22 Weeks 4 Days

Well, I've re-introduced cereal to Christopher. We first tried when he was 4 months old, but I never got into a habit. Now that another month has gone by, I've decided that I better get more strict about giving him what he needs! He's still gobbling it up! He's even trying to grab the spoon and feed himself! When I try to keep it away from him (so as to not cause a bigger mess), he only gets mad. Mr. Independent ALREADY?! I thought that came much later.

He's still working on those 2 bottom front teeth. I guess they've come through a little more, but it's still so slow! He's still drooling like crazy and practically keeps his fist/fingers in his mouth all the time. I finally bought some Baby Orajel, but I can't see that it helps him any. I don't know if it's the teething or what, but his sleep routine has been completely messed up the last week or two. He's back to waking about 3x a night. Yuck!

I'm once again attempting to move Christopher from his bassinet in our bedroom to his crib in the nursery. We've gone farther than our first try a month ago...2 somewhat successful nights so far. The first night (Saturday), I ended up bringing him to bed with us around 2 am since he was FREEZING. On Sunday night, I dressed him warmer and left his bedroom door open a little bit, so that helped. He didn't wake up until 4 am and then, after nursing, went right back to sleep...in his crib. Yay! He then slept until about 7:30! It was so nice to sleep childless for a while longer! He even slept through a rough thunderstorm. Shad and I both thought when the thunder woke us up that it would surely wake up Christopher, too. I never heard a sound from him, though.

Something else I'm trying to change is where he takes his naps. Ever since he was born, he's taken his naps mostly in his swing. Since he won't be able to fit in it forever, I'm trying to get him to take his naps in his crib now. So far, we're on Day 3 and he's doing great! I still have to let him cry-it-out a little, but it's usually no longer than 10-15 minutes. I'm finding that he likes to sleep on his stomach instead of his back. In the bassinet, he was pretty confined, so didn't have room to roll over. Now that he's got plenty of space, though, that's the first thing he does.

Speaking of rolling...this child is rolling around like crazy now. I lay him on his back on a blanket on the floor and it doesn't take long before he's on his stomach OFF the blanket! The bad thing is that we have hardwood floors so when he rolls off the blanket, he's on the hardwood, which I know doesn't feel good! I dread when he starts crawling! Oh, those knees! I wish so much that we had carpet throughout the whole house!

Speaking of crawling...he's already trying to bring his knees up! I'm sure it'll still be a while before he completely gets the hang of it, but it shocked me that he's already trying!

Right now, he's playing in his Johnny Jump-Up. He's been in it for quite some time and is STILL happy. I'm impressed! He spends most of his awake time either on the floor on his blanket, in his Bumbo seat, on my lap or in his Johnny Jump-Up. I wish we had an Exersaucer, but they're too expensive. Maybe I can find one at a yardsale or something.

Okay, Christopher's finally tired of being in the Johnny Jump-Up, so I'm going to end here for now. Until next time...

21 Weeks 2 Days (almost 5 mos)

Christopher will be 5 months old on Monday. Wow! Time is flying by so fast!

I had some gift cards to use, so Christopher and I went shopping on Thursdsay. First, we went to Bath and Body Works where I bought a couple of body sprays. I LOVE shopping there, but haven't been in forever! Then, we went on to Target where I bought Christopher a Bumbo seat, a 3-pack of Avent bottles and a couple of extra nipples. I almost bought an Exersaucer, but decided against it. Here's a picture taken of him yesterday in his new Bumbo seat:















His teeth are still at about the same position as they were a week ago. Boy, are they slow coming in! He's drooling so bad that he easily soaks 3 or more bibs in a day!

Tomorrow is my first official Mother's Day! Last year I was pregnant at this time. The only plans that we really have are to have Christopher dedicated in church then possibly go to La Siesta for lunch. The only time we've been able to go out to eat in quite a while is when someone else has paid. Since (1) it's Mother's Day and (2) we haven't been in a couple of months, we decided that we're going to go there on Sunday. Richard's going to come down for Christopher's dedication, so he'll be celebrating with us.

This past Wednesday (May 10), we took Christopher up to Richard's church in Nashville. He's in the choir there and wanted to show Christopher off to everyone. He's been asking us to come for quite some time now, so we were finally able to get away from our church for one Wednesday. Boy, is Christopher famous around there! Richard also works there, so has his own office. On his door are two 8x10 pictures of Christopher and a cut-out that says #1 Grandpa! He isn't proud at all!

I still haven't heard back about the Bank of America job. I called to check on the staus and was told that the lady who did the interviewing was out on vacation this week. The guy who answered the phone took my name and number and said that he'd give my message to the lady when she returned. So I wait some more!

Here's a video of Christopher "talking:"

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v644/tholloman/Christopher/?action=view&current=VideoofChristopherTalking5-12-06001.flv

20 Weeks 4 Days

Christopher's now about 4 1/2 months old and he's TEETHING! We started noticing his two bottom teeth poking through about a week ago. Of course, he's been drooling like crazy since he was about 2 months old, so I figured it was coming soon. He hasn't really seemed like he was in much pain...except for possibly overnight. His sleeping pattern has been messed up the last several nights. Last night (Sunday night) was a little better, but still not the best. He woke up at about 3:15 am, so I fed him and put him back into his bassinet. He then woke up again at about 5:15 am, so I just stuck the pacifier in his mouth. He still hadn't really settled down when Shad's alarm went off at 5:30, though, so I brought him to bed with me where he had NO problem falling back to sleep. Go figure! We've got a teething "hand" that he doesn't seem to like, so I bought a softer teething ring at Wal-Mart. So far, he's mouthed it for a little bit, but not long. He prefers his or our fingers instead.

He's now perfected his rolling skills from back to stomach. However, since he started that, he's not been rolling from stomach to back. When he rolls from back to stomach, he gets mad and waits for me to come get him. I don't know if he's forgotten or just doesn't like doing it himself.

Christopher's now also "talking" and squealing a lot. And boy does he like the sound of his voice! Shad's been saying "Dada" to him a lot trying to get him to say that first when the time comes. I keep telling him that he doesn't have to help Christopher on that one since he'll probably say it first anyway! Of course, I'm hoping he'll say "Mama" first instead.

This past Wednesday while at dinner at church, he started grabbing at things within reaching distance. That meant my food tray and anything I had in my hands! Yikes!

Something else he's started doing the other day was arching his back to look at everything upside down! We couldn't understand at first what he was trying to do, but then, when he got to where his head was upside down, he stopped squirming and just looked around. It was too funny!

On to other news...I had a phone interview with Bank of America last Tuesday and an in-person interview on Thursday. I have mixed feelings about the job. I'm sure I would get used to it and probably enjoy being a Teller eventually, but if I didn't need this job so bad, I would probably turn it down if accepted. I found out that I would have to work EVERY Saturday. I wouldn't mind 1 or 2 Saturdays a month, but NOT every Saturday! The weekends are our family time since Shad works during the week. Plus, I've been looking forward to getting to go to UT football games this season since I missed all but one last season. If I don't get this job, though, I don't know what I'm going to do end up doing. We've gotten to the point where we don't even know if we're going to be able to pay the rent in June! We've given up our satellite tv and gone to basic cable, we've cut down our phone line to the basics plus caller ID, and we've cut down our DSL internet from Ultra to Lite. We may end up having to cut that out completely too. It's pretty much to the point of, "What's the point of being a stay-at-home mom if we can't get out of the house and enjoy life!" Ugh!