The Halom Family: One Year Later

So, it's a little more than a year since our wedding, nearly four months since my last post. A year ago, Lawrence and I were newly married and I was just over seven months pregnant. We were looking for a house to rent and living in a small two bedroom apartment. Lawrence had recently left his job and I was about to start my third quarter of nursing prerequisites. Now we've welcomed Henry into the world and helped him grow to nearly ten months old. With my mother in law, we searched for, purchased (well she purchased), and moved into our own home. Lawrence is about to start his fourth quarter in his sustainable building science degree and I have finished all my nursing prerequisites and I'm applying to nursing schools while working as a CNA in an Adult Day Health program. Each of these new developments (I feel) needs its own post but for now, I'll leave you with our most recent family photo, taken last month.

Henry: 6 Months

Henry turned 6 months old yesterday.

I took him in for his 6 month check up and, as usual, he is perfectly healthy. He's in the 50th percentile for his weight and head circumference and the 75th for height. I swear he grows any time he sleeps. He also got one vaccine yesterday, which he took like a champ. By the time we were in the lobby, not more than five minutes after the shot, he was calm and smiling at the receptionist. Its too bad that we have to go back in a week to get the rest of his vaccines but I'm sure Henry will do just fine then too.

Over the last month Henry has hit a lot of milestones. He's rolling from back to front and front to back. He's gotten on all fours, albeit only for a second. Henry now spends most of his play time sitting up while playing with his toys. At night, he sleeps for at least 10 hours. When he's awake, he's almost always "talking", making all sorts of noises. The biggest thing, though, is the fact the he's moved on to solid foods.

About a week ago, he had his first taste of oatmeal (which was recommended over rice cereal by his doctor). Since then he's had about a tablespoon of oatmeal every day and has gotten the hang of eating from the spoon. Yesterday, for his half birthday, we introduced him to pears. He loves them (who wouldn't, pears are awesome). He ate all I had thawed and was acting like he wanted more. Perhaps tomorrow I'll thaw two cubes instead of one.

Sleep Training

When Henry was small, less than a month old, there was a period of time that he'd only sleep if he was on someone. I remember having my sister come over early one morning to take Henry so I could sleep since, at the time, I wasn't comfortable sleeping while holding a baby. He eventually learned to sleep when put down but always slept more soundly when in someone's arms. So, to get more sleep, I started sleeping with Henry, which worked for awhile until he started squirming in his sleep. He wouldn't be awake but he'd wake me up. Finally, I said it was time for him to sleep in his own bed.
When he was born, as you recall, he was sleeping in a travel bed next to our bed. At nearly four months he was getting close to out growing that bed so off to Ikea we went to buy him a convertible crib that'll last him through the toddlers years (or until his younger sibling needs it). We had a plan; We'd start putting him down in the crib for naps on regular schedule (2 hours after the last time he woke) and once spring break started for me, we'd start putting him in the crib at night. Then he started squirming in his sleep and I decided that if I was going to lose sleep because of the baby, I might as well be helping him learn to sleep on his own. So, the weekend before finals, Henry slept in his own bed.
The first night, Henry was up every couple of hours, needing the simple comfort of someone's hand on his back. Because of this, I took one side of the crib off and pulled it next to our bed so that when Henry needed comfort, I didn't need to get out of bed to do it.
It's been nearly three weeks and Henry's crib has moved to the foot of our bed and he is sleeping through the night with minimal fuss. Every couple nights he'll wake up at 4 or 5 needing a snack but then he'll go back down and sleep till 8, or at least stay quite the whole time (he may be waking up and not letting us know). I hear tell of babies who sleep through the night reverting to up every few hours during growth spurts and the like but for now, I'll enjoy my 8 hours while the baby sleeps.

Henry memory of the day

When Henry wakes up in the morning, he isn't insistent for food. He takes his time to wake up. I'm able to get dressed, pick out his clothes, make a bottle, often bathe him and get dressed all before he gets vocal about food. He will, though, spend the time it takes me to get ready kind of singing to himself. He'll also do this "singing" in the car and when he's tired. Every time he does it, it just warms my heart.

Henry Memory of the Day

Henry's auntie Jess had him today. When she brought him back, she tickled him under the chin. Henry thought it was hilarious. His laugh was so adorable. It kept me smiling for quite some time.

The big boy while hanging out with auntie

The Halom's First Adventure in Portland

My dad has family in Portland, OR, some of whom had yet to meet our baby boy. So with the long weekend, we decided to pack up Henry and make the three hour drive to Portland. We made arrangements to have dinner with my grandparents and great grandmother, stay with my aunt and two cousins and visit another aunt and cousin. We also wanted to play tourists in Portland so Lawrence let me choose a couple "Portland" things to do. I also wanted to take advantage of Oregon's lack of sales tax and go to Ikea to get Henry a crib and high chair but as I packed the car Thursday, I realized our car is a lot smaller than our last one and we couldn't fit even packed flat Ikea furniture in it.
Friday morning Henry had a doctor's appointment and, had we been going to Ikea, we would have left right after. Instead, we headed home to do some last minute packing and get Henry as ready as possible (clean diaper and full stomach) before we left. A little after 2pm, we got our slightly sleepy boy strapped in his car seat and we took off. Because of later start, we hit traffic in Olympia, Vancouver and through Portland to Tigard (where my grandparents live). This would have been fine except Henry decided he was hungry as we were crawling through downtown Portland. After a tense couple of minutes (with the baby screaming), Lawrence was able to make a bottle and reach into the backseat to feed the baby as I drove. Half hour later than we intended, we arrived at my grandparents' house for dinner.
Henry met his great-great-grandmother. Though he isn't her first great-great-grandchild, he is her first great-great-grandson. Dinner was pleasant. After getting fed, Henry was awake and alert during dinner. He sat in my lap as we ate. When dinner and dessert had finished, grandpa took great grandma home and we bid grandma a goodnight and headed to Beaverton, to my aunt's house. We spent the rest of the evening catching up with my aunt Michelle and cousin, Olivia, as they played with Henry. We lucked out and got a bed for the night. Michelle, Olivia and Allegra (my other cousin) are hosting a Peruvian exchange student who was out for the night, so we got her bed.

Us at the pizza place (sorry there aren't more)

The next morning, Henry woke us up at 8am (after waking at 3:30 and 6:30). I shared a breakfast of awesome pancakes with Michelle and Olivia. A little while later, Allegra and the exchange student (who's name I can't remember) came home and played with Henry for a bit. As we packed up to go play tourists, Olivia and Allegra's father, Joe, came by to meet Henry. We fed Henry one last time and headed to Voodoo Doughnut Too. As we waited in line for doughnuts, Henry fell asleep. We left with a dozen doughnuts with names like Miami Vice berry, Old Dirty Bastard and mango tango. Our boy slept as we traveled to our next Portland landmark, OMSI. At OMSI, we found that there was a line to get into the line to get in and then a line to get into the exhibit I wanted to see. We quickly decided we'd rather do shopping than wait in those lines. So off to Target we went. Shopping done, we headed to Hillsdale for our last familial obligation. We went to my aunt Renee's house so she could meet Henry and we could visit with her and my cousin, Sarah. We chatted as Henry got his fill of formula (he had been asleep up until then). We then went down to this little pizza shop where Lawrence and I had lunch while Renee and Sarah played with Henry.
With all familial obligations taken care and all planned touristy things done, we fed Henry once more and started back on the road. Henry, having slept all day, stayed awake for the first half of our trip. We stopped at a rest stop and fed him but about ten minutes later, he started to fuss so I pulled over and had Lawrence drive while I sat in back with our little man. Apparently all he needed was some company. Before long, Henry fell asleep, holding my fingers, as we rolled home.

Happy New Year

So here we are, a new year, nearly two months as parents.

It's been interesting. At his three day check up, Henry had lost 11% of his birth weight (up to 10% is normal) so they had us supplement the breast milk he was getting with formula. After continued frustration with breast feeding, I went and saw a lactation specialist. There we discovered that I was not making nearly enough milk, the cause of which we still don't know. For awhile I pumped to get what little milk I could and to stimulate milk production but it was so much work for such little gain, that I've given up. When we started giving Henry formula, he became a different baby. Before, he was sleeping for an hour at a time (at most), waking up fussy, eating and going straight back to sleep. Now that he's getting enough to eat, he's awake and alert for hours at a time.

On our way home from our first lactation appointment, Henry and I got rear ended. Actually, the guy behind us got rear ended causing him to rear end us. Because of prior damage (prior to us owning it) our little Focus got totaled. We spent most of December carless while we waited for the insurance companies to pay for our car, relying on our moms for rides. Christmas eve, we received our insurance checks and drove up to Seattle where we had found a Mitsubishi Gallant that fit all our needs.

Christmas was a whirlwind of family gatherings. Christmas eve we had dinner with my older sister's extended family. Christmas morning, my parents, sisters, sister-in-law and niece and nephew came over for breakfast and presents. Lawrence and Maria had Christmas dinner at home while Henry and I went up to Millcreek to have dinner with my mom's family. The next day we had intended to go down to Portland to celebrate my cousin Olivia's birthday and visit my dad's family but Christmas night, Henry developed cold symptoms so we decided to stay home. Sometime in early February we'll make a trip down there so Henry can meet his great grandparents and his great-great grandmother.

In the past two weeks, Lawrence and I have both gone back to school. We chose our schedules so that Lawrence is going to school during the day and I'm taking night classes so that we don't need external childcare, though my parents take him twice a week and Maria tends to care for him in the evenings. Lawrence seems to be enjoying his residential construction courses. He comes home everyday with new tidbits that's he's learned. I feel confident about my classes this quarter; anatomy & physiology and organic chemistry. As long as I continue to making studying a priority, I know I can pass these classes.

Henry continues to grow and surprise us. He now weighs over 9lbs12oz and is smiling at us and batting at toys. He's just an awesome little guy. I've been uploading pictures to a Shutterfly share site, Henry's Happy Adventure, about once a week. Check it out and remember that if you have pictures of Mr. Henry, you can upload them to the site as well.