Auntie Tanya Comes for a Visit

Auntie Tanya came for a visit last weekend. It was the first time she has seen Dominic since we left Maine May 15th. How he has grown since then. Now she can actually play with him. But, more importantly, he no longer makes strange with people and enjoyed her company.

It was a wonderful afternoon filled with catching up, talk of medicine, and puppet shows given by Auntie Tanya. Dominic thouroughly enjoyed the puppet show. :-)

Sleepless nights

Dominic 7 months

We are on a roller coaster ride of sleeping during the nights. Some nights Dominic sleeps really well (4 hours at a time) and other nights he is up very frequently. Hopefully once we are in our new apartment he will settle into a routine. I have since read three books on children and sleep and I'm working on a fourth. Hopefully, this new book will have some new information in it and I will be able to compile things I've learned from all to come up with something that will work for Dominic and I. I have faith that this issue will soon be resolved.

Aside from the constant battle of sleepless nights, Dominic ate his first real food yesterday. He had some of Grandma Mo's chicken soup. He loved it! He has (in what seems like overnight) begun to eat solid people food. Last week he gagged on the chunker baby food and now he is eating some finger foods and loving it.

He is a little mover when he is awake! He is in everything and so very fast at that. He crawls all over the place, but he prefers to walk holding onto furniture when at all possible (he must think it is faster or just like it, because he uses it much more frequently). The stairs he has become a pro at. He even tackled the camp stairs today. (They are wood and have a back that is really recessed. I thought for sure it would deter him, no such luck.) After climbing the stairs he found the stuffed bear to be of great interest and spent the next ten minutes feeling it and pulling on it's fur. (Lucky for Jezzie as she gets a break from all the fur pulling.)

I have been busy fixing the apartment and moving stuff in and unpacking. Dominic spent the first nap in his new room and new crib yesterday. This allowed me a great amount of time to complete the kitchen. The kitchen is now done and I only have to paint the living room and work on the bathroom when we are completely moved in. We are nearly there and my little man is getting so big!!!!

Sleep

I almost forgot (which is funny because it is so important). Dominic is now sleeping from 8:30pm till around 1 or 2 am. He may wake earlier then this, but only so that I help him lay down and he goes right back to sleep. We are down to 2 feedings a night and 4-5 hour stretches of sleep!!! I feel like I have slept so much that I could almost get up for the day at 4 or 5 am. However, I always try to coax Dominic into sleeping till at least 7am, because if I don't he will want to go to bed before 7pm. So, progress is being made, slowly, but surely.

This whole process started about a week ago or so when I found out that past four months of age there is no need to be fed at night anymore and that he had just learned that nursing was his remedy for going back to sleep. He didn't want to feed, he was using me like a human pacifier and because I was getting so little sleep I would continue the process because it was easy and fairly fast (plus I was half out of it). Once I found this out I decided this was it, it has to stop soon. Thus, we began the process. The first three nights were rough, Matt even asked me to start the next night after a Sunday night of crying for 2 hours +. But, two days later he was sleeping longer then he ever had. So, now we only need to wean out 2 more night feedings and then hopefully we will have some full nights of sleep. I am not going to start the other two till Dominic has his own room. He is going to have disruption enough by moving and I don't need to start that too, at least right now.

The climber!

Yesterday, I was taking pictures of Dominic in his new t-shirt that Pupo brought from China. As I was about to delete the unwanted photo's I looked up to see where Dominic was. He was at the bottom of the 6 stairs, safe as I know he only can get up 2 of them. So, I proceed to delete and then look up to find the little bugger all the way at the top. My heart skips a few beats before launching up the stairs in case of a near future fall. "I can't believe that he can tackle stairs!. He is only seven months old!!!"

Aside from this we spent the evening down at the new apartment. I spent it picking up and giving Grandma Mo the tour and Matt spent it putting together Dominic's new crib in his new room.

Dominic's new room looks beautiful. I don't have any photo's of it yet, but it is celery "Jeffy" green with white trim. Uncle Chris was wonderful to us and put in a wood laminate floor that made the room complete. Final touch was to put up the crib that Grandma Mo and Pupo bought for Dominic and he now has his long awaited room.


In other news.....Five days ago Dominic started saying da-da. He said it in the kitchen (Mittiga's) while Matt and I were both there. It was so exciting that both Matt and I were jumping up and down.

Lately most days Dominic has been learning how to paint and take wall paper off in prep. for painting. He is learning the art of decorating. Well, decorating and crawling around an empty apartment exploring.

I'll post pictures later. :-)

Tumble Bumble

Actually, Tumble Bumble is the title of a book that I read to Dominic. It was fitting for this blog entry as that is exactly what he is doing now. Now that he is mobile (which he absolutely loves) he is into everything. It is amazing how much he can do when I am watching him. Today he grabed a standing light to keep himself from falling and pulled the lamp over onto himself. Then later the same day he was crawling around on the floor, pulled a cord and off came the St. Anthony statue. Sorry Pupo and Grandma Mo. (St. Anthony had to be glued.)

Besides being a curious little bee our work has been focused on our nighttime routine. I say this because we are still currently up 3+ times in the night (6+ from when Dominic goes to sleep). We have gotten it so that he can put himself back to sleep 1 hour after he goes to bed. (He cries, but falls back on his own.) The next is around 9pm and I will feed him this time. Then he ususally wakes up around 12 and I feed him again. The 3am feed I am now just rocking him till he is comforted and then put him back to bed. Sometimes he goes right to sleep and sometimes he cries for a short period first. Then he will sleep till 5am, when I feed him his last feeding before his 9am breakfast (solid food).

I am hoping that after a week or so of no feedings at the 3am feeding time, that eventually he will sleep right through that time. I'll keep posting as the the outcome of this. I have also ordered a book on sleep for children. I have read 2 other books and taken parts, but didn't like parts. Hopefully I can do the same with this new book and come up with something that will work well for Dominic. I would really like him to be able to go to sleep and put himself back to sleep on his own. Maybe part of this will be helped in a few weeks when he has a new room of his own and is not 10 feet from our own bed. (He stands up and puts his little hands and nose on the crib rail and cries for us. ) We will see how this turns out.

The bread box pictures

This photo was taken after our walk. The little bugger had his toe in his mouth and was sucking on it. Wouldn't you know as soon as I got my camera for the shot he stopped sucking on his big toe! So, I was left with a cute headshot. ;-)

8/9/06- Very busy day. We ran errands during the a.m./afternoon and then went with Grandma Cindy to Syracuse to get the crib that Pupo and Grandma Mo bought for Dominic. Thank you so much Pupo and Grandma Mo!!! It is a beautiful crib, but was to big to fit in any vehicle that we all own. So, Grandma Cindy took us to Syracuse with her trailer to get the crib. However, on the way there we had car trouble and on the way home found there to be no break lights on either the car or the trailer. It was a very long "quick" trip to Syracuse!

Night=Not so good, Day=Very Good

Dominic is a wonderful/fantastic baby, but he does not and will not sleep more then 2-3 hours at a time. Which would be why I am writing this post at 3:15am. :-)

Yesterday, I reflected on how much more Dominic is physically capable of then he was just one month prior. One month ago I was on Long Island with him and had to put pillows behind him in case he fell over on the hardwood floors. Yesterday, he crawled across the kitchen floor and opened the bread drawer. (I have the pic, I'll post in the normal morning hours.) In the living room, he is now brave enough to let go with one hand to move from furniture piece to furniture piece to tour the room on his own. He still loves his toy time, but now finds much interest in all sorts of objects from sneakers, to the newspaper. (Two days ago I feaked out over a bruise on his head. A little baby wipe and realized it was just a little ink from the morning paper. :-) ) One thing he really loves to do now is look out the window. It is the perfect height for him to see out of and he loves to watch what is going on.

I guess to sum it all up, watch out because Dominic is on the move!!!! It is truly amazing to watch the progression of growth, from movements, to language and all in between. I can't believe how mobile he has become in four short weeks.

My little man can crawl!!!!

It is official as of yesterday, Dominic can crawl. I really didn't think this day would come at all as he loves to walk holding my fingers. Matt saw him do it first and then told me. I saw him do it a short while after. Today he is much better at it and I'm sure in a short period of time he will be all over. Little bugger............

I have been signing with him for about three weeks now. I only sign eat, done, more, milk, bath. It is a start, but hopefully by around 9 months he will start to show signs of signing back. I am hoping to alleviate some of the frustration that comes with not being able to talk, but being able to understand. (I saw much of that while I worked in daycare. It is also how I learned about signing to babies.)

Aside from the new news, Dominic and I have settled back into our routine again as everyone is back to work (Pupo is in China-take lots of photo's for us. :-) ) and daddy is back to school (rotations). We have a much more scheduled day. So, hopefully soon I will be back to blogging daily.

Weekly update

Dominic has increased his mobility so much this week it doesn't seem possible. He now is able to roll over, sit up, and then pull himself up onto just about anything that is chest height to him. This was exciting news during the day, but it was not so fun come nap time or night. When his sleeping times come around he now pulls himself up using the crib and then stands and cries. It is such a transition from just rolling over after talking to Jeffy for a little while and then going to sleep. For the last three nights he goes to bed, but doesn't go to sleep for another 1 1/2 hours. Hopefully the novelty of this will wear off soon and it will again become a normal part of routine.

Oh!!! The other new thing that he has been doing for the past two days is saying "Maaaa.Mummmmmm...Mum,Mum, Ma." The funny part is that the little stinker knows where to use it as well. He will generally start calling me when he is in his crib and has pulled himself up.

It is a bad combination of him being able to call me at a time when he is adjusting to something new. I know he is learning quickly at this age and is also learning how to get what he wants. However, it is hard to let go when he is calling me.


Next word...da. da.da.da

That is it for now, more pic's to come!

Happy Birthday Grandma Becky!

Dominic and family wish Grandma Becky a very happy birthday. We will see you Friday.