Traveling, teething, and tantrums

HELLO blogettes! I have missed you all and this space dearly!  Life is life as normal lately, meaning Sparky is out of town working and I'm juggling baby, school, and work.  Nothing new here!  I thought I would write a little about our recent traveling experiences with a four month old and share some Daniel updates.  It's always helped me to see what other people's babies are doing/did at the same time as mine...makes me feel normal somehow.  So here we go...

TRAVELING WITH A FOUR MONTH OLD....
...first two flights: perfect baby.  We flew during the day, so D dozed on and off.  We kept him occupied by standing him on our laps and letting him watch the TVs on the plane. He loved to look down the row at all the TVs.  What worked for me:

• Feeding him right before take off so he was happy
• Bringing his favorite toys
• Keeping his paci in on descent so his ears didn't pop
• Making friends with the flight attendants! They even brought me huge bottles of water because I was breastfeeding :)

...first flight on the way home: O. M. G. We were "those people" with the baby.  I had to take D in the bathroom he was screaming so loud. We were traveling at 5 pm which is the WORST time to travel with a baby.  I will never, ever do that again.  During the day or late at night seems best.  He was so over tired from not sleeping during the day that he would not calm down to go to sleep.  Nothing worked, not even the boob.  We were delayed and re-routed so we didn't get on the plane until around 7.  D finally fell asleep on the descent.  He woke up when we got to Chicago (around 9pm) so he was zonked by this time.  What worked for me, NIGHT TIME TRAVEL:

• Changing him into his pjs in the airport--he knows his bedtime routine
• Giving him Tylenol (please don't judge me...) to avoid scream fest #2
• Feeding him as soon as we got on the plane and then keeping the nursing cover over me so that it was dark and he could stay asleep. 

This time, D slept through the entire flight and then went straight to sleep in the crib when we finally got home around 2 am. 

NECESSARY TRAVEL ITEMS

•  Jeep carseat travel bag. We checked the carseat (for free! it's called and exception item) and then used our Snap n Go stroller in the airport. I carried D in the Bjorn and we put all our bags in the stroller (since it doesn't work without the carseat). These things both worked great. We gate checked the stroller easily each time.
• LOTS of blankets. My arm got really sore from him sleeping so I used the blankets as padding
• Babyganics sanitizing wipes. I literally wiped down EVERYTHING and D's hands and feet multiple times. Airplanes gross me out.
• Portable changing pad (mine came with my diaper bag)
• Footed pjs/socks--the planes were cold

In other baby news...D is teething up a storm.  He was quite a bear for about three days straight on vacation.  Four months has been a hard transition, from sleep regression to teething.  We had our four month dr. visit today and he's 14 lbs 11 oz already, 26 inches long! He's a long skinny little boy! When he's not screaming in pain, he loves to smile and laugh.  He's starting to understand "object permanence," so he understands peek-a-boo and can anticipate me tickling him when I say "I'm gonna get you!"  He is basically learning sequence of events which is really cool to watch. I'm completely enamored with baby brain development and I love watching D figure things out.  Every day I feel like he gets better and better at grabbing and putting things in his mouth by himself.

AF finally made her reappearance.  I guess part of me was hoping I would just get pregnant again, but no such luck.  I knew it wouldn't be that easy...

Anyway, AF has lessened my supply at the WORST TIME...19 week growth spurt. So, needless to say, Mr. D is not too happy with my boobs right now.  I'm pumping 2-3 times a day to keep up my supply.  I pump after he eats in the morning, mid-afternoon, and then when I put him down at night.  I'm still taking blessed thistle and fenugreek.  I'm not really storing any milk because I'm pumping after he eats, but I don't care as long as he has enough to eat.  He's been pulling off frustrated which makes me frustrated! Yesterday he actually skipped a feeding...this apparently is called a "nursing strike" and can happen during AF or during a growth spurt. 

D is napping like a champ, 3 xs a day, 1-2 hours at a time.  Sleep is good, about 7:30-6:30 or so, but he's been waking every night at 3 to play in his crib which is really annoying.  He flips back and forth and talks to himself until I go put his paci in and then he falls back asleep.  I do this three times between 3 and 4 am and I'm SO SICK OF IT.  I think he's started a new pattern that I'm going to have to break.  He has 5 more days and then I think I have to let him self-sooth at 3 am :( this is going to suck.  Any advice or tips would be really helpful! I'm hoping he changes this pattern himself but we will see.

That's it for now :) I'll be posting soon about TTC again...