Eat-Sleep-Love | Maryland DC & Virginia Sleep Coach, Baby Planner, Maternity & Child Consultant

Maternity & Parenting Center

Komen Race for the Cure

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We woke up early Saturday morning to join our friends to celebrate the life of Melissa, who died far too young from breast cancer. We beat our team fundraising goal for the year, and the weather was perfect. Micah enjoyed the walk and took a nice long nap in the middle. We were just impressed he was so pleasant after waking up 2 hours earlier than he normally does and being forced to wait 30 minutes to eat (we gave him a bottle on the trip down). Thanks to all who contributed to Melissa’s Rainbows and the Komen Foundation! Your support means the world to us, and especially to Barry, Janet and Eric as they honor Melissa.

Swimming, swimming, in the swimming pool!

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On Saturday, we took Micah swimming for the first time! He LOVED it. We just took him into the baby pool. It was a bit cold, and Micah really does not like cold water. I initially held him on my lap for a few minutes to get used to the water, and then I transferred him into his own personal flotation station. He cried when he first got wet, but about 10 seconds later, he was happy and relaxing. We had him in a cute little bathing suit with a matching shirt. Unfortunately, we forgot his sunglasses, pool shoes and hat . . . better organization next time! Here are a few photos for you to enjoy:




Naturally, we took video, too:

On Sunday, we hung out at the park with his cousins Paige and Peyton. They had a great time – Micah even got to share a swing with Peyton!





Repetition is a good thing

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I learned one important thing today . . . singing the same song over and over to your child has its benefits. Since the day Micah was born, there have been 2 songs that I sing to him when I soothe him – You are my Sunshine and The Rose. We sing other songs for fun, but those have been our soothing songs. I will sing them over and over when I am putting him down or comforting him when he cries. What I learned today is that he recognizes the songs. I barely had to begin singing You are my Sunshine on the plane today and he started to calm down. The flip side is he started screaming again every time I stopped, but I digress.

This morning, Micah woke up around 7, happy and chatting once again. I fed him and then got myself packed and ready for my meetings. Elliot joined us for one meeting (I brought him in as a consultant on an Emergency Preparedness project for this client), so Micah came to our meeting for a bit. He was a really good boy – he hung out in his stroller and played, smiled, and laughed. He also wanted to talk a bit in the meeting since his Daddy and I were speaking. Everyone kept telling us what a wonderful baby he is. Here are some photos of us at the meeting together:


We headed to the airport around 3:30. We made it to the gate in plenty of time. Once again, it was a packed flight, so Micah had to sit on my lap. We got on the plane, and he was a bit fussy. I nursed him, and he fell asleep just before takeoff. He slept for the first part of the flight, but we hit some turbulence, we changed altitude and Micah woke up crying. I think his ears were bothering him. I brought Micah close and began to sing to him, and he quickly calmed down. Within a few minutes, Micah was chatting and smiling again. I passed him to his Daddy, and they bounced, and played flying baby, and took a walk around the plane.

Towards the end of the flight, Micah got fussy again. I’m not sure if it was his ears, or if his reflux was the problem, or perhaps those possible teeth cutting through, but he was miserable most of the last half hour. I sang him to sleep and he cuddled close to me – as long as I was rocking and singing, he was quiet. Right when we landed, he started getting hysterical – exactly 12 hours after he took his last dose of Zantac. As soon as we got off the plane, I gave him his medicine and changed his diaper. We went to the parking garage, and I nursed him while we waited for Elliot to get the car. Elliot decided to capture the moment . . . this is me nursing Micah while I sat in a wheelchair in the parking garage:

As soon as we got in the car and started driving, Micah got upset again. I was leaning backwards, holding his hand, and keeping his paci in his mouth. About 10 minutes into the trip home, he fell asleep. We managed to get him in the house and into the crib without waking him up. He is still sound asleep right now!

Here are a few fun pictures of Micah – he is sitting in a real high chair for dinner at his Aunt Jen and Uncle Jeremy’s house, and playing in his new exersaucer loaned to us by his Aunt Jen and Uncle Jeremy. Can you believe what a big boy Micah is becoming?


Micah likes it!

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That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, on Sunday we fed Micah rice cereal for the very first time! My little boy is growing up and eating solid foods. We started with organic brown rice cereal with DHA. The instructions we had told us to make it very thin, almost like soup, for the very first feeding. So, as instructed, we mixed 1 tbs of cereal with 4 tbs of breast milk. The biggest problem we had was that it kept dripping everywhere. We will gradually make it thicker over time as Micah becomes accustomed to eating. We think we managed to use about 1/2 of the mixture . . . probably 1/2 of that dripped on the table or on Micah, but hey, it was a good start! (UGH – I just imagined Elliot telling a bad joke in my head . . . he would have said “Not Good Start, it was Gerber.”)

Naturally, we decided to videotape and photograph this momentous event! Here are the photographs:

If you prefer the live-action version, press the triangle in the lower left corner of the videos. I hope you enjoy these shots as much as we do!

Raspberries to you! (It’s Just Another Video Sunday)

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It appears that Micah’s favorite thing to do these days is to blow raspberries. All day long. He blows them until he drools. And he blows drool bubbles. And the drool drips down his shirt (or on the floor, or the playmat). All the while, he is shrieking, kicking and laughing with delight!

I know it doesn’t sound like much to you, but raspberries are a milestone. They indicate certain skills in dexterity, and an ability to discover an action and repeat it. Like most babies, I think Micah enjoys both the sound it makes and the feel on his lips. The sensations are exciting right now, and he loves to make raspberries. I love to watch how something so simple brings sheer joy to my little man.

We’ve hit a few other important milestones in the past few weeks. Micah has found his thumb . . . again, it doesn’t seem like much, but while he has previously sucked his hands and fingers, he actually likes his thumb right now, and really appreciates the difference. He puts it in his mouth and curls his fingers around his nose.


And a little video for good measure – press the triangle on the lower left corner to see Micah in action:

Unlike sucking on his hand, he finds his thumb quite comforting. It is not a habit I want to encourage (thumbsucking is a much harder habit to break than a paci, in my opinion – the pacifier fairy can come take the pacifier away, but I’ve never figured out how you get rid of a thumb!) but it is so darn cute right now. Micah has also discovered how to put his own paci in his mouth . . . sometimes. The problem is, he is also the one taking it out and upsetting himself most of the time, and he is much better at taking it out than putting it back again.

I’ve mentioned this before, but Micah can really play with toys now. He hits buttons, and spins rollers, and turns dials, and he smiles in the mirror and responds to the lights and music. He LOVES his new toys (thanks to Grandma Roberta for this wonderful activity center!), and he is learning to reach further and sit taller everyday. (Don’t forget to press the triangle on the lower left corner to watch Micah play).

He is getting close to holding a sit by himself – He can do it for 2 or 3 seconds right now if I position him “just” right . . . but then he flops over. I’ll bet he’ll be sitting in the next few weeks. As for rolling over – he can easily roll from tummy to back (but sometimes gets stubborn and won’t do it). I am also convinced he is able to roll from back to belly, but he hates being on his belly, so he always stops short. At night, he rolls most of the way over to his belly – he likes to sleep with both arms and his chest flat on the bed, but his hips tilted sideways.

And the most important milestone of all . . . Micah can use a real swing! Dave, Jen and Max came over today, and off to the neighborhood park we went. I had seen a picture on Facebook of a friend from Micah’s playgroup in the swing, and I began to wonder if Micah was big enough to use the swing, too. We plopped him in there . . . and he was smiling, laughing, and enjoying it! He had no problem holding himself upright. It was pretty amazing.




Oh . . . and we sent Micah down the slide for good measure.


With this kind of progress, we might need to send him to college next month! Okay, maybe not, but can you tell I’m a proud mommy?

Here is some “bonus” video from the past few weeks (to play, click on the triangle on the bottom left of each frame):

Micah spending time with Poppy Ira

Micah being entertained by his Cousin Brian

This post is for you, Mom!

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My mom called to remind me that she needs her daily blog fix. In an effort to be a good daughter, I rapidly finished up this post I’ve been working on all week. So, here it is . . . I hope you find it worth the wait!

Another crazy week . . . Micah has been struggling with a stuffy nose all week, and I’ve been running around like a mad woman and trying to get some work done. As you already know, we started off the week with our 4 month checkup (see my last post).

On Wednesday, we went to our playgroup. Micah thoroughly enjoyed himself – he talked up a storm, smiled at everyone, played with his friend Emily’s Hop ‘N Pop (a travel activity center), and just had a wonderful time. The pictures don’t lie!


I can’t believe how big he is getting – and so grown up! He is playing like a “big” boy now. He was spinning the dials, and pushing all the buttons, and having so much fun. We got home in the afternoon, and I got some work done while Micah napped. I had a BBYO Adult Board meeting that night, so Elliot was on Daddy duty for bedtime.

On Thursday, I got up early to head to a conference in Baltimore. The plan was to have Micah join me. Needless to say, nothing went as planned. Micah woke up super early (around 5 am) and was HUNGRY. I actually thought that would give us great timing – usually, when he wakes up early, he goes back to sleep for 3 (sometimes 4) hours, which would allow us to get out the door around 9:30 or so. Apparently, Micah had other plans. He would NOT wake up until 10:45. He was sound asleep, and he would not be woken up. I had a work emergency, so I was dealing with that. When Micah finally got up, he was grumpy. I fed him, and finally got him dressed and ready to go . . . and he decided to have a poop explosion (a SUB as we call them). I changed him again, and we headed out the door.

I made it all the way to downtown Baltimore . . . just in time for the lunch rush. We couldn’t find any open garages, and right at that moment, Micah got fussy – he was ready to eat again. Realizing that by the time I found a spot, and fed Micah, and got over to the conference it would be practically over, I threw in the towel on the conference. Instead, I headed a few minutes further north and decided to meet up with my SIL Jen and the girls. We met at Panera for lunch . . . and I promptly discovered I did not have my regular diaper bag with my hooter hider. I had the emergency diaper bag, so I tried to nurse Micah using a receiving blanket as a shield. Micah was more in the mood to play with the blanket and smile at me, but every time I tried to stop nursing him he shrieked. It was a fun experience. Lunch was . . . chaotic . . . to say the least. I was dealing with nursing challenges, and Jen had accidentally forgotten my niece Peyton’s shoes. We spent the whole meal trying to keep her from walking on the ground. With all the craziness, I think we ended up staying at Panera for only 10 or 15 minutes – we couldn’t wait to get out of there and try to regain control of the situation.

After lunch, we headed back to their house. Paige and Peyton were great with him. He laughed, he played with them, and we had a pleasant afternoon. His cousins even gave him a few toys to bring home – with lots of lights, buttons and music! He has been having so much fun playing with all of these toys.

My nieces were adorable (as always). Unfortunately, they tend to fight a lot. Paige, however, takes everything away from her younger sister, Peyton, and tries to push her around. On this particular occasion, Peyton wanted to eat some goldfish they were supposed to be “sharing.” Paige is very good at “sharing” – as long as she doesn’t have to share with Peyton. She will share with me, with Micah . . . with pretty much anyone else, but not Peyton. I didn’t exactly see the whole exchange, but Paige took the goldfish, and somehow Peyton ended up biting Paige’s finger . . . hard. She meant business . . . Peyton dug in and was ferocious and shaking her head with fury while she bit down. She intended to teach Paige a lesson, and was standing up for herself – the poor thing was tired of being pushed around! Tough situation for Jen – Peyton needs to learn not to bite, but she was also trying to stick up for herself because Paige was being a bully. I thought she handled the disciplining/comforting very well – I was impressed!

Then, Peyton decided she wanted to pee on the potty. We took off her pants and diaper, and she sat on the little potty. Paige then decided she wanted the potty and tried to shove Peyton off. We eventually convinced her to use the real toilet, but not before the two girls had a shoving match on the mini potty. Somewhere along the way, Peyton decided to pee on the floor. I think the fact that she is showing interest in the potty is pretty exciting as she is only 18 months old! We headed back upstairs, and it became apparent that the girls were tired. When they went down for their nap, we headed home.

I made it home just in time to meet with another contractor. We are considering putting an addition on the house (crazy, right, since we just renovated the inside). That went well, but Micah had a SUB while the contractor was here, and we had to bathe him and put him to bed while trying to talk costs, look at options, and discuss business. It was a bit chaotic!

My frustration of the week has been that Micah has been waking up hungry early in the morning lately. This morning, he got up at 4:30 again (2nd time this week, and we had one night that he woke up at midnight to eat), so I brought him into bed and fed him. He fell back to sleep right after eating, and he woke up again at 8:30. We got up and dressed, and we decided to try out an exercise class called Stroller Strides. We met our friend Erica there with HER son Micah, and we had a good time. It was a good class – I’m pretty sore! After exercise class, Micah went back to daycare for a few hours – his second “trial” run. I think this visit went better – they did not over-feed him, and he did take a bit of a nap. Unfortunately, we did have another meltdown at bedtime, so perhaps they are connected. I wish I knew what to do! In the meantime, I gave him a bottle of pumped breastmilk, and he guzzled it down before he passed out.

This weekend, we are thinking of trying rice cereal for the first time (since breastmilk alone doesn’t seem to be quite enough for Micah these days) . . . it should be interesting (and I promise, there WILL be video). My question is – will he end up with more cereal in his mouth or his hair? I’m a bit scared. I keep seeing him stick his hands in the cereal and putting them straight in that luscious hair of his. I then imagine the cereal getting all hard and sort of . . . shellacking to his hair. We may end up needing to give him a buzz cut before the weekend is over. My mom suggested a shower cap – we may need to experiment!

Beltain Brunch

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Friends of ours host a black-tie brunch every year that they call the Beltain Brunch. This past Sunday was the day! Elliot and I got ourselves all decked out (okay, we didn’t *quite* do the full black-tie) and we had an adorable outfit for Micah, courtesy of hand-me-downs from our friends Jen and Dave. We thought we’d share these photos, too!











4 month Photos

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On Friday, we returned to the picture people for Micah’s 4 month photos. The photographer asked if he could enter picture #1 in a contest and post it at the store: