Breaking news . . .

Max just threw up solid food into John's mouth. Yes, directly into John's mouth. He spit up a few drops into John's mouth once one morning in bed but never discernible solids.

In John's words: "There was no warning. I was playing with him and laughing with my mouth open and then I closed my mouth and there was food in it that hadn't been there previously. I knew that it was pear." Yuck.

After the incident, John was lying on the floor yelling for help and spitting on the tile floor but unfortunately, I was laughing too hard to come to John's immediate assistance.

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming. Good night.

Happy Easter

Max celebrated yet another big holiday with family this past weekend, as we took a trip to Winnipeg to live it up with my side of the family. Now that we were convinced that Max flies well, we knew that he'd be a model baby on the way there - our only concern was a planned road trip involving two 75-minute legs in the car. But I'll get to that later.

We landed late afternoon last Thursday and Max's Winnipeg grandma was there to pick everybody up. Once the car seat was wrestled into the car, we drove home to chill out for the evening. Max got to reacquaint himself with his grandma, uncle and aunt before getting the bedtime crankies and needing to go to sleep. He got to sleep in a playpen just like the one his great-auntie J had set up for him in Victoria, so we were hoping for a good night's sleep. Unfortunately, Max had other plans and (maybe due to the travel or new surroundings) had a worse night than usual. Which is saying something.

The next morning, Good Friday, we got ready for our big road trip. Crossing our fingers and bracing ourselves for the worst, we got in the car and hit the road. Surprisingly, Max quietly played with a toy for 20 minutes and then passed out for the duration, giving the rest of us in the car a chance to catch up. Once we got to
Whitemouth, where Max's only great-grandmother lives in a personal care home, Max put on a good baby clinic. After waking up, he allowed himself to be passed around between family members and even the friendly staff at the home without much protest. He was fascinated by great-grandma and her necklace (which kind of looked like candy). Max even got to visit with the resident cat, Smoky. Then, it was time for goodbye, so we bundled ourselves into the car again and, wonder of wonders, Max conked out again after about 20 minutes. Could he be turning the car corner?? Here is the evidence:

Sometime on Friday night, while Max was playing by himself on the floor, he decided that he was going to start babbling. Now those of you who know me know that I'm a big Scrabble guy. I was over the moon to hear that he had been studying over my shoulder. Over his first 6 months, he'd clearly mastered AA, EAU, MM, and OE...but you're not going to win any games with that kind of vocabulary. But now, he's taken care of his first words with consonant sounds, such as ABA, BAA, BA, BABA, ABBA, AGA, AYAH, GAGA, DAH, WAB and, most importantly, DADA. Music to my ears. Of course, he didn't connect the word with the concept of me or anything, but still... Here's a video to give you an idea of what he can do now! Do enjoy the unwashed hair of Max's Daddy.



Saturday, we got up and went to a hotel bar near downtown Winnipeg, where Max's grandma has a weekly get-together with some friends. Unfortunately, the server at the bar was nowhere near as lenient as Ontario pub servers and pretty much kicked Max out. Much as we were tempted to just leave him on the curb and have a pint, Holly volunteered to drive him home while I stayed and visited. Max got a little rangy in the car, just to make up for the trip to Whitemouth. Finally, we had an Easter dinner at Max's grandma's that night and completely stuffed our faces. Let's just say that the mashed potatoes had butter, sour cream AND cream cheese in them. Pure heaven.

We started our last full day in town with opening our gifts and treats from the Easter Bunny then had a lovely visit with my mother's cousin's at her place. Thanks to cousin J for the awesome cloth book of nursery rhymes. We headed over to my aunt and uncle's place in the early afternoon for another face-stuffing Easter lunch with my aunt, uncle, and many cousins on my dad's side of the family. Wasn't there a popular Spanish movie called Jamon Jamon? I digress.... Max got to meet his cousin Leah for the first time in the daytime (the last visit was at about 4 a.m. on Grey Cup Sunday) and all of the rest of the crew for the first time. As per usual, I think he was super well behaved (I secretly fear that one day, he will understand that there is a thing called "misbehaved" and that this thing is fun). I kind of like it when visits and introductions go like photos in an album - you see a lot of the happy and positive and the crying and badness gets shoved under the rug. He was spoiled rotten with Easter gifts from all of his Winnipeg family, including adorable rabbit ears, outfits, an awesome new Pooh blanket, books and multiple stuffed bunnies.

Packing mayhem ensued and then we headed home on a morning flight Monday. We arrived back in O-town relaxed, relatively well-rested and sans luggage. Yes, ALL of our bags got ditched somewhere along the way. We blame Air Canada Toronto. All this even though the bags were priority tagged because they didn't notice that Holly's Elite status had lapsed. So no toiletries, no changes of clothes for Max, no breast pump, no Bumbo, no camera to download pictures to the blog and, worst of all, no perishable goat cheese and kielbasa. Air Canada will be hearing from me. In any case, Max's great-auntie Melody treated us all to a yummy Easter dinner sans pork products and the bags arrived the next day around noon, so it wasn't really a crisis.

Here are some pictures from our trip and another video of babbling, giggling Max:

One of the strangest nights...part 2

OK, so the previous post with this title marked the start of an awful stretch of Max not sleeping, with us worrying about never getting him into his crib and Holly never getting a good night of sleep. Last night was either a huge blip or the start of a new chapter. I'm REALLY crossing my fingers that it's the latter.

Holly was out with her friends last night and I was left in charge of the little guy. She left with a big feed around 7:30 so I figured he was good for a while. We did some dishes, washed some diapers, and played around a bunch until Max got a little cranky at about 8:45 or so. So I put together some rice cereal and some sweet potato yummies for a late dinner (Holly had been to the doctor with Max for his 6-month checkup and a late meal was suggested to us to help Max get a good sleep - worth a try!). Max hoovered the whole deal, but was still a little squirrelly in his high-chair, so we started to get ready for bed.

Max hung out on my shoulder for a bit while I tried to thaw out some milk for him...but Max's drowsiness set in faster than the bottle could thaw. Max conks out while we carry him all the time, but it's usually pretty temporary. I still needed to finish thawing the milk and pop the diaper liners in the dryer, so I took Max upstairs and laid him down in his crib so that when I got the milk, he'd be right by the feeding chair. I ran downstairs to fill the drier ASAP, but halfway through, I couldn't hear him crying. Was I too far away? Was he actually staying asleep, unswaddled? Certainly not.

I finished with the diapers and went up to the main floor to collect the milk. Still no crying. OK, so he was lingering in sleepland for a few minutes. I called Holly at the party to check what she thought of the situation (given that she would be getting home late and is typically responsible for the middle-of-the-night feeds, I figured she should have some say about when and how Max went to bed) and the consensus was to let him sleep - he hadn't been getting much lately anyway.

I sat in our bedroom playing Scrabble for a while, expecting Max to get up any minute...that "any minute" turned out to be over an hour. He started crying when he roused himself and I left him alone for 5 minutes to see if he really wanted to get up. Uhh, he did.

When I went to get him out of the crib, he still had his eyes closed so I gently moved him over to the chair, where I fed him on the breastfeeding pillow. In the end, I don't think he ever opened his eyes. After about 10 minutes of slurping on the bottle, he was reduced to comfort sucking while snoozing. Right about then, I realized that I had probably blown my best opportunity to change and swaddle him. Oops. He wasn't even equipped with a hemp night liner for his diaper. Oh well. I guess it was going to be another squishy hour or two. He would probably wake up when Holly got home anyway and I'd change him then.

Ten minutes later, when I was convinced he was out cold, I scooped him up, placed him in the crib and covered him in a flannel sheet for a little bit of tuckage. He fussed quite a bit and I figured this was not going to last. I retreated back to the bedroom at 10:20, waiting for either Max to get back up or Holly to get home. At 1:00 am, neither had happened yet so I went to bed.

Then Max woke up, wailing. Well, I knew it wouldn't last that...what!?! It was 5:00 am!! Max slept for 7+ out of 8 consecutive hours for the first time in weeks. Unswaddled. In his crib. Crazy.

Holly fed Max in bed and was likely prepared to hand him off to me once he was done, but then it was 9:15. Yes, Max slept about 11 hours out of 12. Un. Bee. Leavable.

Now, I have to admit that this may have something to do with Max getting his 6-month shots yesterday, but some part of me (OK, fine, ALL of me) wants to believe that he's turned a bit of a corner. I guess the funny part is that I stayed up so long, believing the whole time that he'd get up and all the while Holly was out for the evening, oblivious to the miracle happening at home. When he got up at 5, I thought "Wow, that was an amazing display. Too bad we both ended up with only 4ish hours of sleep..." That last blast of sleep was a wonderful early Mother's and Father's Day gift.


UPDATE (Mar. 24): While Max has taken to sleeping unswaddled in his crib, he doesn't tend to give us bursts exceeding 4 hours anymore. Sadness. He's still generally pleasant during the daytime though, so it's hard to get too frustrated:)

Max: a tribute

So I said I'd write a little 6 month recap...I guess this means I had better deliver. I can't believe he's already been a part of my life for 6 whole months. It feels like no time at all, but already I have to look at old pictures and think a bit to remember so many things that really just happened:
*Max used to get by in the house in just a diaper shirt. Stupid winter.
*Max and I used to go for walks in the sun. Stupid winter.
*Max used to not sleep much at all. And then he slept a bunch. Allegedly.
*Max used to bathe in the sink.
*Max used to be jaundiced.
*Once upon a time, Max couldn't smile. Dark times, indeed.
*Max once just barely held on to his little blue rattle...instead of yanking out my hair
*Max used to be inside Holly - man those pregnancy pictures are CRAZY!
*There was a first nap, a first bottle, a first diaper change, a first solid meal, a first outfit that got too small...
*Max used to get hiccups all the time
*Holly and I used to wonder if he knew who we were
*I once had a month off
*There was a time we weren't sure if we'd ever all be asleep simultaneously.
*First Christmas, first sniffles all in 24 hours.
*I once cranked White Stripes to put Max to sleep
*Sling shopping, diaper shopping, buying and reading books about what to do with a baby...anticipation!!
*Good car trips, bad car trips.
*Max meeting all of his family members, a bit at a time.
*Max reaching out for Bella; Bella coming in for a rub.
*Max going bananas the first time he was in his playmat.
*Max going through paediatricians like disposable diapers.
*One day, Max realized he could block the nose bulb with his flailing arms.
*Max once needed to be swaddled to get to sleep.

Oh oops - it seems that I'm back in the present. It's been a wonderful ride so far - thrills, worries, lack of sleep, cuddly hugs, outings, and a lot of thanks for such a wonderful baby. I have learned a lot about myself, my limits and how to be a more caring daddy over the last 6 months...funny how I thought I'd be teaching him everything! And he can't even talk (back) yet. More than anything, I'm glad to have such a capable, caring and selfless person by my side to share this with me. For those of you who might be a bit dense, that's Holly.

Needless to say, I'm really looking forward to the next 6 months and beyond.




Cheers, bud

Happy half, little buddy!

Well, today Max turns 6 months old. We can hardly believe that a half year has gone by since his birth . . . where did all of that time go??? I will write something longer in a bit, but first I wanted to treat the masses to a triptych of videos taken today while Max was getting his 6-month diaper change done this afternoon. His wheels get rotated in two months.

One of the strangest nights...

This past Tuesday night/Wednesday morning was one for the ages. It went a little something like this:

Holly and I decided that there would be no better night to start trying to put Max to sleep in his crib, rather than in the co-sleeper next to our bed. We plugged the vaporizer in by the crib in the nursery, fed him to sleep and then, for the first time in nearly six months, walked a shot step and a half sideways to plop him down in the crib. This was at about 10:30, about par for the course.

He woke up crying later in the evening and Holly and I could just tell that it wasn't even near the 5:00 a.m. that we had hoped for. I looked over at the alarm clock and let Holly know that it was just past midnight. She replied "why, that's unfortunate. I suppose I shall egress from this bed in order to provide sustenance for my offspring". Or something to that effect involving way less words. Like only one.

Holly had long since mastered the art of the bed feed since our trip to BC. The only problems with it are a) I have to shove off to another bed and b) Max's sleep is of much better quality than Holly's afterward. So off I went to the spare room and Holly and Max went back to sleep. For a couple of hours anyway.

The rest of the night was a blur for me - crazy dreams, Max crying, a blizzard hitting. All I know is that I woke up at 8:00 or so not feeling very rested, but figuring that Holly was much worse off. Yet she and Max were passed out. About 15 minutes later, they got up and I found out that they had been up at 3 and 6 (yikes) and Holly just kind of kept him in bed the whole time. This meant that a diaper change was priority numero uno. Well, numero dos, after spending some time in bed with my suddenly smiley son. Wait, was that something wet in the carpet? Holly says yes, the cats were throwing up earlier that morning. Oh, OK..

Eventually, I decided to get the show on the road and get in to work. But lo, what brownish mound lies on yonder carpet? So somecat was apparently not feeling well and emptied her tummy all over the nursery carpet. While Holly tended to the cleanup, I decided to go shovel the 15 cm of snow we got overnight...except that it turned out to be 30. And the plow had been by. Several times. The good thing about living on Kirkwood is that it's always plowed. The bad thing about living on Kirkwood is that it's always plowed.

Eventually, Holly pitched in with the shoveling briefly before heading back in to feed Max. I polished off the driveway (ouch) and went up to go check on things. Holly was happily (for real, this time) nursing in Max's room, oblivious to the fresh swamp of cat vomit behind the nursing chair. By now, it was clear that Lily was at fault, as she was roasting by the heater behind the chair when I stepped out to shovel. When I went down to the basement, I noticed that she hadn't quite been able to get to the litter box either. Grrr. Given that since Wednesday morning, she has been fine, I am chalking this up to the dozen or so licks she had of my empty dinner plate Tuesday night. Every time that cat thinks she's human, there's trouble.

Eventually, I left for work, Max's diaper did got changed, Holly managed to get out of the house for a movie with a friend and Barack lost a state. Wednesday night, Max slept poorly again, but in his normal bed...giving us some hope that the crib thing might still work out. Holly thinks that he's going through his 6-month growth spurt, which is entirely likely. I guess tonight will serve as a sort of acid test. Stay tuned!

Blogger's note from Holly - Max is still not sleeping well. He's continuing the pattern of waking up for the first time after just a few hours and last night (Saturday) at the cottage, he treated me to an 11:30 p.m., 1:00 a.m., 3:00 a.m., 5:00 a.m., 6:15 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. night after going to bed around 8:45 p.m. Yikes. Hopefully our previously excellent sleeper returns to form pronto before I turn into a zombie.

Although post-bath moments such as this one from Wednesday night occasionally happen:

Max, I'd like you to meet solid food.

Yep. In amongst all of the sickness this past month (me twice, Max twice including a current phlegmy/vicious cough combo, and now Holly too), we've still decided to advance Max down the path to becoming a foodie. Apparently, babies don't nutritionally need anything beyond breast milk until they hit 6 months, but most babies apparently start needing a little something extra around the six month mark to get them the energy they need to crawl, walk and stuff. No, Max is not even remotely mobile, but I suppose one can always prepare.

Holly had already picked up a high chair about a month ago, so last weekend I put it together. On Sunday (again, last weekend), we decided to give the feeding thing a shot. Apparently, the best time to introduce breastfed babies to solid foods is in the evening, when Mom's milk supply is lowest. I guess the nice part about this timing is that Mom can pump or just store up a full tank for the last night feeding.

So, as we were sitting down to eat dinner, we prepared Max's first bowl of rice cereal by mixing up a teaspoon of cereal with a tablespoon of breast milk. I have to mention here that one of our reference books actually says that babies don't know that breakfast should come in the morning, dinner at night, etc. and that it's ok to mix these meals up. Yeah, like I was hoping to schedule Max's rice cereal for the morning so that he'd have room for that porterhouse in the evening.

We had been told to not expect much from the first feeding - that this was a whole new mechanic for Max: new tastes, eating without sucking so much as slurping, swallowing without sucking, etc. Who knew what would happen? Max managed to get about three or four baby spoonfuls in his mouth before deciding he had had enough. A lot of it ended up right back on his sleeper and face, but we were pretty sure that some of it was ingested. This was more an exercise to get him used to the new flavour and texture of the food anyway. That and getting us to master the upper lip sweep.

Since then, Max has moved up to being able to eat the entire teaspoon of cereal and topping it off with a few baby spoonfuls of banana for dessert. He seems much more interested in the banana, but I suppose that's to be expected. Frankly, if someone offered me a blob of Cream of Wheat or anything else (say oyster shells, for example), I'd get out my coupons for anything else. I've read that Max's tummy is about as big as his fist, so I doubt there's room for much more in there in a single feeding, so I think he's doing pretty well. He's still very interested in Holly at the moment so we're not pushing too hard to switch him off.

Epilogue: I won't go into too many details (you parents out there KNOW), but the most interesting aspect of all of this (aside from perhaps chiseling the dried rice melange out of Max's eyebrows) is probably the post-banana aftermath. Until that first banana went in, we really had no idea of Max's digestive capabilities or what a really dirty diaper was like. Well, needless to say, now we know. I was surprised that the turnaround time on the banana was three days, but then again, Max's system had never seen this kind of stuff before so I guess that it makes sense that the intestine, gut and colon spent a bit of time in the huddle before proceeding. It's not like the Jeopardy! tune was playing or anything.

We're not sure what the next new flavour will be, but we'll be sure to keep you posted. Here's the evidence: