16 weeks: bottle victory & pterodactyl screams

The biggest news of this week is a small victory with Oliver taking a bottle with hope for building on the initial success. We got a referral to a speech pathologist who specializes in feeding and after an assessment she determined that in fact there is no physical reason he is rejecting the bottle, it is merely a preference for the breast. Knowing that, she recommended an extended feeding trial: keep at it for 30 minutes all the while being very gentle and soothing with him. I immediately tried it with the new Adiri bottle that had just arrived, and after 25 minutes of fighting, he started sucking and drank a couple ounces! He definitely had a scowl on his face while drinking but he did it. The next day Evan was able to feed him 1.5 oz after a fight as well, and he even fell asleep with the bottle in his mouth. He will likely continue to fight the bottle but less and less over time. This is huge!

In other news, Oliver has entered the pterodactyl phase. He screams very loudly. seemingly mostly with excitement. He does these excited screams the most when he watches Eloise have a meal or snack. She smiles at him and he smiles back and does the scream. It's hilarious and awesome. I was able to get a tiny one out of him on video until he noticed the camera. The password is Oliver 2015.


pterodactyl from Sarah Zuber on Vimeo.

15 weeks old: drool and teething

Happy 14 weeks to this happy guy! I can't help but smile when Oliver grins. He's a charmer for sure, smiling at people everywhere we go. At the recommendation of his physical therapist, we have been doing some of his tummy time on the Boppy pillow to stretch his arms forward a bit so he can learn to roll front to back. He is still rolling only back to front. But he is certainly not behind, in fact he is an early roller. No rush, but he does seem to like being on the Boppy - he gets a better view of what's going on in the room. Namely, his sister.

In the past week or so we've seen the onset of drool. That combined with gnawing on hands and my fingers and anything that comes near his mouth, I think he's starting to teeth. I tried to capture a picture of some drool rolling out of his mouth:

Oliver has also been introduced to the bebePOD. He can work on his sitting skills while watching his sister play.

As you can see, he's working on a bald spot on the back of his head. Speaking of his head, we had a second appointment with the physical therapist and got some good news. His torticollis (head tilt) has completely resolved and his plagiocephaly (flat spot) is almost resolved. We have another appointment next week and hopefully it'll be the last one. The stretches and exercises she gave us have been working.

In other news, Oliver still refuses a bottle. I reached out to a lactation consultant last week and she gave us a long list of things to try. We have tried so many strategies: having different people feed him, starting him on the breast and transferring, feeding him in different locations, in different positions, with three flows of nipples, and 4-5 kinds of bottles, formula, breastmilk, when he's hungry, when he's not hungry, wrapping the bottle in something that smells like me... No luck so far. Today a package of latex nipples arrived so that's what we're trying next. Supposedly they are softer than silicone and feel more like a real nipple. I'm not giving up on this and I'm confident we'll figure it out.

14 weeks old: Lewis family reunion and baby in the mirror

Oliver attended his first Lewis family reunion at Black Butte Ranch in Central Oregon last weekend. He got to meet some great aunts and uncles, first cousins once removed, and second cousins on his dad's side of the family. He got lots of love and was passed around a lot and was really a trooper with all the stimulation. This is a picture of him with his Great Aunt Pam.

With the nice summer weather, we've been spending a portion of every day outside in the backyard, at a park, on a stroller walk, or all of the above. Oliver loves to watch his sister play. Here he is in the backyard on a picnic blanket watching Eloise play at a water table. That's his interested face. He's the cutest.

I put Oliver in front of the full length mirror for the first time last week while I was getting Eloise ready in the morning, and when he laid eyes on that baby in the mirror he immediately started smiling and cooing. So adorable I had to videotape it. The password is Oliver2015.


And finally, a picture of Oliver (and Eloise) at their stations when I shower. Oliver is very focused and working on his grabbing skills. His little hands open and close on or near the dangling toys over and over.

13 weeks old: summer reading program graduate

Here's our little summer reading program finisher! I enrolled Eloise in the library's program to read in 15 minute increments with her until she completed a card of 8 hours total. When I was signing her up the volunteer said I should sign Oliver up, too, so I did! He is there almost all the time that I'm reading with Eloise. We filled up that card more quickly than I expected and when we turned it in Oliver got a cute little onesie. Can you believe that's a 12 month size? It's not that big on him! Here's a picture of both little graduates together.

A congratulatory kiss from big sis.

We drove to Black Butte Ranch in Central Oregon on Friday for Evan's family reunion. It was a tough ride for a little one. We pulled over probably 3-4 times total. What usually takes 3 hours tops took us 5 hours. Totally worth it. Oliver (and Eloise) got to meet a bunch of Evan's extended family for the first time. And, after fussing in the front carrier facing in, I tried turning him to face out for the first time and he loved it. So much to see!

Not much is happening developmentally this week. Oliver just keeps rolling and smiling and swatting. And growing! We've had a tough time getting him to take a bottle and I fear it's because we haven't been giving him a bottle a day since he was a month old like we did Eloise. He took his first bottle pretty well but I've recently learned that's not happening anymore. I think I'm going to try giving him a bottle a day again once we're back from the reunion and see if he'll warm up to it. Unfortunately I'll have to use formula to supplement because now I'm only down to maybe 15 oz of breast milk in the freezer. Hopefully I'll be able to rebuild my stash while he's adjusting to bottles and we can switch back over.

12 weeks old: rolling!

Major Cutie reporting for duty. Major news this week: Oliver is rolling! He had rolled both front to back and back to front a handful of times before now but I wrote it off as accidents. However, as of yesterday, he is a rolling machine and there's no denying it anymore. He can do both ways if you set him up on his back or belly to start, but he can't do sequential rolls by himself yet. This has made sleeping hard because I'll put him on his back to sleep and he'll roll to his belly, get stuck, and cry. Soon enough he'll master it. I've been trying to catch him rolling but I only got a photo post-roll and a brief video of the end of a roll. Password is Oliver2015.

I think I mentioned that at Oliver's 2 month well child visit the pediatrician noticed a flat spot on the right side of his head and referred him to physical therapy. That appointment happened last week. The pediatric physical therapist was wonderful and gave us a lot of hope for recovery in a couple months. In her assessment she noted that Oliver prefers to turn his head to the right and also tilt his head to the right. She said usually only babies who were breech tilt and turn in the same direction, which confused her because she read the chart notes from his birth and knows he wasn't born breech. I told her that he actually was breech up until a few days before birth and she said that explains it. The flat spot, tilting, and turning his head to the right was a result of being pushed up against my ribs. She even pointed to the spot where his head must have been on the upper right side of my belly, and she was right! That was exactly where I felt his knobby little head. He has a left muscular torticollis and mild positional plagiocephaly. She gave us some techniques to stretch the right side of his neck and to draw his attention to turn his head to the left. By having him turn left it gives the flat spot a chance to heal and as his brain grows it will also push it out. She said it won't create a flat spot on the left side of his head in part because as his neck gets stronger he'll be holding it up more and he'll become more associated to the midline instead of one way or the other. 

In other news, I'm realizing that the bat costume I bought for Halloween before Oliver was born will probably not fit in a couple months after I tried it on him.

And speaking of hanging out with big sister Eloise, this kid loves watching her!