Merry Christmas!

It was a lot of fun celebrating Christmas with Ethan this year! He continues to amaze us by being such a great baby. On Christmas Eve, we got together with Mel and Lorna and had a Christmas dinner. He was great there, and enjoyed the activity table/walker he got from his Grandpa and Grandma. Then we went to Bert and Regina's to have a Christmas fondue dinner with my host family. He got to meet Byard, Judy, Jeremy and Jonathan who came from PA, and also Adrienne who flew in from Seattle for the first time. Fondue always take quite a while to eat, but Ethan sat in a high chair and played with his toys, occasionally smiling at everyone.

Christmas morning we opened gifts with Ethan, had him take a nap, and went to Paul and Anita's for lunch for a Christmas dinner. Again he did amazing there and even let us stay until 10:30 to finish watching a movie (he fell asleep around 7:30 and stayed asleep until we woke him up). He was as happy as he could be most of the day.

It was great being able to see family from distance, and this coming Tuesday my mom is coming for 10 days! My mom hasn't seen him since early June, so it will be great to have her here (not to mention I'll have a built-in baby sitter!). I am sure she'll enjoy seeing him again.

Coldest day of Ethan's life!

Today was so bitter cold outside that I felt very fortunate to stay at home with Ethan all day. Usually I work on Thursdays but this week I had a meeting on Monday so I worked Monday to Wednesday instead. Yay for a 5 day weekend!

So lots happened in the past few weeks. We went to New York for Thanksgiving, Ethan turned 6 months old, I had a scrapbooking retreat last weekend, and Ethan suddenly started sitting up tonight! He has been very close for a while, but he seemed not too interested in it. I asked the doctor at his 6 months check up, and we both decided that Ethan was just too content to try something new. He is always happy and smily, and it's been a lot of fun hanging out with him. But I did want him to try sitting up or roll over more often, so this afternoon I decided to put him on a sitting up position and put a ring stacking toy in front of him, hoping that he would at least prop against the toy. He not only sat up by himself, but tried to balance when he was half falling off! I guess something clicked and he got a hang of it. He was sitting up on my lap for the past few weeks, but never did it on the floor. So it was great to see him sitting up and playing. But he likes standing up or jumping in the jumperoo a lot better, so it may take a while until it gets more stable.

Already mid-November?!

Wow, time flies. It's already mid-November! We've been keeping pretty busy recently, which is normal as year end approaches (yeah, sad that we are already thinking the end of the year...).

I had the 4th annual KUS/Hospital house reunion last weekend. I have 9 girls friends from college that get together every year. In the past we've gotten together in Chicago, Vegas and Phoenix. This year since I had Ethan just 5 months ago I had a privilege of gathering my friends to Goshen. We mainly walked around Goshen and hung out at my house, but it was really good to catch up with them again. We live in 6 different states, so I don't get to see them too often. I hope this tradition continues for a long time!

Sadly I didn't take any pictures on my camera but hoping that they would e-mail them to me shortly. It was really good that Ethan could meet my dear friends though. He enjoyed the attention he got from them, and so did Oreo. Two of them, Alyssa and Rachel, stayed at my house so Oreo got 24/7 attention from them.

This past week we had a baby shower for Chrissy in our small group. It was just four of us, and we had cheese fondue and chocolate fondue. It was a lot of fun to have a girls' night and to celebrate for baby Kauffmann! It would be fun to have another boy in the small group in less than a month!

I think we'll have a little slower week this week having a plan only on Friday. That's ok as I should be studying for my CPA exam which is in 10 days! I haven't studied nearly as much as I should be, and I am really not ready for it. I guess that's what happens when there is a child in the house! We'll see how much I can cram in during the next 10 days...

Ethan's first halloween

This past week, I was in Indianapolis on a business trip for four days. Jeff and Ethan came along with me on Sunday, spent a night and left Monday morning as I went to work. I missed them a lot while I was down there, but at the same time it was nice that I could spend time for myself. I went to the mall for the first time after Ethan was born, got a haircut (first once since January), went to see The Couples' Retreat, and ate at nice restaurants every night. It was nice that I could do all things I couldn't do well with a baby along. Jeff and Ethan did well without me too. But when I got back home on Thursday, Ethan's face lit up as soon as he saw me. I missed his smiles.

We bought a costume at once upon a child, children's' resale store, for Ethan's first Halloween. He was a Tigger :-) We took him over to Grandpa and Grandma Claassen's, Grandpa and Grandma Yoder's, and Kate and Will's before we went to our freinds' house for an evening of fun. He was so soft and cuddly. Since it is a tiger year next year in Japan, I may make a new year's cards with pictures of him in this costume again :-)

Lots happened this past few days...

Pfew, it's already sunday night. I feel like a lot happened in the past few days and Thursday seems so long ago.

Thursday night, we fed Ethan some rice cereal as usual, but mixed it with formula. We had never given him any formula until now, and it was only for a convenience (because if you make rice cereal with breast milk, the milk breaks down something in the cereal that it gets runny as you feed him). I should have known better, and feed him only one spoon full and waited. But I didn't. So he finished his 2 oz formula mixed with 1/4 cup rice cereal like he usually does. As soon as he was done eating, I noticed that his cheeks and chins had little red bumps. He had gotten those twice before, and as soon as I wipe his face really good, they usually go away. So we knew that he had a little contact allergy to cereal. But it didn't go away. In fact, it got worse. All his chins and cheeks were so red and puffy, and his nose was runny and was a lot droolier than usual. I knew immediately that it was allergic reaction, so I called the nurse on call at the hospital. The nurse asked me if his breathing was ok, so I said he was breathing a little heavier and it looked harder to breath. She asked if his tong was swollen, so I checked it, and it sure was a little swollen. She recommended calling 911 instead of taking him to the hospital by ourselves. We called 911 and EMS came, but by then his face was getting better. He had thrown up once while we waited for the ambulance, which they said helped. So we rejected the transportation and decided to watch carefully at home.

About half an hour after the EMS left, the area around his eyes started puffy. It kept getting worse, and this time it was spreading all over his body, so we decided to drive down to the hospital. By the time we were able to be treated, all his joints like elbows and knees, and under his arm were all red, covered with hives. His eyes were completely shut with puffiness. But his lungs were clear and they were not too worried. They gave him some benedryl and waited to see if it got better. It seemed to help a little bit, and he didn't have any allergic reaction to the medicine, so they sent us home at 11pm. I woke up a few times through the night and checked on him, but he slept so good and by the morning his face was pretty cleared up.

We think that he is allergic to the cow's milk protein in formula, and the reaction came in two waves; contacts and then system. Now we know to be careful with food when we give him for the first time, and what to do if something happen again. It scared all of us (mostly Jeff and I) though, and I hope we won't have to go through this again.

We had Kate and Will over on Friday. It was the first time we hung out with them after their wedding. It was fun as usual. We played 30 minutes of "Friends" Scene it, then a game of the Settlers. I didn't remember that the Settlers took a long time (apparently the board was pretty pathetic this time), so I don't know if it was a fair trade of some "chick game" to "guy game", but I actually enjoyed playing both. It helped that it was my second or third time playing the Settlers and I started to understand a little bit. We then sat in the hot tub.

Saturday night we had our sunday school's second annual theme party. This year the theme was "the biggest sports fan". Unfortunately it was a smaller crowd this year and the plan had to change. Originally we were planning to go to Jeff's parents' back yard and have some lawn games and bonfire. But as cold as it has been, I switched it to our house at the last minute. So we had a Wii bowling tournament instead. Well, I am a good Wii bowler, so I did get the first place. It was very close though. And afterwards we played the game called Encore, which gives you a word and you have to come up with songs with the word in it. I had never played it, but it was a fun, and a little frustrating game! There were many times I was like "I know this song has a word "girl" in it, but I don't remember where!"

We are having a relaxing day today after church. This week I am taking Wednesday off, as I have 4 days of training the following week (in Indy!). I am a little nervous to leave Ethan home with Jeff for four days, but at the same time I am looking forward to eating good food in Indy :-) My coworker, Amy, and I are planning to go get a haircut there, too. We'll see how it goes.

Solid food is going well!

Ethan had his first bowl of rice cereal last Wednesday. He did amazing despite the fact that he was so hungry and sleepy. So on Thursday, I fed him milk a little bit before we fed him the cereal. We were a little worried on Wednesday because he got a little rash under his chin after his cereal, which disappeared a few minutes after I wiped his face really good. But no rash has come back since. He does have some eczema on his left cheek, but it's been there since before we started solids (which I don't know what to do other than keeping it clean, keep his nails short, and put some lotion on). I've gradually made the cereal thicker, and he seems to like it thicker better. We'll stay on the rice cereal for a while, and will move on to vegetables in a few weeks.

He was not too sure about the bib which was as big as him.

Other than that, there isn't much new. Ethan continues to amaze us how quickly he is growing. He doesn't nap too well on Sundays, mainly because his monring nap is not too restful because it's during the church. So he is too grumpy to fall asleep in the afternoon. So he slept a lot today, which made my day very productive. I got to clean the stove top too!

He still loves his butterflies on the play gym the best. The other day I got a picture of his two favorite toys; butterflies and his toes :-) He is getting more interested in toys every week, but these two are his all time favorites. I've tried playing like he does the other day, and I got quite a workout! It's not easy keeping your legs up in the air that much!

Long and skinny boy

At 2 months check up, Ethan was chubby and short. But now he is long and skinny! He only gained a little over a pound in the past two months, but grew 4 inches! The doctor saw him looking around left and right and said that this slow weight gain may be because he is so observing and can't stop looking around (and also that most energy went for the height than weight). He sure is always turning his head around. They are not too concerned about the weight gain, but want us back again next month just to make sure everything is ok. He did amazing with the shots too. He cried when the nurse was rubbing his legs with alcohol, cried through the shots, but stopped as soon as the bandaids were on. I guess it was not as bad as he anticipated.

We had amazing time at Kate and Will's wedding last night. It's always fun to attend a good mennonite wedding :-) We got to play some mennonite games with bunch of people there, which always amazes me how much connection we can find with one person!

Ethan is turning 4 months old officially on Wednesday. Unfortunately I have something going on at 7pm, but if we can find some time between our work and the evening activity, we may try feeding him some rice cereal. I hope he'll like it so we can pack some weight back on him. I know people tell me not to worry about his weight but I do feel responsible. We'll see what will happen in the next month!

4 months check up!

Today is Ethan's 4 months check up! I can't believe he's already 4 months old. This summer was the shortest summer for Jeff and I. He sure is getting more in control of his body every week. His new things have been rolling over and playing with his feet. He can grab things and pull pretty hard now that he loves sitting in his bouncer and playing with the dangling toys in front of him.

Ethan's dedication and my membership speach went well on Sunday. He did amazing up on the stage, held by our pastor, Tina! I'm so proud of him. And I am also proud of myself for going up there and speak! Last weekend was packed, but a lot of fun. We sure miss Grandpa and Grandma Snyder.

This weekend is packed with fun too! Tonight is the start of the relief sale. We are meeting up with our small group for a haystack dinner. Yumm! I'll have to buy pulled pork sandwiches and apple fritters in honor of my girl friends. I'm sure we'll make it to the pancake breakfast tomorrow morning too!

And tomorrow also is the day for Kate and Will's wedding! I've heard most about the wedding, but can't wait to actually see everything coming together. They are really good for each other, and I can't wait to hang out with them as "married couples" :-)

It'll be a busy weekend!

So, even though the streak was broken, it was only for two days that he woke up before when we wake him up at 7 am. He went back to his usual schedule of going to bed by 8:30 and waking up around 7 in the morning (or 8:30, if we let him sleep). Although he had a few cranky days during the day here and there. We think he's teething on and off because he drooles like a faucet and chews on his fingers and bottom lip. I hope he doesn't have to go through it longer than he needs to!

Tomorrow is a day off for me, so I get to pick up a little bit and hopefully get a nap in :-) We'll have a girls' night in with my sunday school ladies friday night and have our high school friends over for a potluck on Saturday (we miss you, Jon and Julie!). I'm excited about some quality time with ladies and good food.

This Sunday is Ethan's baby dedication (and me becoming a member at our church, after 8 years of attending...). Grandpa and Grandma Snyders (or Great grandpa and Great grandma... we never know whoes grandparents we are taking about) are coming from New York for this. They haven't seen Ethan since Caleb's wedding in July, so I'm sure they'll be surprised to see how big he is now! His neck is completely set and he's becoming in control of his body more. He rolled over on his back to tummy a few weeks ago too! I don't think he liked it much and he hasn't done it since, but he goes side to side a lot, and does 180 in his crib quite often.

We'll have his 4 month check up coming up next week already. I can't believe that he's already 1/3 year old! I'm sure he'll be one in no time, which would be fun, but at the same time is a bitter sweet feeling. People tell me to cherish the moment, but I really need to enjoy his baby stage more!

I am starting to prepare him for winter. I bought him a winter coat already, and trying to get a few pair of pants from moms of older kids. If you have some long pants and sweatshirts for 6-9 months, send them my way!

Streak is broken

Ethan had been sleeping 10-11 hours a night until two nights ago. Both Saturday and Sunday mornings he woke up at 5 am, after 8-9 hours of sleep :-( Jeff changed his diaper and tried to put him back to sleep but it didn't work and I ended up feeding him both mornings. He had woken up before but he could usually went back to sleep after a little bit of fussing before we even went to his room, so it's been a little rough for us (I know we were spoiled). I think it's because he has a runny nose that's usually stuffed up then and gets harder to breath. Or maybe he's growing a lot and gets hungry more often. Jeff thinks he's teething, but it seems too early for that... Either way, I'm hoping that it'll pass and he'll go back to his old routine.

He is showing his personality more and more each week. He reacts to his toys more, which makes a lot more fun to play with him. Now he has been batting and grabbing his butterflies on the play mats, and he loves the toys on his jumperoo. He still doesn't squeal often, but I think it's getting there. Now that I work three days a week, I feel like I'm missing out on his development. Usually when I'm home he sleeps most of the day! Grandma must wears him out during those three days! So it's a treat when he decides to stay awake happily for a few hours and plays with me.

This is the face he makes when he is really excited...

He wasn't too excited to play with the jumperoo that day.

Finally, a decent smile. It's so hard to take a good smily pictures now because he's usually so excited or so sad!

We have set Ethan's baby dedication day on September 20. We'll have Grandpa and Grandma Snyder coming out for that, so we are looking forward to the weekend very much. We all are trying to convince them to stay for a whole week so they can go to the Relief Sale with us the following weekend. I love the Relief Sale :-) (I miss you, Lisa!)

First full week of work

I managed to go through a first full week of work (which is only from Tuesday to Thursday). I do enjoy working and having my own time and career, but I do miss having Ethan by my side all day long. But I did miss facing tax returns and tax regulations. When I came home after the first day back, I thought "oh boy, I hadn't used my brain much for the past three months!" It's a nice change of pace to think hard again :-)

Ethan did well at Grandma's, as far as I know. It is getting better every day, and he started to take naps for her. I hope it'll keep getting better for them as they establish a routine together. He continues to go to bed around 8:30 and sleeps until we wake him up around 7:15. It is great that he sleeps well at night, but it also means that I only get to see him for a little over 3 hours on the days I work :-( So I appreciate my days off much more now. Today (Friday), he has been doing great so far; took one 1.5 hour nap in the morning and is now on a nap that's going to be at least 1.5 hour, possibly 2. Today he has been napping in his crib, which is also a development for him. He used to hate taking naps anywhere but in my arms. I enjoy my free time at home, but at the same time it's a little bitter sweet to see him becoming independent.

We set up a jumperoo for him the other day. I think he likes being in it. He still is a little short for this, so we put two pizza boxes underneath. (He grew a lot this week and now he only needs one pizza box.) I'm sure he'll really love it in a few weeks, once he can touch the floor and his legs get a little more strength.

Chris, Jeff's cousin, is coming to Goshen tonight. He'll be attending Goshen College starting this fall. We are very excited to have more family around here :-)

Anniversary Trip

We had a great time in Chicago on our anniversary trip. First of all, I can't believe that it's already been 5 years since we got married. I have been in the states for 10 years now, so half of that I've been married. Wow.

We went up to Chicago on Friday, checked in at the hotel on Michigan Avenue by the river, walked to the Millennium Park, picked up Giordano's pizza for supper and ate in the hotel room. Ethan had a little hard time falling asleep, but did ok for the most part.

On Saturday, we walked along the river in the morning, then went up on the Willis Tower (former Sears Tower) and enjoyed the glass floor and looked down the 103 floors below. It was cool! Ethan was asleep on the way up, but cried a little bit coming down in the elevator. My ears were hurting too, so I'm sure he was confused why his ears were hurting!

Then we went out to IKEA, then Mitsuwa, Japanese supermarket, which is our usual stops when we come to Chicago. I was a little nervous taking Ethan, but he did amazing. Seems like he was exhausted after the trip, and he took good naps both on Sunday and today!

A week until I go back to work

So I only have a week left until I go back to work. I think now I'm more excited than sad. This week has been a little rough for me, which may be why I'm more excited to go back to work. Ethan was crying a lot more a few days ago, and yesterday and today he's been on a growth spurt (which may be why he was crying more? I don't know...) He was eating every 3.5 to 4 hours before, but now it's back to every 2.5 -3 hours between feedings. However he continues to sleep until we wake him up every morning (which means 10-11 hours of sleep for him), so I still can't complain.

Yesterday we went to Jen and Lamont's house for a cook out. We hadn't seen Jen for a while, and Lamont forever, so it was a lot of fun. Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so we don't have any pictures (unless Allison sees this and send me some pics). Ethan did well until 8 or so, which is his usual bed time. It's good that he goes to bed early, but it sure makes outing a little difficult!

He started smiling a lot more often, and every time he gives us a smile, he drools like a fountain! We have to keep a bib on him now. But his huge smiles make everything easier and it's so rewarding!

Tomorrow is our 5th anniversary :-) I'm excited for our little trip! I hope his growth spurt wouldn't make it too difficult, but we are prepared to be flexible.

Counting down to the end of the maternity leave...

I have only one full week left of maternity leave. I go back to work on August 20 for a day, then back three days a week starting the following week. I am excited to have some adult interaction again, but also sad that I have to leave Ethan. He smiles more and more every week, and it's been fun to play with him. I'm thinking that going back to work part time would be a good balance of my career and my family. I hope I'll find it that way once it actually starts.

Next Friday is Jeff and my fifth anniversary. Three of us are going to Chicago to celebrate! We'll see how Ethan'll do in a big city. We'd like to go up on the old Sears Tower (I can never remember what it's called now) and stroll around the Millenium park, but I don't know how much walking Ethan can take, and the weather has to co-operate, too. We'll see. We are also passing on eating at my favorite restaurant, Maggiano's, as it's not so kids friendly :-( I'm sure IKEA's food court would be just fine...

Ethan continues to be a great sleepe at night, but hates his naps! He sleeps 10-12 hours at night, which is great, but he doesn't fall asleep during the day even though he is so tired and needs nap so bad! My mom says I wasn't much of a napper either, but I hope he'll learn to take a few naps soon. It's not fun to deal with a crancky baby!

Happy 2 months birthday!

Ethan turned 2 months old today. I had been feeling sick with a cold for the past few days but thankfully felt pretty good today so I was able to deal with him while he decided to celebrate his 2 month birthday by staying up almost all day. How do other moms take care of kids when they are sick? I was lucky that Jeff could come home a bit earlier one day and Grandma could watch Ethan for the afternoon another day. i just didn't have enough energy to bounce him up and down when he fussed to fall asleep. Oh, and he started sucking on his thumb recently instead of pacifier. I don't necessary know if this is a good habit to pick up, but it sure is nice that he can sooth without us sticking a pacifier back in his mouth. And he looks so cute with his thumb in his mouth!

Today we went out for lunch with Kate, went out to Target to pick up a borthday card for Jeff's birthday tomorrow (and shopped around some, too), and went to my "cousin", Rchelle's house for dinner. My dear friend Laura is back from Texas for a few days so her and her sister, Tina were there, too. It was good to see Laura!

We are planning our fourth annual reunion for my girl friends, and it will be in Goshen this year, since I can't travel without Ethan (or I don't want to). It amazes me that it's been four years since we are out of college, and also makes me happy that we are still getting together every year. All of us live pretty far away, I think 10 of us are spread in 7 states now. So it is very special that we make an effort every year to see each other for an extended weekend. First one was in Chicago, then Vegas, last year was in Phoenix so we could meet Gretchen's little boy, Owen. Vegas was definitely a lot of fun, but it was also nice when we were in Phoenix where Darla and Gretchen lived, so they could show us around the area. I miss all my girls, and now that I hardly see them, I realized how much fun it was to have all of them around all the time in college. I loved and miss my college life.

Anyways, tomorrow is Jeff's birthday. He said he doesn't want anything, so it'd be a low key, but good family time together :-) It'd be nice because Jeff didn't get to see too much of Ethan (or I) today.

2 months check up and Friday night activity

Ethan had his 2 months check up on Thursday, even though he's only 7 weeks old. He had 3 shots, during which he did amazing. He didn't even cry after the first shot, and he cried after the second one, but stopped crying as soon as I picked him up after all the shots. He's such an amazing baby!

He's still right on track on the growth. He is 55 percentile on height and 75 percentile on weight. He continues to sleep well, especially at night. It has been very nice to get good night's sleep :-) He started entertaining himself on the gym for a while, which makes my life a lot easier. Since he is so fascinated with the butterflies on his gym, we decided to buy a mobile for him too, which has been a big hit! He loves looking and giggling at it.

We had Will and Kate over tonight. It was nice to have some adult time while Ethan was nicely held by his "Auntie Kate". He did well most of the evening. He started fussing a little bit at the end but as soon as I put him in the moby wrap, he fell asleep :-) We played Acquire, which is a strategy game where you buy stocks of some companies and go through margers and what not, which was fun. Of course Jeff won, but we all put up a good fight.

Fun weekend!

We got back from New York early evening on Sunday. It was fun to show off our little one :-)

The driving part went surprisingly well. We were in the car for 25-26 hours total over the 4 days, and we think that he cried about half an hour of it. It was nice that I didn't have to drive and could take care of him whenever he needed me.

But there were two struggling things over the weekend. Because Ethan was in his car seat so long and we couldn't burp him much, he got gassy again. On top of that, it was a warm, humid weekend and many buildings in that part of New York (both Buffalo and Saratoga area) don't have ACs. So with tummy pain and being hot, he was a little fussier than usual. And too bad that I missed the ceremony because I had to go to the van and turned the air on for him to cool off... he started screaming when the bridal party was walking in! Luckily we planned well and sat at the very back so we could sneak out. But it was the reason why we went...

The reception situation wad not the most ideal either for our little guy. It was assigned seating, and our table was right by the one and only speaker. The DJ was nice enough to move the speaker to the other side of his table so we were not right by it, but a few of the songs hurt Ethan's ears a bit and we had to go outside. But the music was loud enough that no one else could hear him scream... But a little bit I got to see were very beautiful, and most important thing is that Caleb and Kim looked really happy together. Welcome to the family, Kim!

It was a short trip, but we got to spend some time with the family, which was a lot of fun! I got to hold little Madeline, Jeff's cousin, Miriam, and her husband, Abel,'s baby girl. She is about 3 weeks younger than Ethan and is so little! Ok, maybe Ethan is just bigger than normal, but she felt so little and light to me. It was nice that Ethan could meet his second cousin :-)

Ethan's schedule is getting back to normal. He is still sleeping more than usual (maybe he's still recovering from the overwhelming weekend), but looks rested more when he's awake. Now he started squealing and giggling, which is soooo cute! And I think he told me "no!" with an attitude once, when I tried to give him a pacifier and he didn't want it. We felt like he was depending on his paci more this weekend, but not as much since we've been home. I guess he felt insecure with all the traveling, meeting (and held by) new people and loud music. It's a good thing that we are back to our old, boring routines :-)

How can we say no to this?

Oh, I'm in trouble. Ethan had been smiling occasionally, but he really started to more this week! He was going through some tummy trouble and then a growth spurt, so he was not a happy camper. But I think his tummy is getting better (or maybe we know how to deal with it better now) and his growth spurt lasted only a few days, and now he is a happier baby. Today he was smiling a lot more, and I was able to take some pictures! His smile melt my heart and it would be really difficult to tell him "no" if he comes to me and ask for something with the smile, once he starts talking.

We will be traveling with him this week to New York for Jeff's cousin's wedding. We'll drive to Buffalo (8hrs) in one day, then another 4 hours to Albany area the next day. Since we've only driven to South Bend with him, we took a longer drive today to Fort Wayne. He drove most of the way there and back, of course. We only hope that he won't sleep the entire 8 hour car ride on Thursday and stay up all night!

Tummy trouble

Ethan turned 1 month old last week! I can't believe it's already been a month. The past month has gone so fast (and slow at times).

Ethan has been having a tummy pain :-( It started last Wednesday night he woke up screaming about an hour after I fed him and put him in bed. At first I thought it was his usual whine when he's falling asleep, but it kept getting louder, so we went to check on him. He usually stops crying when I pick him up, but he kept going, and very loud. I kept rocking and comforting him, and after a few burps (and half an hour) later, he went back to sleep. This happened again the next morning after the feeding, so I called the doctor. She told me to get the anti-gas drop and cut dairy on my diet.

He still has pain after some feedings, but I think it's getting a little better. According to some research (ok, I did A LOT of research because I don't want to see my son in pain!), babies' bowl movements change around 6-8 weeks, and they also start to notice the bowl movements, so they are irritable. We did definitely notice that he has been having only one dirty diaper a day (sometimes none) for the past few days. So I'm really hoping that this is just a stage for him to go through and he would be able to burp/ deal with tummy ache better soon. Meanwhile I'll be drinking lactose free fat free milk.

We ended up buying a moby wrap a few weeks ago, because Jeff's co-worker could not find hers anymore. It's been great! It's a little warm sometimes (because this is just a super long material wrapped around you) but it works great, and Ethan loves it and falls asleep in it.

Speaking of sleep, he somehow manages to shift himself down in his sleep positioner. I guess we are ok as long as he is comfortable and sleeps well. He continues to sleep 6-8 hr stretch at night, then 3-4 hr nap in the morning. Actually he is still sleeping now, going over 9 hr stretch!