. It is nice for me though because
there is actually someone that I can hand him off to from time to time that he doesn't fuss about.
12-20-06
Who says teething babies are crabby? He's only working on getting 4 teeth in on the top at once... he's not crabby.
OK, ya, he's been a pain - poor guy. He had this blood blister on one of the top center ones until this morning when
it popped and there was blood everywhere. Pretty gruesome really to have his hands and mouth and chin covered in blood.
We were at his 6 month ( a little late) well child visit yesterday and I said sarcastically "he's only a little difficult
at night." and she thought I was serious. She said "Oh, well that's great!" He came in at 27 inches when they
measured him but that whole thing is pretty subjective. I tried to measure him the same way twice this morning and once
I got 26.5 and the next time I got 27.5 depending on how straight I pulled his legs. At any rate, the car seat only
goes up to 26 inches so we'll have to start looking at something else for him I guess.
I got Asher to eat avocados! I gave them another try and this time he actually ate them with me. Good boy!
He is the cleanest eater I've ever had.
OK, what else - he is still not crawling but he is VERY VERY close to being able to sit up from laying down on his own.
He gets up to his hip and I've seen him go from sitting to on his hip and to sitting before, he just hasn't done it from laying
to hip to sitting yet. Right at the moment he is on the floor on his side eating my American Baby magazine so he's pretty
motivated to be able to use his arms and sit up while on the floor. :)
I think that's it. Go check out the family scrapbook as I've got tons of new stuff up there! Oh, and check out
Gavin's page where I will share my Nintendo Wii experience.
12-15-06
Asher has his fourth tooth now. He has the two original on the bottom front, the one top left side tooth (right
next to where the front left one would be) and now the top right side tooth. He does not have the two front top teeth.
Is this weird? Seems weird. Oh well. He is now grinding those teeth together and it makes me totally creeped
out.
While he is still not crawling, he is sure moving! He is also sitting up pretty well but he will still end up falling
eventually and he has an amazing skill of falling RIGHT on the hard item no matter where it is. He also loves to grab
things - food, toys, hair, remote controls, anything. If he can reach it, he wants it. He has yanked out handfulls
of Jessie's hair on several occasions. I cannot believe she doesn't get more mad at him for it. Tonight at Red
Lobster he had little bits of our meals and he really REALLY liked my trout. He also liked Jessie's applesauce.
He did really well sitting in the high chair there and I think he liked getting the break from being in my lap. I tried
to give him some avocado from our lunch too but he made the most awful face when I put it in his mouth and he actually screamed
like I had squashed his favorite toe in the door or something. He even refussed to open his mouth for me for quite some
time after that and even at Red Lobster he was watching to make sure whatever I had in my hands was not green. I don't
get it. What is so bad about avocado? I LOVE it! Really, it doesn't taste like much of anything and it is
nice and squishy so it seems like it has a lot in common with most of his other foods. Weird.
When I try to nurse him these days, he is so twisty! He keeps trying so hard to twist out of my arms but if I put
him down he gets mad at me. It must be so frustrating to be 6 months old. He knows he wants to eat some of those
yummy foods but he cannot control his fingers quite enough to grab them with his finger tips and put them in his mouth.
His whole fist can hold things, but that doesn't work very well for getting them in his mouth then. He honestly seems
to be OK with most foods, but green beans he will spit back out at you if you try to sneak it into his mouth, both the actual
green beans and the baby food green beans. Hmm... I'm seeing a green pattern.
I learned that I cannot mess with his nap patterns. Even if he is not getting up for the day until 8. Normally
he naps around 10 and then again around 2 or so. I had been trying to keep him up later so he'd nap longer at the same
time I put Jessie down. (Read, shut her in her room while she stayed awake.) He was REALLY hard to get to sleep
though when I did that and then he'd pass out around 5-6 and then he would not go to sleep for the night. It was very
bad for a few days there so I just learned that even if I feel like he has not been up for any time at all, he must go to
bed around 10 for that early nap. What this means for me though, is that I never get to have the two asleep at the same
time. He will go to sleep at about 10 and sleep until after lunch when I try to get Jessie down. Then I have Asher
up until his afternoon nap and when I get him back down I figure I've tortured Jessie enough so she gets up. So much
for getting anything done. *sigh*
12-7-06
I cannot believe how much stuff I have intended to write here and didn't get around to it! I'm going to forget
about 90% of it, sorry about that. Plus it is December so I have to archive the old stuff and clean up the site.
Shoot. Anyway, I'm still having fun with my new digiscrapping stuff. I keep updating that book on the links page
so feel free to check it out from time to time for new stuff.
Asher has another tooth! It is one on the top now. I have to say that he is kinda a wuss to the pain because
man does he get fussy. Poor guy. He is really intent on watching people eat too and I can give him things that
he has to chew on a bit and he knows what to do. Last night he had his baby food (prunes! Yum yum!) and some corn
and lasagna with the rest of us. He is so little in that giant highchair! I try to be carefull how much I give
him because he is so easily distracted while nursing and I don't want to fill him up so much that he just won't nurse at all.
He is still not taking a cup all that well and since he won't drink from a bottle either, he's gonna have to deal with nursing
and being stuck in one place. Speaking of being stuck in one place, he is SOOOOO close to crawling! He gets up
on his hands and knees and rocks - he just isn't quite sure about picking up a hand to move from there yet. Not that
he stays still though. He army crawls all over the place. He loves paper and he can move his little self pretty
darn fast across the room to get ahold of any books he can find. He is also sitting really well. He still tumbles
from time to time but I've seen him lean way down to reach something and then sit back up too. Crazy little man still
fights sleeping like crazy and I hope that isn't a long term thing. He spend most of last night SCREAMING at me because
he wanted to play and I was NOT letting him. He didn't want to nurse or even just sit in my lap, he didn't want to lay
down in bed with me, he didn't want to lay in his bed by himself, he just wanted me to carry him around. At midnight.
Not happening.
OH! He has started playing this little game with me that is so funny. You know that sound you can make by
sucking in and it is a really funny sounding laugh kinda? OK, well, we'll pretend that you said yes to that and move
on. He makes that sound when he is REALLY laughing hard at something and I think it is so funny so I repeat it back
to him. He looks at me and giggles and does it again and waits quietly for me to repeat him. Now it has turned
into our little game where I'll say the sound and then he will in turns. It is fun to see the interaction and I like
that it is sort of communicating for him. Come on Asher, be a talker!!
