some Graeme updates

How is it already October 8th? Good grief.

Time always seems to speed up once October hits and the holidays race us on to the end of another year.

Speaking of time, Graeme has moved to a four hour schedule. I think he was ready a couple of weeks ago, but it seemed like such a hassle to me that I put it off for awhile. Moving to the four hour schedule, I've gathered, is really an ambiguous thing. There's no "set time to do it," and like most things, it depends on the baby. I decided to make the move because:

1. Graeme was sleeping through the night consistently.
2. He did not seem hungry every three hours anymore. He would push his bottle away sometimes and not eat as much as he normally would.
3. One of his three naps (typically one of the morning ones) would be extremely short or he would take for-ev-er to fall asleep for it.

So, last Thursday, I knew I would have three consecutive days at home with him to get a new routine going. Like a lot of other things with Graeme, we just made a clean cut switch. I figured we would try the new schedule, and if he wasn't ready like I thought, no harm done and we would go back to our previous schedule. The four hour schedule means dropping a nap and dropping a meal.

I started last Thursday morning by stretching his morning wake time longer and laying him down for a nap about 30-45 minutes later than he was used to. It took him a few days to get the hang of his new morning nap time, but the past couple of days he has slept for over an hour. He has had no trouble waiting four hours to eat, and it hasn't even seemed to phase him that he is eating an hour later than before.

His new schedule goes something like this:

Between 6:00-6:30 - wake up (yes, it's early, but he also goes to bed early, which is nice)

6:45 - breakfast

8:45 - morning nap

Between 10:00-10:15 - wake up

10:45 - lunch

12:45 - afternoon nap

Between 2:30-2:45 - wake up

2:45 - dinner

6:00 - bath/pajamas/story time

Between 6:30-6:45 - bottle/bed

The four hours of wake time at the end of the day is the only other thing that is taking some getting used to. He was used to only making it three hours, so the extra hour just requires a lot of "changing the activity to keep him happy." He does pretty well and is getting better each night.

This schedule, of course, is subject to slight changes every day. I have divvied up the meal we dropped across his now four meals each day. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are accompanied by solid foods. At bedtime, he just drinks his bottle.

It's nice getting to this schedule and knowing any future changes will be just stretching meals further apart (so maybe one day he can eat dinner with us at a normal dinner time) and dropping the morning nap in several months.

In other Graeme news, he finally got to try fruit. Funny enough, he wasn't overly excited about it like I thought he would be. He likes it, of course, but he gets just as excited about his oatmeal and vegetables. We went with apples as his first fruit.



I mentioned that Graeme didn't feel very well the past couple of weeks. Most of it was teething, but he also had a runny nose, cough, and awful sounding congestion. He never had a fever, his nose ran clear, and he was eating and sleeping well. I wasn't ever too concerned about it. But, he just couldn't shake his cough, so on Monday we decided to take him to the pediatrician for peace of mind. Our pediatrician does sick walk-in appointments on most weekday mornings, and we barely waited five minutes.

It turned out that he just had a cold, and there was nothing we could do for him except what we already were doing (fluids, humidifier, saline in his nose). Peace of mind was nice and of course knowing Graeme isn't sick with something bacterial is worth it, but it is a little sad to pay a co-pay for not much of anything. Ah well.

His cough seemed better today, and the doctor was pretty certain it would clear up by the weekend. His bottom teeth are both through his gums, so hopefully he will get a break and feel better for awhile.



We had our friend Julie take some pictures of Graeme after he turned six months. We are fortunate to have several close friends that have side hobbies/businesses as photographers. I love all of the photos they've taken for us, and I can't believe how different Graeme looks in each photo session.

Five days, one month, four months, six months and one week