And the constipation continues..

For my fourth and final blog tonight...the more intriguing title I'm sure! For those of you that read my entry from last week, you'll remember that I mentioned Ethan was having a bit of a "poop issue". Well, we thought it cleared up, but it came back to haunt the poor guy again this weekend. Courtesy of Daddy...you'll get the true emotional pictures below. Yes, Ethan is having troubles getting used to the solid foods, so we've now tossed the rice ceral in the garbage and are sticking to oatmeal cereal and our fruits and veggies. Ethan tried sweet potatoes, squash and pears this weekend. He seemed keen on the sweet potatoes and pears, but when we tried squash for the first time tonight, he wasn't so sure. We've been doing 3 days in a row of each thing, so we'll see how tomorrow goes. He'll start bananas at daycare tomorrow - I'm sure he'll like those.

Anyway, I'd just like to say that I hit a milestone in parenting this weekend. Never in my wildest dreams would I ever imagine I'd have to give my child a suppository, but Ethan was so bad off on Saturday that I was on phone with a nurse at 8:30 sharp when they opened their office. Funny, I went to the pharmacy to pick them up and wondered all the way home if I could talk Dave into doing the "dirty deed" but when I got home I just did it because I was heartbroken that he was hurting! I was even crying Saturday night when I thought he was still having problems. But, today was a much better day and we were able to get #2 with no outside helpers...mommy was very thankful!

Silly self-portraits

Okay so I feel like we never have the opportunity to have a family picture, so I was being silly one night and held the camera myself and tried to take a few shots. These are (surprisingly) the best ones that I took. The rest are usually half of either Dave or my head and sometimes just the top of our heads...I'm much better standing behind the camera.

My Jumparoo

Ethan just loves his Rainforest Jumparoo lately. When he used to sit in this, he'd just look at the lights and listen to the music and maybe jump a bit. But, more recently he actually turns himself in the chair and reaches out to touch the toys and make each little toy shake or spin. We even had to adjust it up one notch because he was getting too tall for the lowest setting! I caught some good action shots this weekend..

Tummy Time Push-ups

Every time I put Ethan on his tummy, I am more amazed at how strong the little guy is!! He can completely straighten his arms and hold himself up - very impressive! I actually put him on his tummy today and he rolled over to his back right away! He's also making strides to roll from his back to his tummy. I try to put toys on his side and a bit above his eye level and he pushes off with his feet to get partially on his side to see the toys. I'm sure he'll get there soon!

First I get into position...

Half-way up..














Full extension














And a BIG grin to finish up - ahh...what a workout! Soon I'll join Daddy in the gym!

4 Month Statistics

Ethan's 4 month appointment was today and here are his stats:

24.5 inches (total of 4 inch growth since birth)
14 lbs even (total of 6 lbs since birth)

He got 4 more shots and an oral vaccine. He took the first shot well, I think it caught him off guard, but then he wasn't happy!! He did calm down quite quickly though - poor little man!

We can start fruits and veggies now if we want. I think we'll wait until the weekend so Mom and Dad can have the first experience with the new flavors. Quite exciting though!!

He also started at the new daycare lady's house today. He was a bit on the sleepy side and napped more frequently, but I think he's just adjusting and taking it all in, so that's okay.

Here are a few pics I just took of him sleeping in his Pack 'n Play next to me, as he zonked out on the way home from the dr. appt.

Daycare

This is a picture of Ethan taken at his daycare, at the end of January. They had photographers come in and take pictures of all the kids and just this week they were available for purchase. A good sales scheme as far as I'm concerned...who would pass up a cute little picture like this one! I can't believe this is only a few weeks after his 3 month photos and he just looks so different!!

This past Thursday was Ethan's last day at daycare, he will be starting at an in-home daycare next week, which Dave and I are pretty happy about. One of our biggest challenges before we had Ethan was narrowing down a good daycare center to take care of our little one. Although we thought we made the right choice at the time, it just wasn't all that it was cracked up to be. In Ethan's 5 weeks at daycare, he definitely had a variety of experiences (realize although it was 5 calendar weeks, that's only a total of 15 days because he was only there 3 times a week)...

• Diaper rash on his first day
• He was sent home with an "ouch report" - he got scratched on the head..my poor little boy!
• He could last all day with basically ONLY 1.5 hours of sleep! Only to get home with Mommy and Daddy and then sleep the whole night! Yes, a god send for some parents, but not when I haven't seen my little boy all day, I want an awake little man!
• I was called one day stating that he had drank ALL 3 bottles before 1pm - ugh, don't these people know that you don't just shove a bottle in the kid's mouth every time he's crying - he just might be tired!!
• He was fed 3 times the amount of rice cereal I asked them to feed him - um, don't they read my instructions on the paper I fill out each morning?!!!
  

So, that's me ranting about his daycare, you can see just some of the overall reasons we just really weren't comfortable with keeping him there. Anyway, he'll now be taken care of by a woman with a 22 month old daughter and two other little girls that will be starting at the beginning of March (he'll be the only little stud there...he he). Of course, Grandma Hickman and Grandpa Rochford still have their days with Ethan, which is nice for him not to have to be carted out in the cold every morning!

Other random things around here....Ethan giggles when Sasha gets into a crazy mood and runs in circles, we tried oatmeal cereal today instead of the rice we'd been using (although, we might halt cereal for a day or two after the constipation we had today...he was NOT a happy camper), He's getting very good at sitting up - it will still be a while for him to do it on his own, but I'm impressed with his balance, he's rolled over from his tummy to back a handful of times - just a matter of time before he's rolling all over the place!! And finally, we have his 4 month appointment on Wednesday of this week. Daddy gets to take him this time and be the supportive parent while he gets more shots.

Big weekend for Ethan

Well, this weekend Dave and I took two big steps in parenthood...

1. Letting Ethan fall asleep without being rocked - he was a champ!
2. Starting cereal!!

We started Friday night with letting Ethan fall asleep by himself in his crib. I had spoken with many friends who are parents on how they started this and we formed our own gameplan. We did our usual night routine with a bath and book. Then, we put Ethan in his swaddle blanket in bed with his pacifier and told him he was going to go to bed on his own and left the room. Our plan was to slowly increase the time we'd let him cry by 5 minute increments. He didn't cry right away...but then he started and we hit the 5 minute mark - I went up to give him back his pacifier and he was fine for about 10 minutes and then started crying again. I went up at the 10 minute mark of crying and calmed him down. At the 15 minute mark, Dave went up and that was it! He was out for the night!! He even slept 11 hours!! We've done the same for every nap since then and he's done REALLY well! We only had one rough nap Saturday afternoon, but I think it was because he was hungry! So, he's on his own for falling asleep now. What a BIG boy!

And finally, the most exciting part of the weekend for me at least was trying cereal with Ethan. We video-taped the first day and he had quite a few amusing expressions. So, here are a few pics from day #2 of cereal, which was 100% better! He seemed to get excited when he saw the spoon coming towards him. He still only eats about 50% of what's in the spoon - thank god for bibs!! But, I know he has to get used to the spoon and the new textures. Wow, to think he'll be on veggies and fruits etc. in another month or so. We're starting a bit early since we couldn't get in for his 4 month appointment until the 20th of this month!!

Thank you Uncle Breck

This post is dedicated to my Uncle Breck..thank you for my very cute "Dad's Team" uniform for Christmas. I had mommy take these pictures so you could see me wear it! Hope to see you in a couple of weeks!

Ethan's 3 Month Pics

Well, it's about time..here are a few shots from Ethan's 3 month pictures taken a few weeks ago: