1/16/10

So, Bowen is 4 1/2 months old now and I haven't written a thing about him. I haven't recorded his milestones in any organized fashion. I post them on my online forum, but they're all random and stuff. Anyway, this morning is awesome. He's on his play mat half naked this morning rolling from front to back and back again. He's squealing and grabbing at things and cooing and watching his sister. He started rolling from his back to his tummy sometime last week. He first rolled from front to back about a month or so ago, but it was a fluke. He can pretty much do it when he wants to now, but sometimes he seems to get stuck on his belly and forgets that he can roll back to his back. Yesterday I let him experiment with food for the first time. Erik and I were eating fried rice in front of him and he was very interested. I know he's not actually ready for solids, but I thought I'd let him get at the food and see what he did. He grabbed a handful of the rice and brought his hand to his mouth, but pretty much dropped all of the food on the way. He managed to get a grain of rice stuck on his face, but that was about it. None made it into his mouth, but he did make a lovely mess on the floor. A little later, I got a cup of water and had it sitting in front of me while I was holding Bowen. I was about 1/2 a second too late as he reached out and grabbed it and dumped it all over his father's lap. We were at a kid's birthday party and Erik had to spend the next 1/2 hour with a wet lap. I guess we'll have to be more careful with our newly grabby little boy.

Oh, I know why I haven't kept a baby journal; it's a pain to type with one hand! I'm still exclusively breastfeeding on demand around the clock and he eats every two hours ( or less). He doesn't really take a bottle, but I can't pump worth a damn anyway. I can pump for 20+ minutes and get maybe 3 oz. Apparently Bowen is more efficient at getting the milk out than the pump, otherwise he would have starved by now. I also don't think my breasts have a lot of storage space, which may be why Bowen eats so frequently. Who knows? He's healthy and growing. My house is still a mess most of the time, but I wasn't the greatest housekeeper before I had a baby. He's finally sleeping off of me, but sometimes it takes me forever to get him to fall asleep and stay asleep. Sometimes he'll only sleep for 1/2 hr. and sometimes he'll sleep for 2 1/2 to 3 hrs. It's still very random, but I try to give him at least two naps per day.