Thirteen Months

Ace is thirteen months and I may have found a job. Happily, it doesn't start until September. So, if everything works out, I will have a lovely spring and summer with my little guy.
Since I may have found a job, and since daycare is very competitive around here, I went ahead and took a spot for Ace in a daycare center that is very convenient to B's work. Ace is going to start there in May, going two half days at first and then transitioning to three full days in September. I am looking forward to the two days a week! Just to have some time to myself will be fantastic. I wonder how much I can get done in three and a half hours?
Ace is so much fun these days. He is pointing to everything and telling me all about what he sees, except that I have no idea what his little noises mean. His most frequent word sounds like woof, but it has to mean something else to him because he uses it all the time. I wonder what his first word will be and when it will happen?
He is also not walking yet. He is still cruising. Everyone that sees him says, "Any day now!" but I don't know. He has no interest in doing it on his own.
Ace seems to have developed some anxieties, but nothing too bad. The worst may be his fear of other children. He does not like being approached or cornered by other kids. When it first happened, it seemed as if it might have been an incident of racism, but then I noticed that it happened with all skin colors. Phew!

So Much has Happened...

I am trying to get back into this. Ace is now one and doing so much that is new - crawling, cruising, he can stand without help - but rarely does, he has seven teeth - four on top, three on the bottom. He is weaned. That happened because I got terrible food poisoning on my birthday and I just laid in bed moaning all weekend and didn't nurse at all. When I got up to pump eventually, I just knew that I was done. Ace didn't care at all. I had been cutting down on the number of feedings, so it wasn't completely cold turkey. I just switched morning and night nursings to bottles. Now we have to wean off the bottles, but I'm not worried about that. Ace might fuss, but he will get it.
He has a few words, too. I think he says "woof," I know he says "Ma Ma" but I'm not sure he knows it is me. Just yesterday he started saying "Ba Ba" and making more noises. He points at everything and wants to talk to you about what he is pointing at. He's gotten pretty good at sign language too. We mainly taught him signs for eating, so he signs milk, more and all done.
I have been looking for a job. I was offered one position, the catch being that the school board has to approve my salary in the next budget, so I am waiting to hear. I am applying for a charter school, but I have been warned that it might be too much work with a baby and planning for more babies. We'll see what happens.
All in all, things are good!

Separation Anxiety?

So I have been working on getting Ace to sleep through the night again and it has been going pretty well. Except that he has developed a habit of waking up around 5 am. Usually he will go back to sleep with the replacement of his pacifier. Other times, he will scream and not stop. This morning he screamed for a half an hour before we decided to do something. B opted first for Motrin, but I really did not think the baby was in pain. I went in and patted Ace's head and he would quiet down and go to sleep, but if he lifted his head and I was leaving, screamed started again. B finally went in to the nursery and patted Ace for a long time and then just laid down on the floor by the crib. B said that Ace picked his head up a few times and looked at him, laughed, and went back to laying down. When B got up and left, Ace complained but went back to sleep. Ace made up for his hour of wakefulness by sleeping an hour later this morning. I was up for almost an hour and a half while all of this was going on and today I am very tired. I know you are just supposed to let them cry it out, but we can't. My stomach was in complete knots the whole time Ace was not settling down.
With weaning and my going back to work coming up, we've got to get this down.

Post Holiday

We went to the Mid West for the holidays. We landed on Christmas Eve right after the start of the biggest blizzard to hit that part of the country in sixty year - or so we were told. Ace got the experience snow and really, really cold weather for the first time. Since he is still cruising and not walking, not a lot of time was spent out doors, but he got to dress up in adorable hats and sweaters and I got to take some good pictures.
While we were away he stayed on Los Angeles time, which was wonderful. He had two colds in a row, though, starting right before we left, and I caved and started feeding him when he woke up in the night. I couldn't stand hearing his stuffy little cries. I continued feeding him at every night waking while we were not at home, since I felt kind of bad for him. We've been home three nights now and managed not to feed him last night and just let him cry himself back to sleep. It only took about five minutes. Hopefully tonight will be similar.
Ace's first Christmas was ok. I hated being away from our home, but I guess you have to do things you don't want to do when in laws are involved. Ace got great presents from his Nana and Papa, but I was annoyed that no one held back his older cousins, who insisted on "helping" unwrap his presents and then pretty much grabbed the toys away from helpless Ace and started playing with them. These older cousins have had so much fussing over them through the years, I thought it really unfair that their parents and grandparents didn't tell them to leave Ace's things alone and let Ace have his moment. But maybe that's my own personal baggage coming through. B agreed with me, however, so maybe not.
Ace is getting around really fast these days, by creeping (I think that's what they call the army crawl he uses) and cruising, but I don't think he is that close to walking. Others disagree.
He is babbling just a little, less than I'd like him to. I always thought a baby of mine would be an early talker, but I guess not. He understands a lot, though, which is fun to see.
Next up will be weaning and I am trying to learn as much as I can about that now. He isn't great with a sippy cup, but does well with a straw, so I might just skip the sippy cup - I've read it's not very good for their oral development anyway - and transition to a straw cup and then just a regular cup. I'm going to try and change up one of his nursing sessions and give him the breast milk in a straw cup and see how it goes.
New Year's Resolutions are: weigh less, work on some individual projects and get organized. I should probably add find a job, but that one boggles my mind currently, so I'll think about that later.

Cruising

Is that what you call it? Holding on to anything he can and "walking" around the house. If he could, he'd cover the entire perimeter of the apartment. It is really amazing to watch, considering that a few weeks ago he couldn't move from point A to point B on his own and now if you leave him for a few minutes, there is no guarantee that you are going to be able to find him. He is usually approaching whatever electronic or electronic control that is closest to him. He moves from coffee table to couch to side table to whatever is next. It is fun to watch, but also terrifying. I have been told that this is the beginning of the end of any type of relaxing while he is awake. Nine months is great, though.

OMG Teething!

Ace's front teeth are coming in and it is no picnic! He started waking up around 11pm, completely inconsolable, just wanting to hang out. So that's what we did for two nights. Just hung out until he was calm and tired and nursed and ready to go back to sleep. Then we thought maybe we were being played. We tried to get him back to sleep by letting him cry it out. He cried and fell asleep off and on for an hour. I finally caved and got up and nursed him and hung out with him. I can't remember if we gave him infant Motrin that night or not, but we started giving it to him after that. Then two nights later, after more night waking, I gave him Motrin when he went to bed and there was no night waking. I was told that meant it was a teething issue and not a behavior issue. Poor little guy. You can see where the teeth are coming and his mood during the day is also atrocious. I have also read that this is the age for separation anxiety, but he doesn't really have those issues consistently. It seems he only has them when he is uncomfortable. Luckily today was a pretty good day. I am hoping for a full night's sleep and am not going to give him Motrin before bed.
In other news, Thanksgiving was fun. We had a last minute oven problem and ended up ordering our turkey from Whole Foods, but it was really good.
Also, Ace was baptized last weekend. Not my thing, but B and his family were happy about it. Ace did look adorable in his baptismal gown.

Feeding an Almost Nine Month Old

I am worried that I am not nursing Ace enough. I am down to about five nursing a day, if I'm lucky. Some days it is just four feedings. I have dropped the Dream Feed at 10:30, so that is why I'm concerned. He seems to be more constipated lately too, and I am wondering if that has to do with the decrease in breast milk. He is eating three meals a day and drinking water. He also drinks pear juice occasionally when he is really not pooping and straining.
He is showing signs of teething again and last time he was teething he was also constipated. Isn't that odd? He sleeps a lot when he is teething too. He takes two, two hour naps during the day. Right now he is chewing on his Fisher Price piano that his grandmother found in her trash room (she cleaned it up before we let him chew on it).
I'm also trying to be good about giving him iron fortified cereal every day and I'm pretty sure that makes him constipated.
Ugh. I guess I'll be serving him prunes at every meal until I see a result.