Peregrine at Nine Months

Time is flying by and I'm feeling guiltier than ever about not writing up a monthly progress report for my sweet baby. Peregrine's growth physically and developmentally is taking place at lightning speed. It's so exciting to watch, and even more exciting when I get to see how proud Peregrine is of himself. He clearly knows he's doing exciting things.

GROWTH
Peregrine will have his 9m well baby visit in a few days, but in the meantime I can say that I officially just put him in his first 18m long-sleeved shirt today. The sleeves on the 12m shirts were getting too short. [Peregrine is 18lbs 15oz and 28.25" long on March 12, 2018.]

TEETH
Peregrine has seven beautiful pearly whites residing in his mouth! He has such a gorgeous smile! I love those little toofers. He is currently missing his top second-from-the-right tooth, but it's soooo close to cutting.

Must chew on everything!

I did end up getting Copaiba essential oil and using it on his gums. I think it does help a great deal. I haven't given him ibuprofen for teething in quite awhile and I like that he doesn't mind the taste at all. The only catch is that I really have to be careful about how much I have on my finger when I rub it on his gums. Twice now I suspect I've had too much and have accidentally numbed his mouth too much. Both times he adamantly refused to nurse, one of which was in the middle of the night and I had to walk him around the house for over an hour before he was able to nurse to sleep again. That was a little rough. I wonder if it got on his tongue and numbed it? He was really weirded out both times.

I am hoping that once he cuts his eight tooth that he'll have a little break from teething, but who knows. There are obviously plenty more teeth on the way. Peregrine is still drooling up a storm, and most friends who see just how often I have to switch out his drool bibs are pretty impressed. But this is par for the course for all my boys--and it forces me to do laundry every single day because we need those clean bibs.

Six out of seven teeth! And one almost ready to cut! As well as his drool neck rash. Griffin had the same thing happen to him. So long as I lather it in something like lanolin or Aquaphor every night it usually stays at bay. (Didn't do it the night before this picture, hence the flare-up.)

SLEEP & BREASTFEEDING
Peregrine's day sleep has been fantastic. He has a great rhythm going with two naps a day: the first one usually starts around 9:30a or 10a and lasts until 12-1p. The second one starts around 2:30p-3:30p and lasts until 5-5:30p. I nurse him before and after each nap because it's the most convenient time to feed him. He's too distracted to nurse any other time or place, so naptime is when we do it.

Sitting up in bed for the first time ever - 02.01.2018

He breastfeeds first thing in the morning, then before and after both naps, then again at bedtime, and once or twice in the night... so about eight times in a 24h period.

Breastfeeding has recently gotten rather painful for me. Maybe it's his top teeth? Can you teach a 9-month-old how to latch properly again?? I can't decide whether or not I need to do anything about it, mostly because it would require a trip to a lactation consultant and I'm sure he wouldn't nurse in front of her. I'll likely just keep dealing with it.

Peregrine's sleep is really hit-or-miss. Teething plays a big role here, but so do colds and pooping. He wouldn't go to sleep for his afternoon nap two days in a row now and then woke up early from his morning nap today: the culprit? A nice solid baby turd waiting in his diaper. But I didn't realize it yesterday or the day before and let him fuss/cry thinking that he'd finally fall asleep. They're not very smelly so it's kind of hard to tell that they're there. Poor guy. I'll definitely be checking for poop more when he has issues sleeping.

And night sleep is especially hit-or-miss. Some nights he sleeps great! The past few nights he's been doing great! And I, of course, feel amazing when he sleeps well! His usual great-night pattern involves lights out around 8-ish, then a waking between 11p and 12a, and then a 5-6h stretch of sleep. Recently he even did 7 hours! ... A bad night's sleep could mean wakings every 2-3 hours. Uggh. Those are rough. And he has more teeth to cut, so no doubt there are some rough nights ahead.

All bundled up and ready for bed

Our bedtime routine is the one sleep routine that doesn't directly involve nursing to sleep. At bedtime, I usually change Peregrine into his pjs first, then nurse him, then read him some books, and lastly turn off the light and sing to him while we snuggle. Most nights he's still awake put relaxed when I lay him in bed and turn on his seahorse. He likes his musical seahorse and generally falls asleep while it's playing. One night I mixed things up and nursed him before putting his pjs on. That worked equally as well. I see a light at the end of the tunnel: Dan could definitely take over after I nurse him. ;)

REFLUX
I've been working dairy back into my diet. Peregrine seems to be spitting up more in frequency and sometimes quantity, but it's really hard to say whether or not it's related. I plan on asking his pediatrician about it at his 9-month visit.

FOOD
Peregrine is doing well with his solid food. He enjoys lots of different foods–typically from baby food jars and pouches as those two butternut squashes are still sitting on my counter untouched. I haven't given him finger foods yet, but I'm tempted to try them soon. I picked up a couple of packages of "melties," which is a melt-in-your-mouth type of baby food. I think that will be a safe first solid for him. He still gags if purées are too thick, but he's been consistently snotty all winter long and I have a feeling that he may have a harder time with the thicker purées when mucous is present as well.

He has his place at the table, and there's so much action to look at.

My friend Kendra encouraged me to try giving Peregrine water from a straw. Apparently straw cups are much better developmentally for little mouths than sippy cups. So I bought some straw cups (and the other boys are definitely a little jealous) and started out with Kendra's advice of picking up the water in in the straw with my finger over the top and then letting it drop into Peregrine's mouth. He loved the novelty of this new liquid and utensil. Maybe a week or so later I tried holding the cup with the straw to his mouth so that he could suck water out himself, but he wasn't catching on until just a few days ago. We were sitting at dinner and I decided to let him try again and this time he picked it right up! He was so proud of himself! And it was pretty obvious that he was doing it because he let the water dribble out of his mouth after taking a few sips. He clearly wanted to keep practicing this new skill even though he wasn't thirsty anymore.

Hanging out in the kitchen with Dada

DIAPERS
Well, I was wrong about what was causing the redness in his diaper area. It wasn't the diapers themselves or my facial serum. Peregrine got a wicked raised, red rash on the back outer sides of his buttocks about a month ago, so I took him to see the doctor. This pediatrician took one look at him and was able to say that he had eczema on his backside (and a little in the creases of his leg rolls) and a fungal/yeast rash in his diaper area. He prescribed ketoconasole for the fungal rash and a steroid for the eczema. It all cleared right up... until the redness appeared again.

And, apparently I was diapering all wrong. My sister and her family came to visit us here in Albuquerque (it was sooooo much fun!!!) and was able to advice me regarding how she changed her daughters' diapers. She wipes and applies a diaper rash cream at every change. And I know there are people who do this regularly, but I never have. Maybe my kids have super tough diaper-area skin, but it's never been an issue before. I decided to give this a try, and low-and-behold the redness is totally at bay and I suspect it won't be an issue anymore. This new strategy is certainly more challenging as Peregrine always wants to roll over and crawl away during diaper changes–which is not so fun when diaper rash cream is involved–but happy, non-irritated skin is worth it.

MOTORSKILLS
This is where it's really happening these days. Over the past three weeks or so Peregrine has gone from pulling himself up onto his knees, to pulling himself up onto his feet and standing. Whoa, this happened so fast! At first there were only one or two places in the house that he could pull himself up at–the first of which was his little toybox. Dan and I were talking in the family room one evening and all the sudden we noticed Peregrine standing. It was such an exciting moment and we had a blast cheering him on and taking pictures. Peregrine was so proud!

So very proud of himself!

Since then, Peregrine can stand up at his little music table, he can stand at the exersaucer, he can stand at the play kitchen (and then ends up whimpering and crying because his feet slide out on the tile and he doesn't exactly know how to purposely sit down from a stand–it's distressing for him), at kitchen chairs, at the drawers in his room, once in his crib, and even in the bathtub, which is a huge pain in the butt for his mama! Even holding my hands, he loves standing.

Practicing pull-ups at the fireplace

It started like this--with legs outstretched!

Peregrine's fine motorskills are taking off, too. He is now after every little speck on the kitchen floor. Griffin's granola bits, random debris, whatever. I guess it forces me to vacuum more, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

TALKING
Only recently has Peregrine been vocalizing more. He's finally moved on from "ahhs" to more "maaas" and even greeted me one morning with two "Mama's." Of course my heart completely melted, and of course he hasn't done it since. However, he was working on his "maaamaaa" sounds today and seems to be close to finding more sounds and works. Honestly, I think the "maaa" sounds are coming from me teaching him the "more" sign while we're eating. Like Eland (and Griffin?), he seems more interested in saying the word than making the sign.

Speaking of signs, Peregrine loves signing "all done." He was so proud of himself when he figured it out and will sign all done when he's done eating, when he's tired of whatever book I'm trying to read to him, when he wants to be done with his diaper changes, or sometimes when he's just tired. It's so cute because he flaps his hands and arms and looks like a little bird. Within the past day or so he's even vocalized with an "ahh daaa" to pair with the sign.

Teaching communication to Peregrine seems to excite and stimulate him. He enjoys watching me say "milkies" and make the milk sign before we nurse, and he seems very interested anytime I work in new signs when we're talking.

Second time on a swing! He loved it! He wasn't so sure the first time.

BOOKS
I'll admit I'm a little discouraged about Peregrine's interest in books. There are a select few books that he actually likes reading (Hooray for Fish by Lucy Cousins, Baby Yosemite by Katharine Brumage, Bright Baby's Colors, and maybe one or two others), but he's most interested in turning the pages as fast as he can, and grabbing the books so that he can chew on them. Maybe I should try giving him a teether while we read?? Eland and Griffin both sucked their fingers, so maybe that made them a better audience? We shall see. But we consistently read books before bedtime regardless, and I'm sure the more we do the more interested he will eventually become.

HEALTH
Peregrine has had plenty of runny noses by now, but more recently he's dealt with a nasty phlegmy cough that a steamy bathroom didn't solve, and an eight-day-long fever that was probably from a virus. I could keep his fever at bay with ibuprofen and Tylenol (depending on when he last ate), but it did occasionally spike up to 102 between doses of medicine. Without medicine he was clearly fatigued and grumpy, but he responded well to the fever-reducers and played happily when he was feeling good.

At day seven we collected some urine to see if he had a UTI. That was kind of hilarious. He wouldn't nurse at the doctor's office. He wouldn't pee either. I ended up leaving and going to a nearby friend's house. Eventually he peed, and the majority of the pee leaked into his diaper, but we did end up getting just enough for the nurse to dip the test stick into. He didn't have a UTI–but he did actually have an ear infection. His doctor said it had just started, so he gave me antibiotics for the ear infection but definitely suspected a virus as the cause of the fever. The fever stuck around for a day after we started the antibiotics, so that pretty much confirms the virus as the cause of the fever. But thankfully Peregrine is healthy again–and dealing with a little runny nose again. Yay for building up healthy immune systems!

One snotty, happy baby

VISITORS
My sister, her husband, and their three daughter came to visit this February. They got to meet Peregrine for the first time, and we all had a blast. The girls fawned over their sweet baby cousin, too. It was so cute.

The lineup! Peregrine (8.5m), Kayla (2), Griffin (3), Ella Joy (5), Eland (7), Anna Grace (8), Auggie (9)

Gram and Gramps came to visit, too!

Sweetness :)

NICKNAMES
Well, I didn't think I would, but I catch my self calling Peregrine Perry more and more often. I guess that's how Auggie became Auggie and not Augustin, right? I also call him Pere Bear, too. Peregrine's brothers call him both Peregrine and Perry, but Griffin is definitely leaning towards just Perry, even though is "Pewuhgwine" is super cute.

BROTHERS

Baby Eland (5 or 6m??)

Peregrine in the same onesie (8m)

ADVENTURE BABY
We spent a day at New Canyon hanging out and exploring. Peregrine did great and napped in the carrier on our hike.

Mr. Nine Months!

MONTHLY NOTES

MONTH 9
03.08 - Today was the third day in a row that I’ve given Peregrine plain organic whole-milk yogurt around lunch time. Up until now, he’s only had solids at dinner time, but this seems like a smooth transition into another regular meal. He likes the yogurt, and while I’ve been waiting for him to explode from the dairy, I think he’s been doing a good job of tolerating it. (Read: major Mama relief.) I only gave him a few spoonfuls on Tuesday and Wednesday, but i gave him more today and so far so good. I know there was no good reason to assume that Peregrine has a dairy allergy even though it gave him reflux when he was little, but I have still been worried about him inheriting Dan’s dairy allergy.

Speaking of reflux, it’s becoming less of an issue. Peregrine still spits up throughout the day, but the quantity is definitely decreasing and I think the thing waking him at night is teething, not reflux.

He still hasn’t gotten his eight tooth, and it’s been hanging out ready to cut for what seems like forever. I’m so ready for it to cut because I’d really enjoy a few good nights of sleep.

03.03 - First time riding in the seat of a shopping cart. I took him to Trader Joe’s and Peregrine was mesmerized, plus all the shoppers were loving how cute he was.

03.01 - Peregrine has been spending as much time as possible standing! I even caught after a nap standing up in his crib for the first time! He was so proud of himself—and still is every time he stands. It’s like his new baby super power.

He can now open the door to the play kitchen, stand up, and pull books out. Then his feet start slipping side-to-side on the tile floor and he slowly gets lower and lower until he starts crying because he doesn’t know how to sit down again. It’s really cute albeit distressing for him. :)

Peregrine continues to be a really happy and content little guy. He loves exploring his confines of our house and pads along happily on hands and knees to get where he wants to go. He loves chewing on our foam refrigerator magnets, pulling down dishtowels, figuring out which cabinet doors have broken childlocks, and he comes like a moth to a light the second I open the dishwasher. He’s also really into finding every little crumb possible under the kitchen table.

Peregrine still eats just once a day, but his appetite is growing and he can usually throw down nearly a whole jar of food or two frozen cubes of baby food. I’ve been trying to teach him how to drink out of a straw but he’s not really catching on. And I should probably work in a second eating time, but I’ll be honest when I say that I’m not dying to do it because of the extra time required.

Sleep is okay. When we have respites between teething, Peregrine usually gets at least one 5-6h stretch a night, otherwise he can still be up every 2.5-3.5h. Come on teeth, let’s do this!!!

02.26 - Peregrine cut his seventh tooth: his bottom left tooth.

02.24 - Peregrine cut his sixth tooth: his bottom right tooth.

02.23 - My sister and her family arrived for a visit—Peregrine gets to meet them for the first time!

02.20 - Peregrine said “Mama” to me as I came in to get him this morning!!!!!! It was the sweetest thing! He’s been experimenting with “mmmmmm” and “mmmaaaaa” sounds for awhile now, but this was a legitimate “Mama” said in context. Yay! I get to be Peregrine’s first word!

And he has a runny nose now as of yesterday. Ugggh. But such is life. He’s handling it well.

And Peregrine loves signing “all done.” He even does it in the middle of the night. It’s almost always accompanied by an emphatic “ahhhhhhhhh.” :)

02.16 - Okay, I think the fever is FINALLY gone. Phew. Peregrine is acting like himself, eating normally, and impressing us big time with some mad new baby skills!

Today, Dan and I caught Peregrine STANDING UP!!! He was holding onto his toy box and straightened his legs! What?!?!!!! Craziness! He was even trying to do it in the bathtub tonight, which made getting him out of the tub pretty tricky since I couldn’t really let go of Peregrine.

AND, it gets better! Peregrine is signing! He’s been experimenting with the milk sign occasionally in the past few weeks, but suddenly he’s started doing it deliberately while we are nursing. He is clearly connecting breastfeeding with the “milk” sign. (The Milk sign is a squeezing thumbs-up hand.)

AND, there’s more! As of yesterday, Peregrine signs “all done” and knows what it means! He’s told me all done to say that he doesn’t want to finish a book—which so far has only happened with Goodnight Moon. He hates Goodnight Moon, lol. But today he signed all done when he wanted to be done putting pajamas on for bed. It’s the cutest thing!

I occasionally sign “food” and “more” while Peregrine eats dinner, but I clearly need to be more deliberate. How VERY exciting!!!! Our sweet boy!!!!!


02.15 - 100* at 12:56p.

99.9 at 3:15p. Tylenol.

Fifth tooth cut today—top second from his left.

02.14 - 101* at 5:30a. Ibuprofen. It took awhile for his fever to come back, so I actually thought that perhaps it had broken. So sad.

100.1 at 2:50p. 5ml amoxicillin. Tylenol.

Ibuprofen at 7:30p.


02.13 - 99.7* at 2:49a. Ibuprofen.

100* at 9:10a. Very fussy and uncomfortable. Tylenol.

99.7* at 3:05p. Tylenol.

99.5* at 7:40p. Ibuprofen.


02.12 - 101.6* at 5:03a. Ibuprofen.

99.5* at 9:33a. Tylenol.

99.4* at 3:15p. Ibuprofen.

Tylenol at 7:27p.


02.11 - 99.8* at 5:15a. Ibuprofen.

99.6* at 10:34a. No meds.

100.4* at 1p.

Ibuprofen at 1:30p.

100.4* at 2p.

99.7* at 7:04p. Ibuprofen.


02.10 - 99.9 (probably higher) at 3:53a. Ibuprofen.

100.3* at 11:19a. Tylenol.

99.9* at 4:45p.

100.5* at 5:38p. Tylenol.

100.2* at 7:23p. Ibuprofen.


02.09 - 100.6 at 3:12a. Ibuprofen. Sleeping much better than last night—has Griffin’s size 5 diaper on.

99.5* at 10:25a. No meds.

102.3* at 12:46p. Tylenol.

100.1* at 4:45p. Miserable. Tylenol. Perked up after an hour.

100.x at 7:50p. Ibuprofen.

11:54p - no temperature.


MONTH 8

02.08 - Horrible night's sleep. Peregrine was up every 30m crying until I gave him ibuprofen at 12:30a. He slept till 3a, then we had a repeat and did more ibuprofen at 4:30a but he couldn’t sleep still until around 5:45a. It was ROUGH. I think his rash was bothering him because Aquaphor on it seemed to help a lot.

Peregrine woke hot to the touch with a 100.8* fever at 8:30a. Tylenol.

101.3* at 3:30p. Ibuprofen.

99.4* at 8p. Ibuprofen.

02.07 - 19.2lbs w clothes and diaper at ped sick visit. Eczema/fungal (yeast) rash in diaper area and on the outer sides of his lower back and upper buttocks.

02.06 - Pneumococcal vaccine. Peregrine did great!

02.01 - Peregrine’s cough has become super nasty. It either sounds painfully raspy and deep or he’s coughing up and choking on phlegm. My poor sweet baby.

Yesterday he was still happy in spite of his cold and handled it well. Today he woke up earlier than expected and his nose is now a leaky faucet. He went down at 9a for his nap because he started putting his head on my should and falling asleep in my arms.

Last night this boy was too cute! Since he’s so young I can give him meds for this cold, but the pediatrician’s office did recommend warm water or apple juice to help break up the phlegm. I gave him some warm apple juice at dinner time last night and I think it was his first taste of sugar. This kid was wired afterwards! He was antsy and squirmy. While I was rocking and singing to him at bedtime, he sang along, too! “Aahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh eeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...” It was so stinkin adorable! Even after I stopped, he kept singing for another few lines. Hehe. I expected him to be wide awake in bed, but as soon as I laid him down his eyes were shut tight and he was konked out—very surprising. Sadly he did end up waking up and crying after about 10m, thanks to this dang cough, but it was soooo cuuuuute.

01.29 - Peregrine has a cough. Perhaps he got it from being in the nursery at church on Saturday night? None of the other kids looked sick, but you never know. Either way, it’s time for him to start going to the nursery. He did great—he didn’t even notice me leave. Peregrine did however immediately break into tears as soon as he saw me when I came back to get him. The funny part was that I was in the nursery for at least a minute or two watching him play happily before he noticed me. (I’ve been with him in the nursery a few times now, so it’s not an entirely new experience for him.)

Anyway, back to the cough. He started coughing a little here and there yesterday, then coughed a little in the beginning of the night. I cannot sleep when my kids are coughing, let alone my baby. I just can’t. I may be in a dead sleep, and it wake me up with a start. And around 11p Peregrine coughed in what sounded like a croupy way, so I completely freaked out and was wide awake. I prayed for him and he coughed again a little around midnight but was thankfully fine for the rest of the night. I was definitely scared when I thought he might have croup, but he did fine.

He’s coughing through his nap, now, which stinks, but it really sounds mucousy/post-nasal drippy, so I think a steamy bathroom tonight will help a ton before bed.

Oh, and after I fed Peregrine around 10:30p, he woke about 20min later crying. I let him cry because SERIOUSLY BABY. And he went back to sleep, but I wish I had gone in and rocked him, because he had spit up enough to qualify as throwing up. It wasn’t messy and excessive, but it did smell when I came in to feed him around 3a. Poor guy. Sorry, Little One. I suspect he needed to expel some mucous and that’s how it came out.

01.28 - Griffin really wants to protect Peregrine and it’s so adorable! This morning while I was packing for a day outside at New Canyon, Peregrine was sliding the drawers in his room open and closed. Griffin was extremely concerned that Peregrine was going to pinch his fingers—I on the other hand was hoping he would! Getting one’s fingers pinched is the best way to teach little ones to keep from getting their fingers pinched.

Peregrine has pinched his fingers a few times and while I’m not quite sure he’s learned yet, Griffin’s desire to protect his little brother is absolutely endearing and warms the cockles of my heart. I’m so glad Griffin gets to be a big brother and love on Peregrine. They’re going to be best buddies and I think Griffin already knows that.

Btw, Peregrine continues to be a great outdoor baby. He enjoys facing out when we’re hiking and watching his brothers explore and scamper along in front of him. I turn him facing in when it’s time for a nap, and he typically cozies down easily.

01.26/27 - Fourth tooth! Not sure exactly when this one showed up. ;) I thought I might have felt it Friday night but I wasn’t sure because Peregrine wasn’t loving having my fingers in his mouth. His top right tooth. Thank goodness! I’m looking forward to some respite from teething for at least a week or two!

01.22 - Third tooth! Peregrine’s top front left. Chompers coming!

Peregrine at Four Months

GROWTH
We haven't had his official weigh-in yet, but Peregrine is bursting at the seams. He's fitting into 9m sleepers and 6m onesies. Even though his cheeks are absolutely squishy and delicious, and he has some baby-chub, he's not super chubby. He doesn't fill out some of his wider onesies. Either way, he's doing great and growing just the way he is supposed to.

SLEEP
Day Sleep: After experiencing the usual naptime bumps in the road, I started swaddling Peregrine before naps. He was livid the first time I did it. He cried for 40 minutes. But I held him, sang to him, and rocked him in my arms the entire time until he finally conked out. He slept for a good 1.5h. Whew. Since then he has adjusted to our new routine. I swaddle him, hold, rock, and sing to him until he falls asleep. He usually still cries for 3-5 minutes, but I'm holding him the whole time comforting him. For awhile I could count on a 40-minute nap from him, but for the past several weeks he's been going longer depending on the time of day. Lately I can count on a 1.5h nap in the morning, a 45-minute nap midday, and a 2.5h nap in the afternoon. While I try not to nurse him to sleep every time I put him down, it has become a pattern for the last nap of the day as the extra feed seems to fuel him for that long nap. It helps tremendously because then I can help the older boys with their homework, read a little to Griffin, and generally clean up and make dinner. I like this schedule and I suspect I can keep it up for at least another month or two until he's ready to drop the third nap.

Night Sleep: As expected, night sleep has changed, too. Peregrine was sleeping beautifully for two months, but when day sleep changed, so did night sleep. I suspect the change is associated with a motor skills milestone. He is now able to grasp and hold things, and I think his brain started practicing in his sleep, and thus waking him up. After two nights of waking every two to three hours, I gave night swaddling a try. Cha-ching! Once again he hates it, but at night I nurse him to sleep which makes it a little less painful, and he'll sleep gloriously with only one waking–if that. Putting him down does take some time because he typically wakes in his light sleep cycle about 45-minutes after falling asleep, but as long as I'm patient I can wait it out and put him down for good after he makes into another deep sleep cycle. Last night he woke at 3am, but the two previous nights he didn't wake at all and I ended up getting him up after getting dressed and ready for the day around 6:30a. Hopefully this continues..

One thing worth noting is that when Peregrine wakes he typically has one or both arms either up by his face or out of the swaddle. I'm hoping I won't need to swaddle him anymore in another month or two. I know that we went through this with Griffin, so I'm not stressing. :)

BREASTFEEDING
Peregrine continues to be a nursing champ. He eats every 2.5-4h during the day and once or less at night. All the other boys started cereal around 4.5m or 5m, but I don't really feel like I'm in a hurry with Peregrine. He doesn't seem especially interested the food that we're eating yet, although he does enjoy sitting on Dan or my lap at dinner and hanging out with us while we eat.

Pictures of Peregrine and me usually have to be selfies ;)

Climbing family! (Auggie was happily spending some solo time playing down in the ravine)

Climbing naptime

MOTOR SKILLS
Grasping is in the bag! Peregrine can reach for and hold toys. It's so nice because he's teething up a storm and loves to chew on toys.

Peregrine is also significantly better at tummy time and will even hang out solo on his tummy looking at toys or books placed in front of him. He seems genuinely interested in his surroundings no matter what they are.

Peregrine rolled from his back to his tummy twice! And he pivots around! One of the rolls was in the big boys' room while I was brushing my teeth in the morning. They were so excited to tell me the news that somehow he was on his tummy when I came back in. Peregrine has three devoted cheerleaders. So far the rolling is not a regular occurrence but that's definitely on the horizon.

TALKING
With a captive audience, Peregrine has so much to say. He coos and ahhs and yeahs. He giggles and laughs, and is such a sweet baby to spend time interacting with.

FUSSING
There's fussing, too. Yesterday Peregrine just couldn't seem to get happy. Maybe it was due to a growth spurt or teething? It's hard to say what was causing the fussiness, but it brought back memories of the older boys being fussy and miserable for months on end while they teethed. Uggh. Ah well. Thankfully he hasn't been fussy today.

A DAY IN THE LIFE
A typical day for Peregrine involves being dressed and nursed before taking his brothers to school. Lately Peregrine hasn't been falling asleep in the car which is great! This morning I was even able to go to the grocery school after drop-off and still get him home awake. He goes down for his nap about 1.5h after waking and sleeps about 1.5h. After that he's awake and we eat, play, read, do laundry, and generally hang out with Griffin. His next nap starts about 2 hours after he last woke. Lately he's sleeps for 45m, then we eat and play a little until it's time to jump in the car with Griffin and go pick up Auggie and Eland. Peregrine doesn't love the car and usually cries for at least part of our drive to and fro. Auggie and Griffin help keep him awake on the way home. He hangs out for a little while longer, and then I nurse him down for his afternoon nap. He'll sleep for 2-2.5h, nurse, hang out while we eat dinner, and then most evenings we go for a walk as a family. Bedtime starts around 8pm after I get a chance to shower. I change him in to his PJs in Dan and my room. Then I nurse him in bed while we watch a movie or TV show on Netflix. This usually includes that waking after 45m of sleep. Then it's bedtime for Peregrine in his own room and hopefully no night waking.

Pretty soon our summer dinner table will have four shirtless stud muffins in attendance

SPEAKING OF BEDROOMS..
We played musical bedrooms this month! I found that I was becoming paranoid every time I rolled over in bed that I was going to wake Peregrine. Yikes, not an awesome way to sleep. So I cleared out my closet and Peregrine joined the ranks of many kids of dear friends of ours who have slept in their parents' closet. It's just what you have to do sometimes! It wasn't a moment too soon because that first night of having Peregrine in the closet, Auggie came into our room around 11pm saying that he had just thrown up in the hallway. EEwww.. Yup. So the timing was good in that we could move around and help Auggie without waking Peregrine. He did wake up eventually–and cry–but it was okay.

However, the next night it rained and we have a skylight in our bathroom. Rain on the skylight is LOUD. Once again I was completely awake with paranoia that Peregrine was also going to wake. Thankfully maybe a whopping thirty raindrops fell, lol, so it didn't actually wake him, but it did help me realize that maybe the closet wasn't going to work after all. Plus Dan showering at night after climbing and both of us getting up in the morning to get dressed didn't work out so well with a baby in the closet.

The next night we moved Griffin into Auggie and Eland's room and Peregrine into Griffin's room. It was a lot earlier than I had expected–we waited 5.5m to move Griffin into his own room–but I will say that this was simply the right time. Part of me is a little melancholy over the move because this means we'll never have a baby sleeping in our room again, but that part of me is very small. The vast majority of me is ready, ready, ready because I sleep so much better with Peregrine in his own room. And while Griffin is now in a too-small Pack-n-play with a stool next to it so he can get in and out, he is so thrilled to share a room with his older brothers that he doesn't get out of bed. He loves it! And the silver lining of an already silver cloud is that now because Griffin is waking too early and going to bed too late with his brothers, he naps at the same time as Peregrine! Mommy SCORE! (I really hadn't anticipated that part, but it's been really good on so many levels.)

Grif in his "Big Boy Bed" aka too-small Pack-n-play

I have yet to move Griffin's clothes somewhere (but where?) and put Peregrine's clothes into his new room. Along with so many other things that need to get done..

HEY GOOD LOOKIN'
Peregrine's eyes continue to be heading in the brown direction as well as his hair. And his smile is made of rainbows and unicorns. This baby smile is so big it fills his whole face. I LOVE IT!!

SELF-SOOTHING
So far, Peregrine continues to not be a finger-sucker. This has its pluses and minuses, but what can I do? I guess we wait.

I guess he did fall asleep once sucking his fingers, but this was before I had to start swaddling him–maybe and indication of finger-sucking to come??

IMMUNIZATIONS & ILLNESS
As I mentioned before, Peregrine was super fussy yesterday. I am thankful that his 4-month visit with our pediatrician isn't scheduled until next week. I'm sure if he had had shots already I would have attributed this fussiness to the shots. He'll get his second DTaP shot next Tuesday, October 17.

Illness has not stayed away from our house this month. We had the slowest moving stomach bug that you can imagine. It was a long and painful two weeks. First Auggie went down on a Monday night, then Griffin got it Wednesday afternoon. Thankfully I was able to read the signs and had towels and blankets ready, but Grif puked 20m before we had to leave to pick up the big boys from school. Oh the excitement. Sunday morning I threw up. Dan felt a little nausea at some point in there. Eland threw up in bed the following Tuesday or Wednesday, and then Dan got a 24-hour flu with a fever on Sunday nearly two weeks after it all started. Thank the Lord Peregrine didn't get sick at all. Whew. That was rough.

BROTHERS
Peregrine's big brothers love him so very much. Auggie helps keep him awake in the car on the way home from school by talking to him and playing with him. Eland loves jumping in front of him and getting up in his face being silly–and gets lots of laughs. Griffin loves his baby brother, too, but I have heard him once or twice telling him to be quiet when he was crying. Hehe.

Auggie with Peregrine in the Fisher Price Sit Me Up chair. Auggie built it for him, but I ended up returning it after Peregrine didn't care much for it. I was kind of hoping it would be a miracle device so that I could put Peregrine down more easily while making dinner, etc. Ah well, that problem solved itself with these afternoon naps.

Brother cuddles!

I talk to Griffin about how he was once a baby and now he's old enough to play, ride a bike, and do lots of things. I tell him that soon Peregrine will be old enough to play cars and trucks with Griffin and be his best friend. It's so cute to watch Griffin process this idea and have an understanding that Peregrine is his best buddy in the making.

Peregrine and his future BFF Graham :)

MONTHLY NOTES
10.05 - After two nights of awful sleep I decided to swaddle Peregrine for a night to see if it would help. Last night he woke up once around 3a, and tonight I'm up once with him at 4a. Thank God for swaddling! He must be learning so much arm and hand control right now that he just can't stop even in his sleep. I remember having to swaddle Griffin at this age.

Peregrine is really getting the hang of things during the day. He seems to know our routine and is fairly easy about going with the flow. Yesterday I timed a quick trip to Hobby Lobby in the middle of two naps. And I faced him out in the baby carrier for the first time. He did start fussing eventually, but I think he enjoyed being able to see everything at the store.

7:11am - Peregrine rolled over! From his back to his belly! First time!!!! So exciting. :)

10.03 - All I can say is that either the 4-month growth spurt is upon us, or Peregrine is nearing a milestone and can't hold his hands still. Could be both. His sleep has been downright rotten and I'm exhausted. Last night he ate at 8:30p, 9:30p, 11p, 3a, and 5a. Tonight it's been 8:10p, 9p, 12a, and now 3a as I write. At least I've made 5h of sleep already--which was cumulative for last night. Ouch.

Peregrine honestly doesn't seeeeeem that tired, so I suspect this is the infamous four-month sleep regression that I've been dreading.

In other news, he's still a peach during the day, smiling all the time and loving any kind of eye contact. He likes to sit up and watch what's going on around him. He's also getting much stronger and can handle tummy time with his head lifted more. It's not awesome yet, but he's definitely getting the hang of it more and more.

Peregrine can grasp beautifully now and bring objects to his mouth. He really loves crinkling his soft book in the car seat, and he enjoys the challenge of one object at a time.

09.29 - Peregrine just rolled from his tummy to his back. Lol. We're in trouble with tummy time now! I accidentally helped him by holding a toy in a way that encouraged him. Oops!

09.25 -Well, it was a good thing we moved Peregrine into the closet, because that night (morning) he woke around 5a to eat, and then I threw up and clearly got the stomach bug that's been going around our household. It was a good time to not have him directly next to me.

The stomach bug day was awful. I started drinking tiny sips of water 2.5h after I threw up, but the first sip made me super nauseous--as well as the second an hour after that. I was dehydrated and made very little milk, so Peregrine essentially nursed all day. I nursed him down for every nap because I was too weak to hold and sing to him while he fussed/cried to sleep. It was a seriously rough day. Eventually I could drink fluids and did so aggressively, but I still wasn't ready to eat much. I couldn't eat much until this morning, after which the weakness finally dissipated.

Last night he woke at 12:30a and again at 5:20a to eat. Not sooo bad considering he was probably pretty hungry due to my poor milk supply, but Griffin and Eland also woke during that time so it felt like a rough night. Oh, and it rained for 30 seconds or so, but enough for me to realize that the closet is not going to work. Rain on our skylight makes a tremendous racket and I was wide awake and paranoid that the baby was going to wake as soon as I heard the first drop.

Enter option 2: Griffin moves into Auggie and Eland's room and Peregrine moves into Griffin's room. Griffin is SO EXCITED about this arrangement. He is absolutely thrilled and he nearly lost it when I started talking about him sleeping in his new room but he thought I was talking about his old room. Hehe..

So tonight Peregrine sleeps in a real crib. I'm still nursing him down in bed in Dan and my room. It's too long of a process to bother doing it in Peregrine's new room.

Nap-wise, Peregrine has started taking about one 2-hour nap a day, and I'm able to transfer him from the car to the guest bedroom in his car seat without waking him less and less often--which is not necessarily a bad thing. He goes about 1.5h to 2.5h between naps.

09.23 - Peregrine has been marking some milestones. He napped for yet another great afternoon nap today: 2.5h. (20m of crying swaddled while I sang to him.) I had to wake him up! He also fell asleep this evening sucking his fingers, so apparently the finger sucking is starting to happen. He tried it a little earlier in the evening and seemed to enjoy it, and the lay on my bed after a bath sucking his fingers and then promptly fell asleep--it could have also been the bath.

Tonight Peregrine is joining ranks with plenty of kids of friends of ours by sleeping in my closet. Lol. The co-sleeper fits, I put in a fan for some air circulation, and we'll find out what happens. Last night Auggie came in asking to see the weather radar after being woken by rain. He wanted to know if he needed to expect thunder. Alas, it woke up Peregrine and it took an hour of two nursing sessions to get him back to sleep. And then this morning Griffin woke him before 7a by crying briefly in his room. That said, I'm hoping my closet is quieter and a good place for him for the time being. It's a temporary solution, but it will have to work because I don't think Grif is ready to share a room with Auggie and Eland, and rather than worrying about Peregrine waking him, I think Griffin would wake Peregrine. So the closet it is. It feels a little lonely sitting here in bed nursing Peregrine with the co-sleeper already gone. My sweet baby. I thought we'd have him in our room for at least another month or two. Ah well, he's just on the other side of the wall.

09.22 - Longest guest bdr swaddled nap to date: 2.5h. He still cries going down, but I was impressed and surprised.

07.19 - It's s working! Peregrine cried for well less than 10m at his first nap, and he didn't even cry--just fussed a little--for his second nap. I nursed him to sleep for his third so that doesn't really count, but he's sleeping for 40m at a time which is great. The swaddle is helping tremendously!

In other news, Peregrine's tummy time skills are improving. He's able to hold himself up much better now and seems to even enjoy it just a little.

Have I mentioned Peregrine's awful cry? He has a shriek-scream when he gets really angry. It's awful.

07.18 - Well, it only took 40m of attempted nursing and lots of singing and rocking, but I finally got Peregrine to fall asleep while swaddled. He was absolutely livid and wouldn't even nurse. He HATED being swaddled, so he essentially cried himself to sleep while I held him. It took a loooong time, and I'm hoping he stays asleep. I think if I keep up with it (a) he'll cry less and get used to the routine, and (b) eventually he won't need to be swaddled. Now to see how long he'll nap for. I'm SURE he'll wake up angry. :/ Gotta stay strong. Sweet boy--he was so beautiful once he fell asleep. Peregrine has such gorgeous round cheeks and baby features. It's such a joy to watch him grow into his face.

Update: Peregrine slept for 1h25m!! Woot woot! And he woke up smiling--I didn't ruin my baby! Okay, so he could have slept that long because the 40m of crying really tuckered him out, however, I'm taking this as a win because it means that we can at least get 40m naps using this strategy. Hopefully the amount of time it takes Peregrine to fall asleep will decrease. I have a whole week ahead without any plans, so the current plan is: Teach Peregrine How To Take Naps Properly During The Day. Boom!

Update 2: Peregrine napped swaddled twice since that first go. The second time I had to wake him at 40m to pick up the boys from school, and the third time he slept for about 30m. And it took 10m and then less than 10 respectively to get him down. Seems like this might work!!

Also, I took his "3 month" photos today, lol.

07.17 - Napping in the Pack n Play was a total bust yesterday. Each time I put Peregrine down (twice), he was up within 10m. Arrgh. A little frustrating when he was totally asleep and thus rested enough to stay awake for another hour and a half, but tired enough to be fussy. I think it's his arms flailing that's waking him, so I washed our velcro swaddle sacks today and plan to use them tomorrow. I don't have any plans this week (!) so I'm hoping to attack naps flat on his back for the win. We'll see..

In other news, Peregrine only nursed FIVE times today. Not a lot. But he ate more each time, so I suspect he can just go longer yet again while still maintaining his typical breastmilk consumption. He ate at intervals of roughly four hours.

09.16 - This little guy is up a whole hour or two earlier to eat tonight. Usually it's been 5:45a, then last night was 5a, and now I'm nursing him at 4a. I hope this trend doesn't continue! I honestly don't mind 4a because both Dan and I can continue to sleep a good amount afterwards and there's still a good chunk to start with, but any earlier would be pretty painful. I think I may have woken him up when I rolled over in bed. Hmmm.. But he also must have been ready. Hard to tell.

09.15 - Peregrine isn't totally able to grasp things on purpose, but he's really, really close. Today he held a crinkly fabric book in his hands in his car seat twice and crinkled it purposefully over and over again. He seemed interested in how manipulating the book caused the crinkly sound.

As I've mentioned before, his ability to focus farther than breast-to-mom is developing quickly. He enjoyed being held facing out after school today, watching other adults talk and kids play.

We had a nap fail today. I nursed Peregrine to sleep this morning (just how the timing worked out) and laid him down in the pack n play in the guest bedroom. He was awake within 15m. However, I was loading things into the trunk with a very loud Griffin, so perhaps all the activity in the hallway despite the sound machine was what woke him up. Peregrine eventually slept in the car seat for nearly two hours. It's just how it has to go, much to my chagrin.

Kendra gave me a new playmat for Peregrine and I think he's going to like it much better than the old one. It's a big square with an X of poles across the top that toys can be hung from. Our current playmat has a narrow space to play in with plastic pieces on the sides that don't allow the baby to roll around. This new one really gives Peregrine space to potentially roll and pivot around--and he did just that today. Not rolling all the way over, but he did roll to his side and pivot around while playing. It's pretty fun to observe. I think he really enjoys a chance of pace, too.

He cried tears in one eye again tonight. Now if I could just remember which one!

09.14 - Peregrine cried an actual tear for the first time tonight--or several I suppose. Just in one eye, though, and I can't remember which!

09.13 - It's been harder to put Peregrine down to sleep at night for the last several nights. Even if he looks like he's out cold, he wakes almost immediately and I have to pick him up and nurse him again. I don't entirely mind because I'm essentially topping him off for a better night's sleep, but it also means I'm potentially up a little later than I'd like to be.

09.12 - Peregrine's second vax appt is today at 9:15a: pneumococcal.

This kid is pivoting some more while playing on the floor. He hasn't been rolling onto his side much, but if I can I like to lay next to him to encourage him to roll to his side. He LOVES eye contact and smiles so much when he sees someone looking at him. Peregrine watched Dan walk around the room and can clearly see farther than before now.

09.11 - Peregrine napped for the first in the pack n play in our guest room. He predictably slept for about 40m. And I didn't put him down until he was out cold--but we'll gradually work backwards.