The Bacher Blog

Wow- We are behind on our “Monthly Updates”. Time sure flies. Caden is now 5 1/2 months old and is learning new things every day.

Caden has been enjoying his rides attached to Mom in the “Ergo”. It is so much more cozy than a stroller and he can look around at the world while upright. It’s a new perspective on life!

He is starting to roll a bit, but mainly only rolls from tummy to back, since he is not a fan of Tummy Time (TT). So we have to be creative to get him to do TT. (TT is important to give his neck and trunk muscles a work out and to prepare for crawling.) He sometimes enjoys being Superman- held above us with our hands and flying. The danger in this is we have to watch out for the cascading drool. Although we lucked out and don’t have a baby that spits-up much, his drool has been increasing over the past couple months. Fun. And as all babies do at this age- everything is going in the mouth- from his feet to his fingers, from his toys to our arms.

Sleep issues are getting a bit better. Caden now goes down for naps without much fuss. Unfortunately for the past couple of nights, he has been waking up more often. We are not sure what that is about, but we sure hope that ceases. Next week we will be flying to Minnesota to celebrate Christmas, and we are a bit worried about how the travel and different environment will affect his sleep. We will hope for the best! Happy Holidays to you all!

Okay- so our wonderful Caden has been a high needs (the PC term for fussy) baby in some ways for the first few months. I haven’t posted much about his fussiness, since that is not too exciting to read about. And who wants to admit that they may have fallen in to “accidental parenting”?!?! One of our big issues over the months has been Caden’s sleep patterns and habits. We always thought of him as a restless sleeper and a baby who “fights” falling to sleep. Sometimes I would need to swaddle him, rock him, nurse him, play white noise all in a dark room to get him to fall asleep. And then he would often wake up after putting him in his crib. At night we got into the habit of letting him co-sleep with us at times, to be sure he got some good sleep. He seemed to sleep much better right next to me nursing off and on through the night. During the day I would often have him nap on my lap, as he slept better there. We felt like the more sleep he got, the less cranky awake time he would have, so we were doing whatever we could to help him sleep. But those things were clearly turning into bad habits.

According to many sleep experts, 4 months is the age to start sleep training, so last night we began this process! There are SO many different theories on sleep training, so Dave did some book research and I did some Internet research. (Since I could surf the Net while Caden slept on my lap, but it was hard to turn pages quietly…) We combined a couple of the sleep training techniques that we felt comfortable with and came up with a game plan. Some experts are adamant against letting babies cry themselves to sleep- noting that crying release a stress chemical (Cortisol) into babies brains. Others say that babies will feel abandoned if left to “Cry It Out”. Because Caden often cries before going to sleep anyway (because he fights sleep), we thought some crying now will actually mean less cumulative crying if he can learn to soothe himself to sleep. But instead of just leaving him completely to “Cry It Out,” we go in to his room at various time intervals to soothe him, let him know we are here and not abandoning him.

So last night was the 1st night we were able to get some good sleep with Caden sleeping fairly well in his crib! YAY! There was a bit of crying, but it was not nearly as much as I had feared it could be. There may be a few more days of hurdles and crying, but he seems to be learning how to soothe himself to sleep fairly well. He has a little soft blanket with a stuffed animal head that we have introduced him to and slept with for the week before the training. He really seem to find comfort in his “ducky”. Wish us luck in the upcoming days!

We have been busy with our little 4 month old! This past month Caden has been growing like a weed! Although according to the pediatrician, he still measures in at 50th percentile for weight and height, his clothes tell us another story. He fits into some 6 month sized onesies, but often they fit perfectly in the length, but are loose around the edges. I guess he has a long torso for his age.

Caden’s head is actually between 50th and 75th percentile now (used to be 50th). We are hoping that means he is getting smart quickly and is not getting a “big head” (ego) yet! Probably because of his large head and his dislike for tummy time, Caden is behind developmentally in his head/ neck control. Since all babies develop at different rates, it is not a huge concern, but we are working on different methods to help his strengthen those muscles. It will be easier to carry him around and have him enjoy his “Exersaucer” and other activities once he has better head control. So, we are looking forward to that!

Here’s some advice that’s a little more practical than, “buy organic and the world will be better.”

5 Easy Ways to go organic

It’s hard (and expensive) to convert totally to buying all organic food. But according to the article, these five staples are a good place to start:

* milk
* potatoes
* peanut butter
* ketchup
* apples

I gotta admit though, I’m pretty well set in my super chunky Jif peanut butter habit. Maybe I can change.

(Via Worldchanging)

Well, it has been years and years since I had short hair, but it had to happen! As you may know- hair does not fall out as often from women’s heads when they are pregnant. So- my drains were not clogged and my hair felt nice and thick for the past year! A few months after giving birth, it is common to lose the hair that normally would have been lost during the pregnancy plus the current hair loss. SO- for the past few weeks, it felt like my hair was falling out quicker than ever! It was getting caught in Caden’s hands, it was all over the bathtub… I even had a bad dream about Caden swallowing my hair. So- I got the “Mom Chop”. Since my hair was very long, I decided to go ahead and chop off more than 10 inches, so I could donate my hair to an organization called Locks of Love. Although I was scared… I am now happy it is done… Here are the Before and After photos… Luckily Caden & Dave still recognize me!

Wow! I have been a slacker! I haven’t posted on the blog for an entire month. So, clearly now Caden is 3 months old and showing some signs of growing up. Well, sorta.

We have had a lot of sleeping issues lately- possibly a growth spurt. Caden often fights sleep at night and for naps. Often he is cranky and hard to settle down, even when it is clear he is tired. Back when Caden was about 7-8 weeks old he was sleeping very well (usually 5-6 hours) for his 1st stint of the night. But over the last month, he only sleeps for about 3-4 hours before waking to be fed again. Maybe his stomach is larger now…??? It is downhill from there, as he usually only sleeps for 1-2 hour stints after that. So, we have some books on baby sleep habits and will try to get this more under control. It has been tough feeling rested with night after night of broken sleep.

On a positive note- he has gotten much better at tolerating “Tummy Time”… so his neck muscles are getting a bit stronger. This is important for eventually learning to roll over, crawl, and eventually walk. Caden smiles a lot at a little toy bee, at funny noises and kisses, and sometimes even at the living room ceiling, for no apparent reason. He also likes to look at books as we read to him! We already have a bookworm! It has been so much fun learning what he enjoys and what makes him laugh.

It is hard to believe how time has flown by! Caden has matured a lot over this past month! He’s getting chubbier thighs and revealing more of his “personality”. We know how to make him smile and we are better at reading his cues… he often whimpers before he cries, he focuses intently when he need to poop, and at times his hiccups seem to mean he is bored of a certain activity or situation. It has been so much fun learning about our little guy and watching him grow every day!

His loving grandma comes over to play with him and teach him new things about 2 times a week. She has been SUCH a wonderful help- from buying groceries, to giving me a chance to rest or shower (I was getting pretty stinky when she was out of state for a few weeks)! Caden sure loves his grandma!

I am a part of two small Mommy’s groups, which are great fun! It is nice to be able to learn from each other, enjoy the adult company, and sometimes vent…. I have met up with one Mommy (and one Mommy-to-Be) at a park in Berkeley that has a paved path by a body of water. It is also (unfortunately) sandwiched right between the freeway and a train track. The positive about that, it the freeway sound is a nice white noise (like the ocean, I prefer to think). The babies really seem to like and often fall asleep to the”ocean” sound.

After our walk today, we went out to lunch at a nearby popular Indian Restaurant….. It was Caden’s 1st lunch out! He did fairly well- staring at the lights and his surroundings, until he got overstimulated and tired. I nursed him for a few minutes and he conked out in the noisy restaurant for the remainder of the lunch! It is nice to know we can survive meals out!!

I have been trying to get a good photo of Caden’s feet, since he has such interesting toes! They can look normal at first glance, but he at times stretches them out and it appears that he has prehensile toes! He’ll be climbing trees in no time!

Funny side note: I emailled these photos to my wonderful grandma, who in turn emailled some photos of her feet! (I won’t post those here though, without her permission). Toooo cute! I love my Grandma!

We drove down to Santa Barbara to spend the weekend with my dad and celebrate my birthday. This was our first long drive with Caden. Normally, it takes 5 or 5 1/2 hours to get there. But we had to stop a little more frequently on this trip.

We all survived, had a nice visit, and had a mellow celebration with my family. Caden’s schedule got thrown off though, so his sleeping patterns this week have been a little erratic.