Mischief at 8 Months

Moses is now 8 months old and is getting into everything. His favorite variety of mischief is playing with his brothers' shoes. Caleb has become quite the tattle-tale, frequently informing me that "Moses is touching the shoe" or "Moses is eating paper." It amazes me how the complusion to tell on one's siblings is so innate, since I'm sure that no one explicitly taught him to do this. I guess Caleb feels it's his duty as the eldest to keep his younger brothers in line. Joshua likes to keep me up-to-date on Moses' activities, as well, but his reports usually have a more positive spin, such as, "Mommy, Moses stood up," which actually happens so frequently now that Joshua doesn't even bother telling me about it most of the time anymore.

Sometimes Moses surprises us with other forms of mischief, such as the other day when I found him sitting on the kitchen floor sprinkled with a flaky green substance. Upon closer inspection I determined that he used his four enormous teeth to bite through a tea bag. After all, how could he have resisted something that so closely resembles his favorite delicacy, paper? Then today we caught him standing at the toilet, happily splish-splashing away. Miraculously, the toilet and toilet water were relatively clean, which isn't often the case in our one-bathroom house where two little boys have recently learned to pee standing up. To give you an idea of the kind of abuse our toilet suffers, the twins' favorite thing to do is stand at the toilet side by side and "make a cross" with their pee streams. But I digress. I'm sure we sent splash-happy Moses mixed signals when I asked Joe to go run and grab the camera and snap a few pictures while he was still in the act!

Moses is so much different than his big brothers were at this age. In addition to putting everything in his mouth (we were thankfully spared this common phenomenon when the twins were babies), being a lot bigger (he now wears the same clothes the twins wore when they were walking), and being developmentally advanced, he also seems much happier and is always smiling. I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that he sleeps much longer stretches than his brothers did at this age. Moses also seems to have abandoned typical baby babbling and instead prefers to communicate by growling. The first time I heard him growling I could have sworn there was a grown man in the room, but no, it was our sweet Moses. It probably doesn't help that I tend to growl back at him, while hugging and kissing him, of course. I'm sure he now thinks this is a normal way to communicate!

Up, Up, and Away!

Moses has started pulling himself up. The plant table, chair legs, and upside down laundry baskets have all been deemed suitable bolsters for our little explorer. He hasn't pulled himself up into a standing position yet, but he does enjoy hoisting himself up into a kneeling position and taking in the view before settling himself down into a sitting position. Moses has also perfected the art of crawling. His favorite bait is his brothers' brightly colored Polliwalks (mock Crocs), which he enjoys gnawing on with his two (soon to be three) teeth. He also has an adorable habit of locating me in the room, crawling towards me at full speed, and pulling himself up onto me with a big happy smile :)

Moses is Crawling

Moses started crawling today! He's been rocking his booty and taking a practice "step" or two here and there for a few weeks now, but this afternoon he crawled half way across the living room! Joe and I were both in attendance to witness this exciting milestone.

The object of his desire that motivated him to crawl was a soft blue stuffed elephant. At 6 months + 1 week old, Moses has acheived mobility more than 3 months earlier than the twins did. It must be true what they say about younger siblings developing more quickly to keep up with the big kids!

6 Months for Moses

Believe it or not, it's already been half a year since our sweet Moses was born. These days we're enjoying seeing him sit independently and play with toys, happily clap his hands, and get up on his hands and knees and rock his cute butt to and fro. He has made some valorous attempts to crawl and we suspect it won't be long before he fulfills his mission. Today I noticed a something sharp poking through his lower gum, and upon closer examination beheld a little white speck. That's right, Moses got his very first tooth on his 6 month birthday! You would never guess that he's teething based on his steadfast sweet temperament, although he does seem to prefer Mommy's company over anyone else's :)

Moses' doctor is currently out of the country so his 6-month check-up will have to wait, which is just as well since our health insurance from Joe's new job won't kick in for another week or two. In lieu of a well-baby visit, I took the boys back to Bed Bath & Beyond to find out Moses' weight. The boys have now decided that standing on scales is great fun, so we had Moses try out half a dozen scales, each claiming unique weights ranging from 20 to 24 lbs. So we'll just say that he weighs about 22 lbs., which happens to be above the 95th percentile. Supposing Moses has only gained 1 lb. in the past month and is now only 21 lbs., he would still be among the top 5-10% of 6-month-old baby boys. I also measured him this evening and he is about 28 inches long, which would also put him in the 90-95th percentile.

Moses is still exclusively breastfed for the most part. Last week I bought him one of those mesh feeders and he has enjoyed using it to gnaw and suck on delicious fresh peaches and plums. I've also scraped some apricot pulp with a spoon and let him have a few bites. I've decided to hold off on traditional baby food for now since he is clearly thriving on breastmilk alone and I don't see the point in creating extra work for myself! Besides, I've read that introducing solid foods earlier than 6 months (and some argue 1 year) will deprive a baby of crucial nutrients by replacing the amounts of breastmilk he needs. In other words, as healthy as pureed spinach may be, it's certainly no substitute for the goodness that comes from mama's milk.

Natural Remedies for Newborns

While Moses has overall been a much easier baby than the twins were, he did have a few issues we never encountered the first time around. Several people have asked how we treated these minor maladies, so I thought I'd share our natural remedies before I forget them.

Baby Acne
The most effective treatment I found was washing his face and scalp with Dr. Bronner's Organic Peppermint Soap every morning. Then later in the day I'd wipe the affected areas with a Witch Hazel-soaked cotton ball.

Cradle Cap
When he was a few weeks old, Moses developed a classic case of combination skin- his face was oily but his scalp was dry. Ever since I started washing his hair with Weleda Calendula Body Wash, he hasn't had any dry scalp issues.

Yeasty Tongue
Moses had a yeasty white tongue as a result of being pumped full of antibiotics (that he probably didn't even need) while he was in the NICU. To get rid of it, I sprinkled PB8 Probiotics on his tongue after every feeding, or as often as I remembered to. This cleared up Moses' tongue in no time and I never got thrush!

Moses Rolled Over

12-week-old Moses rolled over from his back onto his tummy this evening at Mimi and Papa's house. He had previously rolled over onto his side, but this was the first time he did a full 180. I just checked our blog archives, and it looks like Moses got rollin' just a little earlier than his older brothers Joshua and Caleb, who first rolled over at 13 and 14 weeks respectively.

3 Month Check-up

Moses will be 3 months old on Sunday, so today we took him to see Dr. Irwin for his 3-month check-up. Moses let his good nature shine through during the visit, smiling happily at Dr. Irwin while he was being examined. His big brothers, on the other hand, started fighting with each other and Joe had to escort Joshua off the premises half-way through the check-up. I mentioned to the doctor that Moses is so much more easy-going than the twins were, even at this early age. Dr. Irwin said that's often the case with younger siblings, and he's likely to maintain his good nature as he grows older. Thank God for that, because I don't know what I'd do with three wild boys!

While Moses is no longer the off-the-charts jumbo baby he was when he was born, he is still pretty darn big. He is still above the 95th percentile for weight at 16 and a half pounds. He is right at the 95th percentile for length at 25.5 inches, and is in the 90-95th percentile for head circumference at 17 inches. Brains, brawn, and a great personality to boot... who could ask for more? ;)

Sayonara, Swaddlers

We've been on a cloth diaper hiatus ever since Wal-Mart and Target both stopped carrying Sun, the enzyme-free, optical brightener-free detergent I have always used to wash them. And since I've yet to research and procure a suitable alternative, Moses has been wearing Pampers full-time. Within the past week, Moses has outgrown Size 2 Pampers. I suppose this shouldn't be surprising coming from the baby who no longer fit in Newborn diapers when he left the hospital. We've been lamenting the fact that Swaddlers don't come in a Size 3, since at 11 weeks of age, Moses is still a newborn whose tender skin is worthy of swaddling. I guess I should really get to work finding a new detergent for our cloth stash.

9 weeks = 9 hours

Last night, 9-week-old Moses slept 9 straight hours, from 11:45 until 8:45. Hallelujah! :) I could get used to this.

8 weeks = 8 hours

8-week-old Moses has slept 8 hours straight the past two nights, from around midnight til 8 am! It has been heavenly!

Our Last Midwife Visit

Today we went to our 6-week postpartum visit with Midwife Peggy. Moses now weighs 14 lbs. 8 oz. Midwife Kim said that he is the heaviest baby she's ever seen at a 6-week postpartum visit (granted, Moses actually turned 7 weeks old today). When we got home, I checked out a percentile growth chart and found that our exclusively breastfed baby is the size of an average 4-month-old, and is off the charts for his actual age. Wow!

Now that Moses' skin has healed from his bout of baby acne, he is having some dry skin issues, for which Peggy recommended almond oil or calendula. To treat his white yeasty tongue, she recommended peroxide or probiotics sprinkled on his tongue, and suggested looking into getting him a prescription for liquid nystatin to speed up the process. Thankfully, the yeast on his tongue has not interfered with breastfeeding.

Caleb, Joshua, and I sure will miss our visits to Midwife Peggy's house. While homebirthing didn't work out for me and my big baby, there's no doubt in my mind that we received superior prenatal and postpartum care, and I still think that under normal circumstances, it's the ideal way for a woman to bring a new life into the world.

Our Little Giant goes to Giant

Moses is 6 weeks old today. Lately he has been operating on a 48-hour schedule in which he alternates between sleepy nap-filled days and days where he hardly blinks an eye. Before we figured this out, we took him to our favorite Korean buffet one day for lunch last week--a day that turned out to be a very wakeful day--and he demanded to be bounced or held the entire time. We can't complain, though, because that was the first time we've taken him to a restaurant and he didn't sleep through most of our meal.

At 6 weeks of age, Moses is a veritable giant. He has completely outgrown all of his 0-3 month clothes, and even some of his 3-6 month clothes are almost too tight in the torso, even when he's not wearing a bulky cloth diaper. When we take him out and people ask us how old he is, they're usually shocked when we tell them that he's only a little over a month old. Heck, when we took him to the Korean resturant to celebrate Sooja Emo's birthday when he was only one week old, the waitress asked us if he was 3 or 4 months old!

To commemorate Moses' 6-week-birthday today, I decided to venture out to the grocery store all by myself with all three boys in tow. This was my first attempt to do so, and everything went smoothly, thanks to Giant's huge fleet of car carts (to keep Caleb and Joshua happy, even though I refused to race them down the aisles and around the parking lot as Daddy is apt to do) and thanks to Moses' willingness to sleep in the Hotsling the entire time we were in the store (yes, today is one of his sleepy days). I even had my wits about me enough to use a couple coupons. The icing on the cake was that the twins, who have not been napping consistently lately, fell asleep on the way home. It was a great outing!

Today's pleasant experience brought to mind my first solo outing to the grocery store with Caleb and Joshua, 3 long years ago. Incidentally, that outing had also been to Giant, which is strange because we usually go to Safeway or Trader Joe's. Anyway, I remember the twins cried incessantly as I raced up and down the aisles like a madwoman (forsaking the luxuries of deliberating between products and making prudent selections) and relied on the kindness of the cashiers and an elderly Spanish-speaking lady to get through the check-out line and out to my car in one piece. Ah yes, yet another example of the stark dichotomy between life with an infant singleton and life with infant twins!

Happy 1st Month, Moses

While everyone else was celebrating St. Patrick's Day on Tuesday, we were celebrating Moses' first month of life! Moses is growing like a weed. I don't know how much he weighs now, but he is already outgrowing his 0-3 Month clothes and his 3-6 Month outfits seem to offer a much more comfortable fit. He's not a particularly fat baby (his legs are actually really skinny), so it would make sense that most of his weight can be attributed to his length, and that would explain why he's outgrowing his 0-3 Month clothes two months early!

Moses continues to win us over with his congenial personality and easygoing ways. I felt so spoiled the other morning when I woke up and complained that he had woken up every two hours to eat and poop the night before, and then realized that that had been my life for the twins' first 6 months, although back then I had twice as many babies to feed and change every two hours! I am blessed that on most nights, Moses sleeps 5 or 6 hours at a time.

Sadly, Moses has developed a case of baby acne, so I've been trying to be diligent about keeping his head clean. He enjoys his daily face-washing and shampoo at the kitchen sink, and also enjoys being taken into the shower every few days. He doesn't mind getting water in his face or eyes- what a good sport!

While Moses' experience in the NICU conditioned him to fall asleep on his own and not be held while awake, the more time he spends at home with his doting family, the more he expects to be held, rocked, and bounced to sleep. But really, who can blame him? Another sure-fire way to get him to fall asleep is to walk around while wearing him in the Hotsling or Babyhawk, which allows me to get things done around the house and appease him at the same time. He also takes a pacifier more willingly than the twins ever did (they used to spit them out with such rage that they'd fly clear across the room!)

Moses is already very good at holding up his head, and he coos when you talk to him. He loves looking at people's faces and his eyes will follow you as you move around. He seems to be mesmerized by shiny things (Mimi's sparkly eyeglasses, lights, etc.) and linear designs (the stripes on our bedroom drapes, vertical blinds, etc). He will sleep right through the loudest raucous emitted by his rowdy Daddy and brothers (I guess he got a lot of practice while in the womb), although when he's awake he often observes their antics with a look of concern and bewilderment. Don't worry, Moses, you'll get to join in on the fun soon enough!

Caleb and Joshua adore their baby brother. "Sweet Moses, I love you!" they will tell him. If Moses wakes up crying and I can't hear him because I'm in the kitchen frying eggs and running the washing machine (which is always on these days!), one of the boys will come tell me, "Uh oh, Moses is crying!" Joshua is constantly asking to touch his hair, which I'm reluctant to let him do because it gets so greasy (I tell him he can touch my hair instead). Lately Caleb has been coming out of his shell when he's around Moses and will now shyly give him kisses and ask to "touch his back" (or in other words, help burp him). The other day Caleb climbed into bed with sleeping Moses and laid down for a nap right next to him. For the longest time Caleb didn't want to be photographed with Moses, but now he is an eager participant in our photo shoots.

Even though Caleb and Joshua are generally very sweet with Moses, they still have a thing or two to learn about babies and their limited communication skills. When we're in the car and Moses is crying (as usually happens when we're stuck at a light), the boys think it's hilarious and will laugh at him. And when they're not laughing, they'll scold him using the same tone of voice that I use when I'm exasperated with them, saying, "Moses, calm down! Don't be ridiculous!" When I remind them that they should be more understanding of their baby brother, their tone softens and they'll sweetly say, "I know, Moses, I know... don't cry, Moses, it's ok."

Moses' 2-Week Check-up

Today Moses had his 2-week check-up with Dr. Irwin. It turns out he is maintaining his big baby status quite well. He now weighs 11 lbs. 2 oz. and is 23 inches long. That puts him above the 95th percentile for both categories. The doctor predicts that he is on-track to being a pretty big guy! We thank God that he is perfectly healthy in all other respects, too. Afterwards we celebrated the good report with lunch at Wendy's. Moses, of course, slept through the whole meal.

I should note, though, that Moses' nights of 7 hours of continuous sleep seem to have been put on hold for the time being. The past few nights he has only slept 3 or 4 hours straight, but since that's still twice as much as the twins used to sleep when they were his age, and since there's only one of him, I'm not complaining!

Moses' First Snow (2 Weeks Old)

No, we are not crazy enough to take our newborn out to play in the snow, but I do think it's noteworthy that despite being born in the second half of February, Moses didn't have to wait around another nine months or so before seeing his first snowfall!

It's hard to believe that Moses will be 2 weeks old tomorrow. Joe and I are still in awe that he is such an easy baby. For example, last night he slept 6 hours straight. The night before, he slept 5 hours straight. And for three consecutive nights before that, he slept 7 (yes, count 'em, SEVEN) hours straight! Who knew that a one-week-old was even capable of sleeping 7 hours at a time? Neither of the twins slept 7 consecutive hours until they were at least 2 years old.

God blessed us with a sleepy baby at a perfect time, too. The day before Moses slept his first 7-hour stretch, I had been feeling pretty terrible physically for a couple of days. Concerned that something might be seriously wrong with me, my family was urging me to schedule an appointment with the OB/GYN office. Not thrilled with the prospect of having yet another doctor lecture me about how irresponsible I was to attempt a VBAC homebirth with a post-term baby, I instead decided to go visit my midwife first and get her opinion, which was basically that I should stop taking the iron tablets the surgeon at the hospital had prescribed for me because they were wreaking havoc on my tummy, and most importantly, that I needed to get more rest. After all, it's not easy on one's body to endure 44 hours of sleepless labor, only to immediately follow it with major surgery. And that very night was when Moses slept 7 consecutive hours for the first time. I am so thankful to have a God who is looking out for me.

In fact, God has blessed us with many people who have been looking out for us in the aftermath of Moses' birth. Family, neighbors, church friends, and co-workers have been blessing us with meals, which has helped more than they can imagine. Mimi and Papa have been a huge help, as always, by taking the twins over to their house almost every day for the past 2 weeks so Joe and I can get rest and get things done around the house. There is no way we could be doing as well as we are now without everyone's help.

The twins have been handling the transition pretty well, too. Joshua has definitely shown more interest in his new baby brother than Caleb has. He is constantly rubbing Moses' head (probably why his hair always appears greasy even though I've been shampooing it every few days), giving him kisses, trying to burp him after he eats, and bringing me his burp cloths and blankets, etc. Caleb is much more reserved and will only sometimes timidly ask to touch Moses or give him a kiss.

The twins spent their first night away from Mommy and Daddy exactly two weeks ago during my second night of labor, and since then they've become perfectly well-adjusted to being away from Mommy, something I'd once feared would never be the case. While I was in the hospital I only saw them for a few minutes a day at most (going one whole day without seeing them at all) and even then they spent most of their visiting time playing with the bathroom door. Now when it's time for them to go play at Mimi and Papa's house, they nonchalantly say, "bye, Mommy!" and make a beeline for the car. Sometimes Joshua even says, "Mommy, you stay here" as he's heading out the door.

Also, the boys did not protest when we moved them out of our bedroom on Moses' first night at home. They now sleep in their own room (with Daddy, for the time being) and Caleb has only cried for me a few times in the past week and a half. Joshua hasn't cried for me at all. It's as if the introduction of baby brother Moses to their lives has caused them to grow up overnight (I'm also pretty sure they've also grown a few inches over the past couple weeks, but maybe that's just me)!

Take a Look at Moses

Until Katie's got some free time to put up a proper gallery, here's a quick introduction to Baby Moses (sorry the aspect ratio of the pictures is a little off):



I snapped this picture as they were wheeling his incubator out of the operation room.



Moses relaxaing in the NICU after a rough couple of days. Fortunately, he's fine enough to not require being inside an incubator, praise God.



Moses getting in a peaceful nap.



Finally, some quality time with Momma!

Welcome, Baby Moses!

(This is daddy's take on the events of the last two and a half days. I'm sure Mommy will provide her own take once she gets home).

Hey everyone, this is the first I've had the time and alertness to sit down and write out a longer-than-a-Facebook-status update, so thanks for bearing with us.

Katie started getting contractions Sunday night. She couldn't sleep because of her pain, I couldn't sleep because of my nervousness; we called the midwives since we were doing a home birth and didn't want the baby to come before they were here. In retrospect, we should have just headed to the hospital then because Baby was huge and, in the words of the doctor who delivered him, "[Katie] couldn't have pushed that baby out even if she had 20 years." But, without the aid of retrospect, Katie carried on with labor all through Monday and the following morning until she, the midwives, and I collectively came to the doctor's same conclusion around 11:00am on Tuesday. We headed over to Alexandria hospital, Katie received a C-section around noon, and that's when Baby came onto the scene.

They put Baby in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for fear that he ingested some meconium on his first gasp of air and possibly suffered some head trauma from all of the futile pushing. But, thank Jesus, everything looks good for him; he didn't take in much meconium at all and, although he does seem slightly stressed from the ordeal (as he sleeps he'll occasionally crinkle his face and shudder), his major organ systems appear to be functioning properly. All babies must stay in the NICU for a mandatory 24 hour minimum, so hopefully they'll move him out very soon. They were hinting at him staying longer just so they could be doubly sure of his progress--I'm sure their caution is sincere but I wouldn't be surprised if they were also trying to prove a point since the doctors were none too pleased that we had attempted a home birth without the presence of professional OB/GYNs.

I'll just say that I'm truly thankful that we live in a country that gives us the freedom to attempt to have a child the old fashioned way AND has an exceptional medical system available for us when the old fashioned way would have resulted in anything less than Katie and the baby being wholly OK. And I'm truly, deeply thankful that both Katie and the baby are recovering nicely and will both be back home by the weekend. Thank you for all of your prayers and support for I know for certain without God's intervention things would have turned out worse. In fact, as they were wheeling Katie into the operating room, I felt the peace of God and I knew things were going to turn out well.

Here are the stats:

Birth date: 2/17/2009 at 12:17pm
Weight: 9 lbs, 14 oz, Height: 22"" (he looks especially ginormous in comparison to some of the other babies in the NICU)
Name: Moses Franklin Wolf

When Katie was first pregnant, we told the Caleb and Joshua that there was a baby in mommy's tummy. They would sometimes refer to the baby as "Baby Moses" because they were accustomed to that phrase from one of their favorite pop-up books, "The Story of Moses." The name stuck; it also was relevant since Moses, Caleb, and Joshua were contemporaries. To boot, Moses Wolf is a very manly sounding name in my opinion and will sound especially good when prefixed by "Dr.," "Chief Justice," or "President." Franklin is the middle name of two of Moses' great grandfathers, and is incidentally the last name of the head midwife, too.

Thanks, everyone, for your prayers and concerns, we're touched by them and appreciate them greatly.